Heated Humidifier vs. Cool

I don't have a humidifier of any sort with my cpap. What do they do? I live in a humid climate, is that sufficient? Some other people at work talk about their equipment that includes a humidifier. Is heated better than cool or not heated? Do the humidifiers hook up to the machine or work on their own?

Looking for feedback. Thanx, Doglover

Usually you only need a humidifer if your nose gets irritated from the cpap pressure. A Heated Humidifier gives you the best control. It simply is added inline between your cpap and your 6ft hose. So the air from your cpap blows air over the water in your humidifer and delivers humidity to your nasal passage. Adding heat lets you control the amount of humidity. The more heat, the more humidity. With a cool, you only get whatever water is picked up by the air passing over the cool water.

A humid climate and not even a room humidifier will compare or be a deciding factor, when deciding on a humidifier. You need that humidity delivered through your mask.

Hope that helps!

Ron

I need the humidifier because the therapy dries me out very badly but I also hate the heated part because it makes me feel suffocated sometimes. I wish I could have my cool mist humidifier attached to my mask!

For me, it's a matter of choice. I like the ability to alter my setup. Sometimes, I do not use a humidifier. In fact most of my hours are without a humidifier. I also have humidifier that does not have a heater. I have used it sporadically over the years. Currently, I am using a heated humidifier with the heat set at the lowest level, Off . On occassion, I use a much higher setting.

The benefits of a humidifier are as others said are meant to provide comfort. The heated humidifiers allow you, by increasing the heat, to increase the humidity.

It's an individual thing.

Having said all the above, I would want to have a heated humidifier available for use when I want it.

The first couple of nights when I started therapy about four years ago, I tried the heated humidifier......didn't like it. So, ever since, I've used cold, refrigerated (distilled) water in my humidifier with NO heat. I can breathe better that way.

Den

dieselgal wrote:I need the humidifier because the therapy dries me out very badly but I also hate the heated part because it makes me feel suffocated sometimes. I wish I could have my cool mist humidifier attached to my mask!

I use the CPAP humidifier but can't tolerate the warmth past the first couple of notches for the same reason.

In my climate with the dry winter, I found it wasn't enough humidity. I use a heated humidifier for my room. It bumps the humidity from Mid 30's to upper 40's / lower 50's. Since its winter, the added warmth doesn't go to much waste in that I can just turn the heat down slightly so room temperature is actually normal. So I end up with more humidity without any additional warmth.

I tried a cool-mist, but the problem was just that, it was cool. The vaporized air was colder than the room air and the air fell to the floor and all over the wood furniture and condensed. Since I am on the ground floor, the floor is actually pretty cold. So all the mist hit the floor and started condensing on the carpet. Because it was vaporized, the water vapor could penetrate down deep in the carpet before it condensed. In a way, I soaked the carpet more deeply than I could by spilling water on the carpet. I discovered this after the first serious try at using the unit and that was the last of it.

I will get to the point. I CANNOT STAND WARM HUMID AIR!!!!!! With all the cpap machines you make you can't tell me there are no cool breeze machines? My humidifier is turned off, but yet I wake up with stone dry mouth. My gums are hurting and my dentist tells me this is a directly result of my mouth being dry all the time at night. If this continues I will lose the majority of my teeth. So about a little help here.

Thank You

gridermtz @ yahoo-dot-com wrote:I will get to the point. I CANNOT STAND WARM HUMID AIR!!!!!! With all the cpap machines you make you can't tell me there are no cool breeze machines? My humidifier is turned off, but yet I wake up with stone dry mouth. My gums are hurting and my dentist tells me this is a directly result of my mouth being dry all the time at night. If this continues I will lose the majority of my teeth. So about a little help here.

Thank You

From your description, it's probable that you're MOUTH BREATHING or MOUTH LEAKING. Even if you're using a full face mask, if you mouth breathe, your mouth will be dry. If you use a nasal mask and mouth breathe/leak, your therapy is compromised (not optimal) if your therapy air is leaking out your mouth.

Do nasal cleansing before bedtime. With "passover" (cool) humidification, if you can keep your mouth shut, under most conditions it should not get dry. However, there are some medical conditions like Diabetes.......or medications that can (under some conditions) cause dry mouth.

Do you have a heated hose? If you have turned off the heated humidifier but the hose is still warm, you'll still get heated air coming at you.
Water can be stored and cooled in the refrigerator before bedtime, too.

Congested nasal passages, pressures that are too low are a couple of things that can cause a person to mouth-breathe.

You need to figure out what the problem is and solve it.