[Symptoms] Clogged mask side vents by water?

[nkoq]

I use an AirSense 10 Autoset with a nasal pillow. Yesterday I felt very rested the morning after 9 hours of CPAP usage. I slept for about 10 hours like a baby.

But this night, I had a problem with a feeling of not getting enough air. All went perfectly till about half past one a.m. I got up to have a pee then started another CPAP session. But this time I felt not having enough air and tore off the nasal pillow after a few breaths. The side vents of the mask piece (not the nasal pillow itself) felt wet to the touch and I didn't feel air coming out of them, or very little. It felt like breathing inside a plastic bag.

But I am a bit confused and not sure whether this really happened this way.
 
Later in the morning I had another successful CPAP session. The vents were dry again.

My question: Does it really happen that the mask vents clog when wet?

I configured the humidifier level to 6 yesterday before sleeping. This is not shown in the screenshot because I switched back to the previous level of 4.

Was the higher humidifier level a mistake?

Has someone experienced simiar problems with wet mask vents?

Sorry if this is a repost. I had difficulties searching the forum both not knowing what exact terms to use but also failing because of a technical problem (nothing found).

EDIT: Couldn't post a screenshot because I am too new a member.

[nkoq]

EDIT 2: I have an Airfit P10 it seems.

[nkoq]

I found something here after some relaxed browsing:

http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...#pid103150

Since I am not allowed to post links, I split up the link, please copy-paste then remove the space between the two slashes.

[Gideon]

The short answer is yes.

Keep a second pillow near your machine and swap out the pillows when it happens again.

The mesh vent in the pillow mask is designed to make this mask very quiet. If you are getting condensation in the CPAP hose, and it sounds like you are you want to both keep it out of the mask or prevent it from forming in the first place.
Prevention. Use a heated hose or a hose cozie, essentially a long narrow sock to insulate the hose from colder room air which can cause condensation. Another possibility is overfilling the humidifier.

Drainage back to the humidifier can also help.

What actually happens is the surface tension of water is tightly binding the water to the mesh and preventing airflow thru the mesh. The purpose of the mesh or vent is to prevent you from rebreathing too much of your exhaled CO2.

[LBTRS]

Hello,

I recently switched to a P10 and was loving the mask as it is so light and comfortable. I used it two weeks and it worked perfectly. Unfortunately last night at 4am I woke up gasping for air and breathing very fast. It felt like I could no longer exhale out the mask.  I immediately pulled the mask away from my nose (I tape my mouth) and took some deep breaths. When I pulled the mask away from my nose I experienced rain out for the first time as I don't think the mask was allowing anything (CO2 or moisture) to vent due to clogged vents.

I tried it several times and could not breath out of the mask. I got up and cleaned the mask and vents with a toothbrush and went back to bed and still could not breath out of the mask and was not able to sleep again.

The mask vents are definitely clogged and not allowing my exhaled breath to escape which causes a bunch of moisture to build up.

I feel terrible today, almost like I'm sick and feel it was due to rebreathing my own air last night.

This is very disappointing and a poor design as I now see many others have experienced this exact issue. I came here tonight to see what could cause this problem and see a lot of posts of the same problem.

I can't believe after all this time ResMed has not addressed this. Back to the P30i unfortunately.

Edited to add: I see the recommendation to keep a extra pillow to swap out when this happens. The problem is not with the pillow, it is the vents on the mask frame that clog so swapping the pillows won't help unfortunately. I wish there was a solution as I really liked this mask before this happened.

[Geer1]

I have had the vents plug up back when I used a P10, the design is more prone to that issue then other masks due to the small vent holes. A person needs to put in effort to keep them clean (good soak and scrub them with a tooth brush on a regular basis) or have backup masks and be willing to switch them out when needed.

One time when I thought it was my mask venting that was the issue I realized it was actually my machine air filter being plugged. It can create the same sensation so if ever noticing having that effect without obvious rainout or plugged vents that is the next thing to look at/try changing.