Which tank holds more water?

[DocWils]

it appears the A10 has a 380 ml tank which is a fair size. I am asking this question because I will be purchasing my own machine in a few weeks and I am currently trialling the PR remstar Auto a flex system one. But I am more interested in purchasing the Resmed A10 For Her. I was curious about tank size as I had conflicting information on the PR.

I know water use will go up in winter, and I don't want to be up in the night refilling water tank. Just was curious on others opinions and answers. I want to be well informed when I go to purchase.

I have not heard of anyone ever needing to get up in the middle of the night to refill their tank - at most you might need to refill it every day if you fill it half way (you should anyway, don't use water for more than one day if you can (and no, I don't listen to my own advice, but I am a doctor, so I never listen to my own advice). My experience with the PRS is that a full tank will easily last you two days, unless you sleep more than nine hours per day and have the humidifier up a full blast. You will find the same for the A10. I am not sure why you would chose the A10 over the PSR, the For Her moniker is meaningless in regard to quality of data or quality of treatment, and if you are comfortable with the PSR, then stick with it. While they all look somewhat different, the treatment quality form most devices is pretty much identical, as is the noise levels and the like, although some people report that Resmed machines make a funny sound at the end of each breath.

[PaytonA]

I can remember one person on this forum who reported getting up to refill his humidifier tank during the night. There is also one person recently who reported that he made an alternative tank for his CPAP to hold twice the amount of water as the original. Do not know how he decided that he needed that but personally I would not go to that extent without identifying a real need.

Another thing to remember is that the amount of mask venting will effect the water usage. Unintentional mask leakage has the same effect. When I was having leakage problems, the tank in my S8 (which is larger than the S9) would run out during the night and leave me with really bad dry mouth.

Best Regards,

PaytonA

[DocWils]

Payton, that is awfully rare - the manufacturers make the tank to last for a night under greater than normal use, how anyone would need a double sized tank is beyond me - at that point I would automatically start looking at some other problem causing such high water usage. We are currently under a heat wave (37C) at 480 metres, practically no humidity (and no rainfall for nearly four weeks, poor crops, poor farmers) and I still barely use half a tank. A mate who works in Saudi Arabia reports the same to me. At any rate, that much water usage as you described would set off my alarm bells - we barely use anything like that in extreme cases in the hospital, even for normal O2 masks, which are pretty loose fits and waste a ton of humidity. Leakages would naturally account for such high use as you mentioned, but then the problem of unusual leakage has to be addressed and not tank size - what is leaking, and why? FFMs do use more humidity than nasal masks or pillows, which use the least of all, but the tank size was designed with that in mind. On the other hand, if the mask is leaking like a sieve, then of course the water usage will go up, but by the same token, the therapeutic effect of the mask will go radically down.

[surferdude2]

Resmed says:

Q. My humidifier sometimes runs out of water during the night and most other nights is 3/4 empty by the morning. What's going on here?

A. The H5i water delivery output depends on ambient room conditions (temperature and humidity levels), the H5i settings and therapy pressure delivered by the device. If the room conditions change from night to night (e.g., one night the heater is left on in the house, and the next night it’s turned off), this can account for differences in the water usage.

It may also be that you’re breathing through your mouth, or have mask leak. Mouth breathing allows air to escape from your mouth, which can decrease the efficiency of the humidifier.

If mouth leak is under control or you are using a full face mask, trying one or more of the options below may help:

ClimateLine™ heated tubing (for ResMed S9™ users)
Tubing wrap
Lowering your humidity level setting
Adding a humidifier to the room

[TyroneShoes]

The humidifications systems sense relative humidity and the water usage varies depending on the relative humidity at any given time in your bedroom or sleeping environment...

I live where humidity is like 8% unless it is July-Sept. There is a period during spring and fall where I can leave the windows open, and my tank is nearly empty every morning then. With windows closed, retained indoor humidity is greater, and I have a half-inch left by morning, or more.

So I have to be careful to fill the tank to the line every night.

If your tank runs dry, there are a couple of things to try. Of course you can fiddle with humidity settings, but even if the lowest setting runs the tank dry, I have heard of folks filling the tank with ice cubes (pour more water over that). It takes a couple hours for the ice to melt, and during that time less water will evaporate, so that can stretch it a bit. Both options are trade offs, and either might not work for a particular person.

One good thing about a tank that will not last more than one night, is it forces you to refill every night, and standing water is always a recipe for problems, so fresh is good.

[Mark Douglas]

at the suggestion of someone here I simply bought a second tank. When I get up for potty break I can simply swap tanks and go back to sleep. I run the humidifier wide open and wouldn't mind if there was an even higher setting. Humid nights use very little to no water dry nights use a lot. My sinus probs are much reduced since beginning therapy.

[under pressure]

I do the same, two water tubs, fill both and simply do a swap in the middle of the night so I don't run out of water by morning. I have run out before with an S9, and although there is a heat limit to the heater plate when the tank is dry it gets hot enough to put out a very unpleasant burnt plastic odor that woke me up abruptly, and the odor took awhile to get ride of after I put more water in and started the machine again.

I have no mask leaks, and although I use a full face mask I am not a mouth breather, I am just an individual that personally likes as much humidity as I can get and I live in a dry climate. The increased xpap humidity has done wonders for my sinuses to the point that I would still continue to use the xpap even if I did not have apnea, it makes that much of a difference for my sinus relief.

The therapy pressure that one uses also effects the amount of water used per night, someone on low therapy pressure will not use as much water as a person on high therapy pressure, all other variables being the same. I am a big guy with large lung capacity, moderate pressure (around 13 cm) as mentioned no leaks (verified by SH) and not a mouth breather, live at 6,000 feet ASL in a dry climate with the machine set for max humidity and will easily run a 380ml Resmed tank dry in one 8 hour sleep on both an S9 or an Airsense, which share the same 380 ml size tub. So having two tubs filled with water and doing a swap in the middle of the night is the most simple answer for my water consumption needs.

[PaytonA]

I do the same, two water tubs, fill both and simply do a swap in the middle of the night so I don't run out of water by morning. I have run out before with an S9, and although there is a heat limit to the heater plate when the tank is dry it gets hot enough to put out a very unpleasant burnt plastic odor that woke me up abruptly, and the odor took awhile to get ride of after I put more water in and started the machine again.

I have no mask leaks, and although I use a full face mask I am not a mouth breather, I am just an individual that personally likes as much humidity as I can get and I live in a dry climate. The increased xpap humidity has done wonders for my sinuses to the point that I would still continue to use the xpap even if I did not have apnea, it makes that much of a difference for my sinus relief.

The therapy pressure that one uses also effects the amount of water used per night, someone on low therapy pressure will not use as much water as a person on high therapy pressure, all other variables being the same. I am a big guy with large lung capacity, moderate pressure (around 13 cm) as mentioned no leaks (verified by SH) and not a mouth breather, live at 6,000 feet ASL in a dry climate with the machine set for max humidity and will easily run a 380ml Resmed tank dry in one 8 hour sleep on both an S9 or an Airsense, which share the same 380 ml size tub. So having two tubs filled with water and doing a swap in the middle of the night is the most simple answer for my water consumption needs.

under pressure,

Thanks for your post.

DocWils,

What do you think?

Best Regards,

PaytonA

[blizardj]

My PR 1 holds 480 mL of water...

Good at modifying tanks.... Not so good a posting pictures.

I'm trying to add an attachment...?

   

[Cali Lecat]

I recently switched to an Airsense 10 Autoset for Her from a 5.5 year old Phillips Respironics System One Autoset. I measured the water allowed up to the maximum line on both humidifier tanks and was surprised to find that they both hold 350 ml of water.

On the PR System One, i probably overfilled the tank at times, with no negative repercussions.

On the A10, I overfilled the tank ONCE by a teeny amount and had water spitting at me through my nasal pillows after an hour or two of use. Immediately prior to the water spitting, I heard putt putt noises, like a steam train, coming from the hose.

At this point, I wish I had replaced my PR System One Autoset machine with the current PR model.