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How tough are these machines? - Printable Version

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How tough are these machines? - Weird Tolkienish Figure - 01-21-2016

I woke up last night with my CPAP on the floor, and the modem had popped out. I'm worried I broke it but it seems to be fine. Have no idea how it happened, whether it was my kitten or me. Smile

People call them bricks but they're expensive bricks, and I need mine to function.


RE: How tough are these machines? - GPSMapNut - 01-21-2016

They are tougher than they look. My first CPAP survived for 11 years despite few drops and being tossed around with camping gear and travel luggage. I suspect that sort of a heavy hammer or such, water in the wrong places is the worst enemy they have to be protected from. Naturally, we shouldn't treat these machines carelessly but, no reason to be paranoid either.
Well, OK (thinking some more as I'm writing). We should be treating it better than most other equipment at the same price point because; your expensive TV set may be putting you to sleep but XPAP keeps you breathing while sleeping Wink


RE: How tough are these machines? - Mosquitobait - 01-21-2016

The Lyncare gal said that the machines do better falling on carpeting than on wood floors. The impact is greater and sometimes the humidifer won't close again, and thus machine won't work if damaged humidifer stays attached. She says, of course, the only ones she sees are ones that aren't working and probably every single person who has had one has had a floor dive at least once.


RE: How tough are these machines? - Homerec130 - 01-21-2016

I moisten the feet on mine every so often so it "sticks" to the night stand. I can feel the resistance when I pick it up to pack it when going somewhere. Needless to say, I dust around it and don't move it. I also use a hose-buddy and a longer hose (10 foot) so I reduced the chance of pulling it off the nightstand when I roll over. You can get a longer hose from any of the suppliers on the list. Cord runs in a manner that it will pull the plug out of the wall before it pulls the machine off. And yes, I have bounced mine more than once or twice.

Homer





RE: How tough are these machines? - Dagmar - 01-21-2016

I found mine tipped over one morning and luckily didn't have any damage from water getting into the guts of the machine. Its pretty impressive how they have designed the water reservoir. I try not to fill my humidifier above the max line because I believe that is what helps provide water protection.


RE: How tough are these machines? - Sleeprider - 01-21-2016

Hey, I carry mine on motorcycles, in luggage and don't worry about it. These machines are constructed pretty ruggedly, with solid-state computer boards and a tough fan doing most of the work. You can kill it by dumping water into the electronics or dropping it in a way that actually breaks the board or the case.

I own a backup in case anything happens, but I have gotten 20K hours out of machines with no malfunction, and with no particularly careful handling. FWIW, machines fail with no known cause or accident. So be prepared for the inevitable failure, but don't live your life around it.


RE: How tough are these machines? - Mutineer - 01-22-2016

Why do people have the machine on their nightstand or dressing table when in operation?, personally I have a 3 drawer bedside unit alongside the bed and operate and store the Cpap in the bottom drawer, no chance of the machine falling from a height and it also means no more "rain out" problems as the machine is much lower than the bed and still plenty of room in the drawer for air circulation etc.....works great for me and absolutely no chance of "bouncing" the Cpap machine.


RE: How tough are these machines? - Technologist - 01-22-2016

Water damage is probably the biggest reason most machines fail over time. When you use distilled water it conducts no electricity and no minerals are deposited. Tap water is the worst and is a conductive and deposit creating nightmare. Tap water can have 500 ppm of impurities. Carbon Filtered water is almost as bad. Home muiltstage Reverse osmosis will remove some of the minerals (down to around 30-50ppm) but it's still not safe to use in your machines. Some people use purified water but purified water is not as pure as distilled. Purified water needs to be under 10 and distilled is in the 1 ppm or lower range.

I've lost 5-6 machines over the last 20+ years but none in the last 10 years while using distilled water. Most people don't even link failing machines to water as the little spills might have happened over the years and were forgotten about. Circuit boards, blower motors, air pressure sensors are all at risk.


RE: How tough are these machines? - OMyMyOHellYes - 01-22-2016

(01-22-2016, 12:42 AM)Mutineer Wrote: Why do people have the machine on their nightstand or dressing table when in operation?

Why not? That's where they go.

OMMOHY


RE: How tough are these machines? - justMongo - 01-22-2016

(01-22-2016, 07:48 AM)Technologist Wrote: Water damage is probably the biggest reason most machines fail over time. When you use distilled water it conducts no electricity and no minerals are deposited. Tap water is the worst and is a conductive and deposit creating nightmare. Tap water can have 500 ppm of impurities. Carbon Filtered water is almost as bad. Home muiltstage Reverse osmosis will remove some of the minerals (down to around 30-50ppm) but it's still not safe to use in your machines. Some people use purified water but purified water is not as pure as distilled. Purified water needs to be under 10 and distilled is in the 1 ppm or lower range.

I've lost 5-6 machines over the last 20+ years but none in the last 10 years while using distilled water. Most people don't even link failing machines to water as the little spills might have happened over the years and were forgotten about. Circuit boards, blower motors, air pressure sensors are all at risk.

The sensors, flow and pressure, are the most vulnerable parts in the air path of the blower unit. Most machines are designed to minimize the backflow of water into the blower unit.

Examine carefully the design of you S9 tank and H5i humidifier. Unless to really shake the machine or invert it with water in the tank, it's not going to get into the blower unit.

As for distilled water. It's still a conductor, though to a lesser degree than tap water. Non conductive water would be industrial grade 18-Meg water. The Pithon Flash Xray at Physics International uses such water as an insulator in its massive coaxial transmission line. (That machine may no longer exist.) The Voltage on the central conductor exceeds 1 MegaVolt.
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