Quattro Air mask not venting? Or is it??

artpenjr wrote:The Quattro Air has so little air coming out of the circular vent, I can't imagine it expelling all the air I breathe out from the mask between each breath. I'm a big guy!

I don't think you're understanding. Your Quattro Air is venting almost exactly the same amount of air that your Quattro Mirage did. It's just spread out more soupy can't feel it as much. Look at those graphs I posted: they show exactly how much air is being vented per minute, and it's almost exactly the same at every pressure for both masks.

I had no problem with this venting. It just felt like I was getting little or no air. At my high pressure, that shouldn't happen. Yes I had the ramp off.

The new venting design is really a much nicer design. With previous masks over the years we had to have a pillow on the bed between us so that the old mask vents wouldn't blast my good wife with vent air when I would turn her way LOL! It is a good thing. Regards

I had a great night with this mask last night. I really cut the Padacheek liner down by the chin, as it was slipping over my lip which I HATE. I also played with the mask's straps to get it just right. I can still open my mouth and come completely OUT of the mask at the bottom, which is not good, but I can also close my mouth and get a leak free seal again without doing anything with my hands. This mask is so light, and narrow enough that if I hung off the pillow it wasn't putting any pressure on my teeth as the regular Quattro does. Much more comfortable.

I too, feel like there's not as much air coming in--it no longer feels like a blast. I don't think there's less pressure, but it is perhaps more diffuse. It felt funny at first, but I also found it more comfortable. The AHI will tell, I haven't had a chance to check it. AND, this mask is very quiet. I can hear only the machine NOT the mask. Love that!

I would have thought that the vents in that wide circle would cause the vent air to bounce of something, but it doesn't make any noise. I can still feel it on my arms if they are in the path of the vents, but it's a light, gentle breeze, not a blast of cold air.

i'M HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM. Rebreathing my air and mask ending up in my mouth. I'm getting out my small drills and opening them up a bit.

THERD3 wrote:i'M HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM. Rebreathing my air and mask ending up in my mouth. I'm getting out my small drills and opening them up a bit.

BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!! See your DME!

Used a very small drill about the size of the vent hole and made about 4 or 5 holes and its great. Not making very much louder if at all and the cpap is not blowing any more than before, that I can tell and the air is fresh. Took a nap and it worked wonderful. The mask was so bad before that I was not using it.

In the last reply it stated BIG MISTAKE!!
Really insightful. Care to tell me why? Now I will use the mask now and all it took was a little alteration.

therd3 wrote:Used a very small drill about the size of the vent hole and made about 4 or 5 holes and its great. Not making very much louder if at all and the cpap is not blowing any more than before, that I can tell and the air is fresh. Took a nap and it worked wonderful. The mask was so bad before that I was not using it.

In the last reply it stated BIG MISTAKE!!
Really insightful. Care to tell me why? Now I will use the mask now and all it took was a little alteration.

simple, the size of the holes are very carefully designed to create a specific desired vent rate, and you're just jerking around with it, and now you don't know if you've caused it to vent more than the machine will find acceptable.

if you have too much air venting out, then the machine can't function properly.

I have been using cpap for 8 years and know when a mask is not working and this thread shows others are having this problem. They make it as one size fits all and I am also a big guy . I'm sure I put out more lung capacity than someone who is 100 lbs. Yet the vent holes are the same for both.
With the extra holes the machine does not seem to in run any faster And I would have had to thrown the mask away because I could not sleep with it the way it was. So as I stated it works fine now with a few new holes drilled in it. Only problem now is it riding up over my bottom lip.

therd3 wrote:I have been using cpap for 8 years and know when a mask is not working and this thread shows others are having this problem. They make it as one size fits all and I am also a big guy . I'm sure I put out more lung capacity than someone who is 100 lbs. Yet the vent holes are the same for both.

that's because the amount of venting in masks is more than enough for anybody. there's a chart in the back of the manual but I happen to know offhand that the mirage quattro vents around 22lpm@4cm pressure and 54lpm@20cm pressure, with the flow rates relatively linear between those two.

now, I'm a 'big guy' too, and my average minute vent, which is how much air I breath in and out in a minute, is around 15-20liters per minute... if I had my pressure set at 4 (and almost nobody does except when starting out) the mask would STILL vent out everything that I exhaled. with normal pressures, it's venting 2-3 times what I breath, per minute.

therd3 wrote:With the extra holes the machine does not seem to in run any faster And I would have had to thrown the mask away because I could not sleep with it the way it was. So as I stated it works fine now with a few new holes drilled in it. Only problem now is it riding up over my bottom lip.

your estimation of the speed of the machine is wrong, because the machine has to generate enough air flow to create a pressure, the more air that's vented out, the more airflow that has to be created, to maintain that pressure. there are pressure sensors in the machine that measure what the pressure is, and thus the computer in there calculates how fast to run the fan, drill more holes and it has to run faster to make up the pressure loss.

if your mask is landing in your mouth, you've likely got the wrong size. download a template and measure your face.

therd3 wrote:I have been using cpap for 8 years and know when a mask is not working and this thread shows others are having this problem. They make it as one size fits all and I am also a big guy . I'm sure I put out more lung capacity than someone who is 100 lbs. Yet the vent holes are the same for both.
With the extra holes the machine does not seem to in run any faster And I would have had to thrown the mask away because I could not sleep with it the way it was. So as I stated it works fine now with a few new holes drilled in it. Only problem now is it riding up over my bottom lip.

Sounds like you have a big mouth or a small mask