Happy Newbie + Hose/Mask/Water question

[Guest]

After a sleep study that found I had apnea bad (AHI of 74) I received my machine last Thursday. The first two nights were just frustrating with the result of taking the mask off right away. Total feeling of not being able to fill my lungs with enough air. I knew it was mental since I slept with a mask for 5 hours during the titration study and awoke feeling the best I had in years. So yesterday I found this forum and plenty of suggestions to just use it during the day to get acclimated. My wife reinforced this and so I did it. Went to bed and and the couple of times that "feeling" came I willed myself to relax my breathing. Before I knew it I was out I ended up with 5 hours last night and as I post this, I feel sooooo much better. I probably could've lasted longer but, which leads me to my question, I had water in my mask which woke me up. There was a couple of tablespoons of water in the hose too. I have a new System One RemStar Pro and I had the humidifier on. Is this normal? I could try without the humidifier but I am pretty sure it will dry me out.

Thanks for any input and it is terrific to see a community like this.

17spots

[Kate M]

(cut) I had water in my mask which woke me up. There was a couple of tablespoons of water in the hose too. I have a new System One RemStar Pro and I had the humidifier on. Is this normal? I could try without the humidifier but I am pretty sure it will dry me out.

Thanks for any input and it is terrific to see a community like this.

17spots

This is condensation or "rain out" in CPAP lingo A hose wrap of some sort to keep the air from cooling as much on the way from the machine to the mask may help. I use this -(SnuggleHose cover) https://www.cpap.com/productpage/snuggl ... cover.html

If not, they make heated hoses for this purpose.
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/pr-sys ... -tube.html

Blessings,

Kate

[caffeinatedcfo]

Welcome! Great to hear you're off to a good start.

Please register and post your equipment in your profile, which will help us provide more effective feedback to your issue.

Off-hand, a couple of questions are:

• What is your humidifier setting?
• Please describe what height your machine is at in relation to your bed.

[chunkyfrog]

If your machine is about a foot below the top of the mattress, and there are no dips in the hose to trap it;
most rainout should flow back into the tank, harmlessly.
Condensation in the mask could be remedied by having a warmer room, hose cozy,
or keeping a paper towel handy to "sop" up the excess.
A mask liner may also work as a wick (except with nasal pillows).

[Bobby269]

One of these will work also. https://www.cpap.com/cpap-comfort-clean ... p#/2:::::0:. I use the $19.00 item. It can also be taken with you on a trip.

[chunkyfrog]

I forgot mine, last trip; had to use clear packing tape and hair scrunchies from the dollar store.

[17spots]

Thanks for the replies and links, Ill check them out. My nightstand is about even with my mattress height so I put it on a stack of books last night (had to improvise) about a foot down from my mattress. The hose isn't kinked or anything just coiled on the floor so it is lower than the machine. They gave me a 6 foot hose and it only has to go about 2 feet max. Tonight I'll coil the hose above the machine and see how that goes.

My equipment:
System One RemStar Pro with C-Flex+ (460P) with Heated Humidifier using setting 3
Phillips Respironics WISP nasal mask and headgear
Sleepyhead software, last night had an AHI of 2. A far cry from 74.

17spots

[Crazy Eddie]

or "rain out" in CPAP lingo A hose wrap of some sort to keep the air from cooling as much on the way from the machine to the mask may help. I use this -(SnuggleHose cover) https://www.cpap.com/productpage/snuggl ... cover.html

Is all condensation "rain out" and caused by the same thing? I have a heated hose and I tried something new...cranked it up to 5 last night. I noticed this morning some "dew" on the inside of my mask. Not a lot though. I figured it might just be from my own moisture or maybe need to tone down the hydro (which is at two of three in West WA).

[Kate M]

Is all condensation "rain out" and caused by the same thing? I have a heated hose and I tried something new...cranked it up to 5 last night. I noticed this morning some "dew" on the inside of my mask. Not a lot though. I figured it might just be from my own moisture or maybe need to tone down the hydro (which is at two of three in West WA).

Good question! I am not a science expert by any means. But I would think that if you crank up the humidity in your machine, you are more likely to have condensation. Whenever there is excess humidity, it forms condensation on cooler surfaces. The warmer the air, the more moisture it will retain, which is why we turn up the humidifier setting -- it increases the temperature of the plate under the water in my unit and thus the air passing over it is in turn warmed up more and will pick up more moisture as a result. When that moist air comes in contact with cooler surfaces, its temperature is lowered and can't hold as much moisture, so it releases some of the moisture back out.

So, let's look at your experience last night: You had warm moist air passing through your heated tubing and then through your unheated mask. You then had your warm moist breath passing back through your unheated mask. Based on the info in the above paragraph, it is not surprising that some condensation formed in the coolest area of the pathway -- your mask. I think then, that yes, if you turned down the heat setting on your humidifier the air wold pick up and hold less excess humidity and would be less effected by the slight lowering of temperature at the mask.

But the only way to know is to try

Blessings,

Kate

[dlanbro]

I'm not an expert but I would think that condnesation, rain out, would be a function of both humidity settings and tempurature settings. I've only accessed my humidity settings once and wasn't sure on how I did it. Mostly I adjust my tempurature settings if needed. I keep mine at 72 and, once again, have not had this issue. I hope that the rest of the replies have been helpful, it seems like they were to you. Welcome to the community and, trust me, I know this from experience, this is a great community that you can trust and will stick with you through thick and thin.

[hyperlexis]

After a sleep study that found I had apnea bad (AHI of 74) I received my machine last Thursday. The first two nights were just frustrating with the result of taking the mask off right away. Total feeling of not being able to fill my lungs with enough air. I knew it was mental since I slept with a mask for 5 hours during the titration study and awoke feeling the best I had in years. So yesterday I found this forum and plenty of suggestions to just use it during the day to get acclimated. My wife reinforced this and so I did it. Went to bed and and the couple of times that "feeling" came I willed myself to relax my breathing. Before I knew it I was out I ended up with 5 hours last night and as I post this, I feel sooooo much better. I probably could've lasted longer but, which leads me to my question, I had water in my mask which woke me up. There was a couple of tablespoons of water in the hose too. I have a new System One RemStar Pro and I had the humidifier on. Is this normal? I could try without the humidifier but I am pretty sure it will dry me out.

Thanks for any input and it is terrific to see a community like this.

17spots

Make sure you have the auto humidification settings turned on. The built in rainout protection system should be enough to prevent that kind of condensation, now, in spring, even without a heated hose.

[17spots]

Hyperlexis, thanks the System One auto humidifier was off. I' ll try with it on tonight.
17spots

[Pugsy]

the System One auto humidifier was off.

The PR S1 model 460 has a heated hose option. Do you have the heated hose or regular hose?
Regular hose has 2 white ends....heated hose has one black end at the humidifier connection.

If you don't have the heated hose then you have 2 modes of operation for the humidifier.
The new system one humidification system and Classic mode.
The Classic mode is the way we used to do things before the addition of humidity sensors and heated hoses. It uses only heat to adjust the humidity delivered. Turning up the humidifier increases heat and thus the amount of moisture added to the air.

The new system one humidification system uses humidity sensors in the machine to sense the ambient humidity in the bedroom and adjust heat accordingly in an effort to reduce changes of condensation in the hose and mask.
It's not fool proof...it depends on bedroom temp.

Remember we also add water to the mask level because our own exhaled breath contains moisture and we can get rain out at the mask level from that moisture. Even people not using a humidifier at all can get moisture condensing in the mask.

The heated hose option available on the 60 series offers the ultimate reduction in chance of rain out happening in both the hose and the mask. If you don't have the heated hose now....check with your machine supplier about getting it.
While rain out won't hurt you it sure is annoying and disturbs sleep and that makes it unwanted.

[17spots]

I used the auto humidifier mode last night as well as coiling the hose up higher. My wife also made me a fleece sleeve for the hose. No "rain out" problems last night. If i have any further provlems the heated hose is something i would consider. I ended up with 6 hrs on it and, not really thinking, took it off for an hour in the middle of the night. Still woke up feeling magnifico.
Thanks,
17spots