Cold Air in the Morning

[raysgirl]

Hi All,

I am not exactly new to CPAP and now am a Bi-Pap user. I don't see that change being the cause of my problem. When I go to sleep, the prewarmed water in my bipap feels great, but by morning it feels more like icy air from an open window. (I live in Maine near the Canadian border, more east than north.) I keep my household head OFF at night and it can get to around 64 in my room, but I swear the air coming thru the tube is cooler than that. I have a heated tube although I have no idea how to tell if it is working, when things get that cold. At some point, the remaining water cools and by 5am (assuming a 10PM bedtime) the cold air will get me up if the dog does not. Now, I know you folks can't help the dog, but does anyone have any idea how to keep the machine making things warmer. Why does the humidifier cease to heat? Can that be changed? Why does the heated tubing no longer warm the air, assuming it was ever warming it at all? How can I tell?

[Pugsy]

So which brand machine and what settings for humidity and hose air temperature?

[raysgirl]

I am using a Phillips Respironics Dream Station. It appears to have 5 levels for hose heat and humidification and both are set to 5. I was sent the tubing separately and it came with no instructions but it simply plugged in and the machine recognized it.

[Neicy]

Add a hose cover over the tubing. Many have used it on the heated tubing with no issues of overheating. I know what you mean about cold air though

[Pugsy]

I am using a Phillips Respironics Dream Station. It appears to have 5 levels for hose heat and humidification and both are set to 5. I was sent the tubing separately and it came with no instructions but it simply plugged in and the machine recognized it.

Are you experiencing any condensation in the mask or hose?
Is it using much water?
How long have you had the machine & heated hose? Has it always seemed to not heat up?
Do you know the approx ambient room humidity?

[raysgirl]

Are you experiencing any condensation in the mask or hose?
Is it using much water?
How long have you had the machine & heated hose? Has it always seemed to not heat up?
Do you know the approx ambient room humidity?

There is occasionally a little condensation in the hose, never makes it the mask. If the hose makes a gurgling sound and assuming I hear it, I hold the hose all the way up and let the water run back.

I have had the machine since mid Sept and the hose a week or two later, because of the cold air.

I do not know the humidity of the room. I have nothing to measure it with. I turn the heat OFF at night, mostly to save on heating expenses. So I would not imagine it is very dry. I do think the machine is set to sense the humidity in the air and adjust the humidity of the machine.

[Pugsy]

If the machine seems to pre warm the air just fine and you are comfortable at the beginning of the night...each night...then I don't see how the machine would be failing in the middle of the night. They don't usually go bad that way. Usually if something wants to quit heating it might quit in the middle of the night but the next night it won't heat at the beginning of the night either.

I suspect that your bedroom cools so much during the night since you have the house heat off that the machine simply can't keep up with the cooler air coming into the machine. Even at maximum hose air temp selected the machine may not be able to get the job done and get that colder air warm enough to be comfortable.

Now if it didn't pre warm or be comfortable at the beginning of the night then I would be more apt to think machine failure.
Failure usually isn't intermittent.
If it does pre warm as expected and it does use up some water during the night then we would expect it to be working and something changing during the night to cause it to seem like it isn't working and in this case you have a prime suspect with the ambient bedroom temps dropping.

I think if it were me I would add a hose cozy in an effort to help the machine out and keep the air warmer in the hose.
You can buy them or make your own.

Now there is always the possibility that the hose heating elements are bad despite the machine sensing the heated hose being plugged in...so that wouldn't be totally impossible for the hose to be iffy but again if the hose has broken heating wires they aren't usually going to work intermittently.

I would try a hose cozy first and probably a fairly dense one given where you live and the fact you turn off the house heat at night.
Padacheek makes some really nice ones
http://www.padacheek.com/PAC_Hosecover.html
Dense doesn't have to mean a lot of added weight though. You can get fleece that is light weight and still dense if you want to make your own.
Or if you have some fairly dense socks you can cut the toes out of 3 or 4 and run them over the hose and make a hose cover. I did this years ago back before we had heated hoses and I was getting condensation in the mask and hose. Anything to help keep the air in the hose from cooling down because of the ambient room temps being cooler.

[Julie]

And you can buy a hygrometer (small device to measure humidity) at any hardware for a few dollars.

[Wulfman...]

If you're not already, I would suggest trying routing your hose under your covers to see if that helps keep it warmer.
I haven't used heated humidity since about the third night after I started therapy in May of 2005 and haven't missed it. I tried it, but didn't like it. But, I do route the hose under my covers and next to my body to get it a little warmer.


Den

.

[raysgirl]

I do route as much of the tubing as I can under the blankets, on of which is a heated throw. I was pretty much crediting that for much of the warmer air. However, I move around a bit during the night and wake just about 3 hours after I go to bed with knee pain (which is why I added the heated throw) By the time I get up to let the dog out, I can't even find half my blankets. I used to really mind the cold, now I can't stand the heat, with no physiological reason, apparently, other than I have gotten used to temperatures here on the 45th parallel. I have been wondering if the humidifier stops heating when the water level gets too low? After pre-heating there is obvious condensation on the top/sides of the tank and if I take the tank out the bottom is definitely hot. Not so in the morning and if it were, the remaining water should be HOT not warm, and that is not the case. Given that, I cannot tell how much the tubing may or may not contribute any heat or if ever did.