How to get humidifier to work

I have the ResMed Autoset for her, S9 series, with the H5i heated humidifier. I put water in the humidifier box, put it in the machine, then go to bed. When I wake up in the morning, the same amount of water is still in the humidifier. What am I doing wrong? I'm waking up a little dry in the morning.

What is your humidifier set on? Sounds like you need to turn it up.

How do I turn it up? That's part of my problem - I don't know how it works.

Push the nob down. Screen turns orange. Turn nob left or right to adjust humidity higher or lower and push knob down again to set it.

Thanks! I'll try that!

Sure. What is it set at now? It goes from 0-6

You're in Seattle - it may already be quite humid there so you don't necessarily need more - there's already a lot in the atmosphere. Are you sure you 'need' it rather than just thinking you should be using it because it comes with the machine? It's meant to be a comfort add-on, not 'therapy' in itself.

Julie wrote:You're in Seattle - it may already be quite humid there so you don't necessarily need more - there's already a lot in the atmosphere. Are you sure you 'need' it rather than just thinking you should be using it because it comes with the machine? It's meant to be a comfort add-on, not 'therapy' in itself.

I don't understand your comment. She did say she was waking up dry, and feeling dry is uncomfortable, and wanting to get humidity to help ease that.

I'm having issues with the exact humidifier. (with climate line hose)
Mine is being checked out today by the RT. I was told the machine does use less water, but at any auto setting the heating element remains stone cold. At 86* the air coming through my nasal pillows is cold, the humidity in the room is 55-60. The dry has gotten so bad I can barely swallow. The RT had me change to manual and set it on 6, preheat until he could get here. At this manual setting, the metal heating element under the water container will get slightly warm, if I don't preheat it remains stone cold. The RT knows the humidifier isn't working and is coming today to check things out....hopefully when he leaves I will have the "option" to have the "comfort" of added humidity to my "therapy".

My fault - I meant to add that she might want to consider if she's mouth breathing at all, losing Cpap air that way (and of course feeling dry when she wakes up), but the bell rang and I hit submit before going to answer the door.

Julie wrote:My fault - I meant to add that she might want to consider if she's mouth breathing at all, losing Cpap air that way (and of course feeling dry when she wakes up), but the bell rang and I hit submit before going to answer the door.

Door bells and phones always ring before we are done with something.

Regarding water level in a humidifier chamber, I won't say it's completely inconsequential, but close. Just because you don't use much water, doesn't necessarily mean your humidifier is broken. Especially with a climate tube. More important than the level of water is how you feel when you wake up. In this case you say you're a little dry in the morning.

I think Julie is probably correct about mouth breathing. Either that, or excess air is escaping from somewhere else.

One of the main problems with pressure circuits has to do with unintentional air loss. With even little leaks, you end up breathing dry air. Your sinuses react by swelling up, flow limitation causes excess CO2 build up in the blood, and viola, you open your mouth because you are now air "starved". With or without a CPAP, mouth breathing leads to dry mouth.

In your case, I would look for leaks, make sure your tubing is routed out of your way, check the mask cushion for cleanliness, maybe put a little bit of Lansinoh on your cushion, and preheat the water in the chamber. The manufacturer by the way, recommends this be done always.

Good luck, please keep posting. It will be interesting to see what works.

Okay, I think I discovered something. I'm using a chin strap, which I've always had to do. I haven't been waking up dry. Yet the water level in the water chamber doesn't evaporate. Could it be that I just don't need to use humidification? My machine 'tells' me that I haven't had any leaks, nor do I feel any.

I'm a former CPAP user (diagnosed January 2009) - was terribly overweight. Had a sleep study and discovered I had severe sleep apnea. Got it under control and ended up joining Weight Watchers and hired a personal trainer. Got to my normal, healthy weight, and had another sleep study. It confirmed that I didn't have sleep apnea anymore. Over time I had trouble with my left knee - ended up with a total knee replacement in Sept. 2012, and ended up putting on some of the weight I'd lost. So now I'm back on the hose and trying to lose the weight I'd gained.