[Equipment] Do You Preheat?

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Yuck. 't would make it so I couldn't breathe.

[Newbee2016]

I only use the humidifier now when I have the cold. As such, I not only use warm water to start with, but also preheat as well. Starting with cold air initiates the problems (coughs) I wish to avoid.

Other than that, when I was trying the setup out, I actually enjoyed cold air coming through when I'm falling off to sleep...

[Sheepish]

While in the summer I prefer the cool air to start off with when falling asleep, so no preheating, when the weather turns a little nippy up here in the winter, I'm thinking it might be nice to start off warm, so that's why I've been toying with preheating.

However, if you look at the poll, I've answered that I usually preheat less than one minute, which I'm pretty sure accomplishes just about nothing and makes little more than a negligible difference. This is not done by design or intentionally, but simply because I don't remember to fire it up until the last minute.

[freetime]

Not much anymore since I learned on ApneaBoard that preheat and cool down are part of total run hours. Keep wear and tear to a minimum. In morning I shut down machine.

[JustMac]

I did when I first started CPAP'ing, but now I just throw the mask on at full power so I can get that sweet, sweet air.

[Sheepish]

After toying with preheating most of the winter, I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't really make a difference, for me anyway. Granted, I've often only remembered to start it only 10 minutes or so before bedtime, so I don't know if that's enough to be effective, but even when I've started preheating a good 20 or 30 minutes beforehand, I can't really say the difference is very perceptible.

I may continue preheating, but probably not, and the main thing is that the humidifier and the heated tubing work throughout the night, which is not only a comfort feature and may prevent rainout, but I do feel my sinuses have cleared up since I began CPAP, my nose is less dry in the morning, I've had much fewer and less severe colds and allergy symptoms , and all this even though I've discontinued use of the bedroom humidifier I used to use every winter to alleviate those symptoms.

[SarcasticDave94]

I still preheat sometimes, maybe 50% of the time. On the run timer thing: IMO unless I'm mistaken, the cool down period counts but not the warm up. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[Hellodare]

I pull the hose off and preheat about 30 min before. Just before sleeping I let it preheat with the hose on for about 5 minute. If I have time.

[foss]

I have never pre-heated with my Resmed A10. I actually enjoy the cool air starting out. I do need the heat for the humidity. If I didn't, I would just stay on cool all night.

v/r
fos

[Hydrangea]

It's totally a comfort preference.

I've CPAPed in different states, in different climates, and in vastly different temps. Outside tarp-cabin. Humidity variances. Etc.

I've concluded that - for me - I don't need to preheat unless the room I'm in is cold. When it's cold and I mask-up, the temp of the hose air is just too cold for me... but it does heat up to a comfy level within just a minute or two.

So... really, when it's cold, I just preheat for *any amount of time*, and it's all good.

And when it's not cold... I preheat because I can, if I feel like it, but it doesn't really matter to me.

It can also depend on the temp of the water I put in the humidifier. I use my filter tap water. So if I put in warm water, then it's perfect. If I put in cold water, I'll preheat it. AND I've learned not to put in hot water, because it produces too hot of air for me.

But it all comes down to how you like your air.