Backpacking & tent camping

RogerSC wrote:which led to me find a better battery pack at 1/2 the price, and this one is even less:

http://www.bestcpapprice.com/Compact-Po ... p_516.html

Any one have any experience with the above battery setup using their humidifier...Respironics or ResMed?
I looked and it said up to 25 hours but no mention as to humidifier mucking things up.

Pugsy wrote:

RogerSC wrote:which led to me find a better battery pack at 1/2 the price, and this one is even less:

http://www.bestcpapprice.com/Compact-Po ... p_516.html

Any one have any experience with the above battery setup using their humidifier...Respironics or ResMed?
I looked and it said up to 25 hours but no mention as to humidifier mucking things up.

I have that battery but I'm not willing to test it with a humidifier I've gotten 5 nights from it in passover mode. I have some run hours on my thread below.

Ordering a battery pack viewtopic.php?f=1&t=84976&st=0&sk=t&sd= ... 15#p780742

Pugsy wrote:

RogerSC wrote:which led to me find a better battery pack at 1/2 the price, and this one is even less:

http://www.bestcpapprice.com/Compact-Po ... p_516.html

Any one have any experience with the above battery setup using their humidifier...Respironics or ResMed?
I looked and it said up to 25 hours but no mention as to humidifier mucking things up.

The humidifier doesn't muck anything up *smile*, it just draws a lot more current:

http://www.resmed.com/assets/documents/ ... lo_eng.pdf

For example, you can see from the above that for just the S9 Autoset, it draws 1.08 amps at a pressure of 12cmH2O. If you use the humidifier, it then draws 3.32 amps at humidifier setting "3". This roughly translates to dividing the time on your battery by 3 before you have to recharge. So if you were getting 5 days in passive humidifier mode, with the heated humidifier mode you would now get about 5/3 days (or 1 2/3 days) instead of 5, a big reduction. I do have my humidifier set at 3 at home, but had no problem with passive mode when camping, and also used the hose cover instead of the heated hose (climateline). The ResMed document above also gives you the effect of using the climateline hose on the amps drawn by the S9 with the heated hose.

However, as they say, your mileage may vary *smile*.

RogerSC wrote: The humidifier doesn't muck anything up *smile*, it just draws a lot more current:

Yeah I know...humidifiers huge energy hogs...but I won't use my machine without my humidifier. It ain't going to happen.
I don't understand all this technical jargon or what the difference is between this battery above and say this battery here that I have.
I have this
https://www.cpap.com/cpap-machine/CPAP. ... Cable.html

According to the little calculator for estimated battery life
with the cpap.com setup I should get almost 14 hours

and with the larger respironics setup...29 hours
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/respir ... e-kit.html

Using my PR S1 BiPap....and my humidifier on as low of a setting I could tolerate...4 hours and 24 minutes was it.
Not a big surprise because I know the humidifier is the main energy hog.

I was just wondering if that battery setup mentioned above be in line with the cpap.com setup or the Respironics setup.
Looks like roughly 1/3 of expected life when using the humidifier.
1/3 of 14 sucks...but it is better than nothing.
1/3 of 29 would give me about 9 hours...one night. Assuming it discharges the same as the cpap.com setup.

I am thinking in my situation with my need for the humidifier that my money would work better if I put that money towards a portable generator...one that would take care of my household necessities too.
I don't do any camping anymore...at least no primitive camping.
I do live in tornado alley though. I haven't worried too much about a prolonged power outage because my mom lives 20 miles away and in town and the likelihood of a prolonged outage is pretty slim... and my sister lives 15 miles the other direction and has a portable generator but she's mad at me right now so I wouldn't ask her.

We live out in the country and in 3 years out here I haven't had to miss any sleep due to a power outage at night.
But we have been lucky here...I know there will come a time when my luck will run out with either a major ice storm or bad thunderstorm (or worse) will knock down enough tree limbs that I might see some prolonged outage.
So my husband and I have been talking about our options and I think a generator probably would be better use of my money.

I've got the supercpap 222 and I've used it backpacking several times. Plan on leaving your humidifier at home - I tried to use it as an experiment on the oregon coast and it didn't last the night. Without the humidifer on an S9 I get almost 3 full nights. It's not light but its worth the inconvenience. Also, my tent mates appreciate that it cuts down on the snoring I even use the battery when I'm at a cabin or as a house guest and don't want to worry aboutlets and keep my travel gear to a minimum. Be sure to order the resmed DC adapter. It saves space versus an inverter. It's still huge for a dc adapter, but what can ya do? I've looked some at the transcend and just don't think it's that much smaller than the S9 without the humidifier. The smaller DC adapter would be nice but that's really about the only advantage.

I've not had much luck with the lifetime of lithium ion batteries in my various laptop computers. Usually one to two years is about their usable life and then when I buy a new one it's about half what the original price was of my entire laptop! I'd hate to buy these CPAP batteries and have to replace them every two years (and at what cost?) Anyway, have other members had their lithium batteries last more than two years

Sir NoddinOff wrote:I've not had much luck with the lifetime of lithium ion batteries in my various laptop computers. Usually one to two years is about their usable life and then when I buy a new one it's about half what the original price was of my entire laptop!

Good observation and good question. I've got the C-222-like battery here, thanks to Cosmo's pointer:

http://www.bestcpapprice.com/Compact-Po ... p_516.html

While I've had it for a month, today is the first day I've charged it up. I will test it at home tonight with my standard humidifier setting of 2 on my PRS One Series 60, to give Pugsy some idea of how long it lasts.

As you mentioned, my laptop battery life always starts out great with 4+ hours of use, but after 3 years is down to 30 minutes or so. I would like to think I'll get more life (calendar life) from the CPAP battery because I only intend to use it a few times a year. As opposed to daily use of my laptops. The owner's manual suggests "topping off" the charge once a quarter. It also suggests charging it at least half-way for storage.

I really like the size of this unit. It is sort of like a thick laptop. It seems to weigh about the same as a vintage 2000 laptop with 3-4 batteries.

John

Pugsy wrote:

http://www.bestcpapprice.com/Compact-Po ... p_516.html

Any one have any experience with the above battery setup using their humidifier...Respironics or ResMed?
I looked and it said up to 25 hours but no mention as to humidifier mucking things up.

I just spent my first night testing this battery. All went well, INCLUDING the use of the humidifier. Here are the particulars:

Machine: PR System One Auto-CPAP DS560 w/heated humidifier set to level 2
Mask: Aloha Nasal Pillows
Pressure Range: 9-15 (LCD display shows 90% under 11 last night - my typical night ranges from 9.5-11.5)
Therapy Hours: 8:18 (plus another 20 minutes or so with the machine plugged in to the battery)

Room temperature range: 64F-72F
Room Humidity range: 49%-55%

Best part is -- the battery still shows 4 bars of power. I should easily be able to get another night off of this charge, so I will try it again tonight.

John

JohnO wrote:Therapy Hours: 8:18 (plus another 20 minutes or so with the machine plugged in to the battery)

Thank you John for letting me know how things went.

Well, that sure beats 4 hours and 24 minutes...and your 560 humidifier is likely going to use a little more energy than my 50 series humidifier. I don't know how much difference there would be between my 50 series BiPap and your APAP.
The BiPap is likely going to draw a little more than APAP. Maybe in the long run they would offset each other.
You guys who understand power consumption differences probably can figure it out but this stuff....I seem to have a mental block.
My humidifier is still likely going to be the biggest energy hog. I have always known this. Going without it is not an option though.

I will bookmark this particular battery page and maybe later I will have some extra money to buy one or put the funds towards a portable generator.
Can't do it now...hubby's recent cataract surgery and the $2500 deductible has put a serious crimp in my cpap experiment money.

For those following along, I just used the battery for a second night.

- Therapy hours: 8:08

- Battery is still showing 3 out of 4 bars remaining, so that indicates it still has 3/4 charge remaining. I'll try it again tonight.

John

Pretty good battery life

You really have to know what you're doing if you want to use solar. It's also really hard to make it reliable. You can't charge well if it's cloudy, under the trees part of the day, or if you're backpacking during the sunlight hours. People also tend to drastically underestimate the size of panel and the weight of the battery you need.

Third night on battery completed. 8:06 on the therapy time, with another 20 minutes plugged into the battery. The battery is still showing three bars of power remaining. I'll keep using it until I get down to 1 bar.

I'm starting to wonder if either a) the PR heated humidifier takes less power than the Resmed unit, which requires an inverter, or b) the heated humidifier is not having to run very often as the in-home humidity is high enough in my room. While Minnesota winters are quite dry, I did install a whole-house humidifier about a month ago, and it is working very well. No more room humidifiers to fill every night for me!

John

For those following along, I just completed my fourth night on the CPAP battery. 7:48 Therapy Hours, with another 40 minutes on the battery. The battery now shows two bars out of four remaining. I may get another two nights out of this charge.

JohnO wrote:For those following along, I just completed my fourth night on the CPAP battery. 7:48 Therapy Hours, with another 40 minutes on the battery. The battery now shows two bars out of four remaining. I may get another two nights out of this charge.

That's awesome good results. I have saved the link for that battery in case the good fairy comes by with some surplus dollars.