hot blooded need cold air.

[NickDanger]

The air you breathe out is vented outside of the mask and hose. If it weren't you'd die of carbon dioxide poisoning. With the humidifier detached, you are breathing room air.

[PaytonA]

Try nasal pillows mask. Has very little tidal volume so you will not be able to heat up the incoming air with your exhaled breath.

[Terry]

How about running an air conditioner in your bedroom and leaving the humidifier heater turned off?

BTW, your CPAP machine should not be blowing hot air if the humidifier is turned off. If it is, it's possible it needs service.

> hot blooded need cold air.

You might want to talk to your doctor about that. Various conditions and diseases and medications can make people feel hot.

There may be something else going on, since your complaint is relatively unique.

Terry

[Clementine]

I KWYM about wanting cold air. This Hot Mama (meaning- temperature, of course, LOL) needs it, too. I figured out to stop using the humidifier and just use room air. I have the a/c going, a ceiling fan going above me, and a regular fan to my side blowing on me. Works for me, but I'm not in Texas. If I were, I might add a dehumidifier to my room.

[Terry]

I KWYM about wanting cold air. This Hot Mama (meaning- temperature, of course, LOL) needs it, too. I figured out to stop using the humidifier and just use room air. I have the a/c going, a ceiling fan going above me, and a regular fan to my side blowing on me. Works for me, but I'm not in Texas. If I were, I might add a dehumidifier to my room.

That just makes it hotter.

A dehumidifier turns 100% of the energy it uses into heat in your room.

An air conditioner does the same thing, but sends the heat it makes outdoors.

[Clementine]

really? That I did not know. hmm.

[robysue]

Kolsen,

I wrote this response on the other forum, but I thought I'd also put it here.

I'm aware that your main comfort problem is the hot air in your mask. But I want to point something out and ask for clarification.

You write:

West Texas, hot here, vents air from front mask so dont think blocked, machine is auto 13 2 15 on pressure, they turned it up to start at 10 so that helped a bit, ahi is 20 2 30 most nites

Do you mean that the machine reported AHI is running between 20 and 30 most nights? Are you getting this information off the machine's LCD each morning?

If so, that's something that must be reported to your sleep doc because it indicates the PAP machine is not yet doing its job in managing your sleep apnea: Your machine reported AHI is still in the range for moderate to moderate/severe OSA. It's critically important for the sleep doc to look at the detailed data gathered by your machine at your next appointment. If you are interested in seeing the full data yourself, you should download SleepyHead and use it to analyze the data on your machine's SD card.

Leak was down too. Normally around 40 on leaks.

Again we need some clarification about what you mean here. What machine are you using? And where is this number coming from? The machine's LCD?

Whether a "40" on leaks is good, bad, or indifferent depends strongly on what machine you are using and where that number is coming from.

Now back to your main problem:

when I breath out it gets hot from my breath and then just keeps heat. Last ahi was 4 and had it on for about 4 hrs straight. ....going to stick with ice cubes and add a blue ice pack on a plate rt by air intake hope will last longer.

You've tried a number of different things for the "air is too hot" problem with no luck. And you say that your face is very sweaty.

Have you tried a cloth liner for your mask? That may help some with the sweating, although it won't help with the hot air itself.

And are you a dedicated mouth breather? Or is mouth breathing only a "sometimes" thing? It is worth trying a nasal mask or a nasal pillows mask since they cover less of your face. In particular, a nasal pillows mask blows the air directly into your nostrils and not on your face. So it may feel much cooler than the full face mask you are currently using.

It's also worth looking at where you have the machine placed. If it is possible to put the machine so that the air intake is very near one of the AC vents, that might help. Also make sure the machine has plenty of room around it and in particular make sure there's plenty of room around the air intake for the machine.

As silly as it sounds, double check to make sure that you are NOT using a heated hose. And make sure the humidifier is really off. If you don't need the extra humidity, you might try disconnecting the humdifier altogether and hooking the hose directly to the blower unit.

You might also try rerouting the hose so that the exhaust flow blows on your chest or arms if possible. Even now after 4 years of PAPing, if my exhaust vent is blowing directly on me, that will make me very cold.

Can't believe they don't have a cold air option on this dumb machine.

Cooling air is more complicated than heating air.

And the vast majority of PAPers traditionally complain of the air being too cold for their nose and airway's comfort: Physiologically one of the things the nose does is pre-warm and humidify the inhaled air from room temperature up closer to body temperature before the air enters the lungs. For many PAPers, the pressurized air makes this task much harder for the nose to do, and that leads to severe problems with drying of the nasal mucus membraines and upper airway and generalized discomfort. Heated, humidified PAP air usually helps the nose do its job of pre-warming and humidifying the inhaled air so that the whole respiratory system is happier.

But you're not "most people" and so the design that has been implemented to fit "most people" is badly backfiring on you right now and leading to more discomfort. So do report this problem to your sleep doc and continue to post here so that we can try to come up with additional ideas on how to increase your comfort when you are using the machine.

[Terry]

really? That I did not know. hmm.

Yep. Here's a diagram: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html?...1000430603

[DNB128]

What Zonk said - "If you don,t use the humidifier, attach the hose directly into the machine and you,ll be breathing room air just the same without CPAP..."

Maybe you could position a fan right next to your machine's air filter. That should cool the room air that is going into the machine and perhaps the air will be cooler when it gets to the mask.

[Galactus]

Ok, I'll wander into the deep water here...... Get a cooler, like an ice chest, put a bucket of ice in there, put a tray on top, put the machine in the cooler. Should use that frigid air to pump through the machine..... maybe that would work? Could be crazy enough to work.