[Equipment] Resmed S9/Airsense 10 cold humidifiers?

[vometia]

Hi all,

Just a quick question about my CPAP machines as I'm a little confused, which is admittedly easily done.

I've been using a Resmed S9 Brick CPAP with H5i humidifier for the past 2½ years, but it seems that lately the humidifier has been a bit random and capricious, in that some nights it works fine but most it can't be bothered.  Previously there was never a problem but over the past few weeks I would describe its heating efforts as "indifferent".  This was unpleasant as I have easily bothered sinuses or something and was frequently waking up with a headache.  The heating is normally set to 4, I upped it to 5 (I prefer not to go higher because when it does work, more than that results in lots of condensation in the tube, which is not very pleasant) but still nothing most nights.

I spoke to the local hospital who said "no problem, bring it in, we'll give you a new one", so I brought it in and they swapped it for an Airsense 10 Elite.  Which is nice.  Nicer than the S9, anyway.

Except same problem with the humidifier: in fact I took it out and touched the "hot"plate and it was absolutely stone cold.  Again, I upped the heat setting from 4 to 5 and again no effect.

It seems unlikely I've managed to get two faulty machines at the same time so I'm assuming this is a feature of some sort, perhaps if the ambient temperature is more than a set amount (say 20⁰... it's been warm lately) the heater doesn't come on.  If this is a feature, is it possible to disable it so that I don't wake up with a frozen head?

[SarcasticDave94]

You should have a choice of Auto or Manual mode for the humidifier. In Auto, the machine senses ambient air and adjusts the heat/humidity output, keeping these at what I believe are of moderate settings. If you switch it to the manual mode, you will more directly control the heat/humidity output via the number selection you are familiar with. It could be your local weather situation is causing the humidifier to decide it doesn't need to add humidity at this time. And if you're getting condensation in the hose, getting a heated version would help eliminate that.

[vometia]

You should have a choice of Auto or Manual mode for the humidifier. In Auto, the machine senses ambient air and adjusts the heat/humidity output, keeping these at what I believe are of moderate settings. If you switch it to the manual mode, you will more directly control the heat/humidity output via the number selection you are familiar with. It could be your local weather situation is causing the humidifier to decide it doesn't need to add humidity at this time. And if you're getting condensation in the hose, getting a heated version would help eliminate that.

Thanks very much. I'll have a scour of the menu options to find out what I need to change; though if this was also an S9 feature I was simply unaware of it's a little embarrassing, though I guess at least I got a nicer machine out of it (though also just CPAP, I thought my sleep quality on the 10 was rather better).

I do actually have a heated hose, and can't remember why I don't use it, which is not making me sound very sensible.  Maybe I should use it...

[vometia]

Hmm, well I found a couple of videos which mention a "climate settings" section that my machine doesn't have, either in the user or clinician sections, so I may be stuck with it.

And though I have a heated tube, I see that they changed the fitting to be incompatible with the S9 so you need to buy a new one. 

[yankees123]

Yes the Resmed s10 does require its own climate control tubing.  Once you plug in the heated tubing you will see briefly on the display that climate line is enabled.  Then try it on auto setting and if you still experience problems then switch it to manual mode and you can adjust both temperature and humidity levels.  
I hope this helps.

[vometia]

Thank you! I can probably persuade the hospital to send me one but it might take a few days. At least I have an idea why I couldn't find it!

So it probably wasn't a fault with the S9 after all but it was trying to be clever. I did wonder why pre-warming it every time I woke up seemed to avert the problem. I guess I can do the same with the new machine in the meantime...

[vometia]

Also, randomly, I guess I'm curious to see my "events per hour" at 0.1. I mean considering i had severe sleep apnoea at the outset, waking every 70 seconds; sadly, my attempt to discontinue CPAP just resulted in my throat getting progressively more sore and swollen over subsequent nights and the apnoeas reappearing. I dunno how many people use CPAP as a preventative thing, though I imagine it probably isn't uncommon.

In my case it seems my main problem is a badly designed throat, and also speaking as someone who seemed to constantly have tonsillitis in her youth. It's a bit frustrating though. Not least as, though my respiratory sleep problems seem ideally controlled, my sleep still sucks. I've also tried the neurological sleep clinic and they can't find anything either, in spite of stuff like me collapsing absolutely paralysed during the day (not often, but alarming when it happens, especially the time I nearly fell into the main road). The respiratory consultant says it looks like cataplexy, the neurological one says it doesn't. Argh.