[Equipment] Respironics Remstar auto A- flex humidifier stopped working

[Reddog]

Hi.
My humidifier stopped working and with the help of this forum I have disassembled the unit and discovered that the red power wire coming off the pc board has gotten hot (white plastic case has melted - see photo). The connection however is tight - I can't get it apart. The rest of the unit works well.
My question is: I can buy a new heater element for $65, but is this unlikely to work, or a waste of money?
Cheers.

[trish6hundred]

Hi Reddog,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
You would probably be better off to get a new humidifier.
Hopefully, others will chime in on your post.
Good luck with CPAP therapy.

[Sleeprider]

This is like the question I asked myself last week, whether I should buy a new carburetor for my old Toro lawnmower, or just buy a new mower. The new mower would have been nice, and after all I have already rebuilt the ignition, starter, self-propelled drive and other stuff. Well I got the carburetor and the mower now works like new, so I guess I'm stuck with it.

This story applies to your humidifier because you could just get a new auto CPAP with all the latest features and a new humidifier for between $330 (Dreamstation Auto) and $440 (Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset) on Amazon. Or, you could spend $65 and probably fix your humidifier, although no guarantees. No one knows the answer to your question, but what do you want to do, and what can you afford to do? My mower cuts the grass once a week in Summer, but my CPAP is used every night all year long for years. I think there is a lot of value in upgrading the CPAP, and I can live with the old mower.

[Reddog]

Thank you for that. I like your thinking. 
I didn't realise quite how cheap CPAPs had become, so I'll save burning my fingers with a soldering iron and the angst of discovering that it didn't fix it anyways.

[Sleeprider]

Keep in touch and let us know how the new machine works out. I think you will like the latest auto machined. FWIW, I am strongly partial to the Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset.

I'm off to mow the lawn.