what setting is your HC150 humidifier?

Hi all,

I'm curious to see what level of humidity people who use the HC150 standalone heated humidifier use. I got my M series apap with aflex and the M series heated humidifier in August this year and loved it but felt that the heated humidifer was too small. We had a thread about it at the time and I learned about the HC150 standalone heated humidifier. I basically put up with my M series heated humidifer because I never got around to ordering an HC150 humidifer but that changed about a week ago when my M series heated humidifier died. Since it's still on warranty, I'll have to return it to cpap.com (my dme here in Canada, Access Therapy/Medigas can't/won't help me but Claudia at cpap.com was wonderful) but it decided me to buy the HC150. Given that I was coming to the US to spend the holidays anyway, I had them send the HC150 to my parents in St. Petersburg, Florida and they brought it when we met here in Bluffton, SC at my brother's vacation home. Tomorrow we leave for St. Petersburg for the rest of the holiday period and I'll return the M series humidifer to cpap.com from there. When it's fixed, they'll send it back to my parents, who will bring it back to Canada when they return in April.

In the meantime, I'm using the HC150. On the first night, not knowing what setting to put it at, I put it at the maximum. Wow, woke up around 3 am drowning from very, very intense rainout. The bed & pillow were wet and as I bent over the side of the bed to turn the apap and humidifer off, water dripped from my Quattro mask. Hmm, setting too high, I guess So I turned it to the middle (I think it's 3) and went back to sleep after having brought mask & hose to the sink to let condensation drip out. OK. Last night I still had some rainout despite my hose cover so now I have it down to 2. Mind you, it's probably more humid here in SC than in winter in Ottawa but I was surprised to see needing such a low setting. Hopefully tonight will be ok.

So what setting do the rest of you use? Also, why do they send 2 chambers when you only use one at a time? Is it because it won't last long so will have to be replaced? Did any of you actually screw the heater base to the little shelf like they tell you to do?

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas.

France (normally from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada but in Bluffton, SC today then St. Peterburg, FL tomorrow until Jan 4th)

Mine is now running at around 1 1/2 but I am in Texas and while we have had some cold weather it is not very cold at this time. Lots of time in the summer I will turn it off and just use it in passover mode.

Jerry

Humidity varies by location, as you may now know. If it were me, I would start at the lowest setting (1) and turn it up gradually prob 1 unit until I was satisfied with the level. If you get rainout backup maybe 1/2 unit or so until you are happy again. Mark your setting with a pencil so when it gets moved by accident, you will know where to set again.

Good Luck,
GumbyCT who wishes he was in St. Pete.

I have my HC150 at level 2. I vary between 1 1/2 and 2. I live in New Mexico. It's not very humid here and 2 is quite adequate for me.

Dale

I'm in Ontario Canada and have that humidifier as well. I find that passover humidity works best for me most of the time.

On some really cold nights (we've had a few already this winter) I have only had it at 1 1/2.

I think, when you are back home, you will find what setting is best for you. When you travel you will be adjusting as per the relative humidity where you are (if you travel with that one). I haven't been away from this area since I bought mine but I plan to use the integrated one when travelling.

I know, right now, you are using that one while away but you may decide to do as I plan to do for future travelling.

Another New Mexican here, high desert.
Ambient humidity runs about 10% in winter. but a setting of 2 seems to work fine for me year round.
I do use the base with humidifier attached, and my CPAP on the base also.
Been using the same chamber for a year; I also was wondering why there were two.
Shari

I use the Fisher & Paykel HC 150 humidifier at 1 or 2.

I don't use the tray-stand.

I've used the same water chamber for at least a couple of years. Unless the water chamber gets dropped on a hard surface or treated roughly in travel, it should last a long time. It's nice to have that extra chamber in case the first one gets cracked.

Perhaps my water chamber lasts so long because it is handled so little. It just "sits" there, getting more water added.

Every three or four days I use a funnel to simply add more distilled water to bring it up to the fill line. I don't dump the unused water out in the mornings. I don't "clean" the water chamber for months and months at a time. Even then, it's just a matter of rinsing it out (I even use distilled water for the slosh/rinse) and starting over.

If you use only distilled water in the water chamber, it will stay crystal clear.

I added a hard plastic connector to the rubber cuff of the hose that comes with the F&P humidifier, making it easier to lift the humidifier's hose off when I add more water:

Another 1.5 user. 2 puts a few drops in the mask, 3 gets wet and 4 darn near drowned me.

RG's point of using a quick release device on the tank is important as the nipples are very delicate. I like that her's is a 90 degree elbow which puts the hose more out of the way. I use a coupler (points up) made for this that came with my unit (or the DME slipped them in). I got another from the DME for the machine side of the short hose so I can easily unhook everything when traveling.

Someone else gave a terrific tip on the HC unit and that is to get a lamp type timer that turns it on and off so you don't forget.

I set mine to zero for passive humidification--used to use the heat, but that warm moist air caused me to be congested. Since I've been using passive/no heat mode, no more congestion!

rested gal wrote:I use the Fisher & Paykel HC 150 humidifier at 1 or 2.

I don't use the tray-stand.

I've used the same water chamber for at least a couple of years. Unless the water chamber gets dropped on a hard surface or treated roughly in travel, it should last a long time. It's nice to have that extra chamber in case the first one gets cracked.

Perhaps my water chamber lasts so long because it is handled so little. It just "sits" there, getting more water added.

Every three or four days I use a funnel to simply add more distilled water to bring it up to the fill line. I don't dump the unused water out in the mornings. I don't "clean" the water chamber for months and months at a time. Even then, it's just a matter of rinsing it out (I even use distilled water for the slosh/rinse) and starting over.

If you use only distilled water in the water chamber, it will stay crystal clear.

I added a hard plastic connector to the rubber cuff of the hose that comes with the F&P humidifier, making it easier to lift the humidifier's hose off when I add more water:

Is this somewhere in "our collective wisdom" section? Rested gal this is good. We should have section in there called Equipment modifications, tips and tricks! I tried to submit a post to a moderator from another member of this forum..but no success and could not find how to recommend a post be placed in that section. Other forums call these sticky's and the forum admin puts them into a Sticky section for the forum.

Well darn! You folks that don't use the tray don't know what you are missing!!! The tray is nice. I put a couple of velcro strips under the cpap and attach it to the tray and it makes a nice unit.







Jerry

I love this forum. What wonderful answers. Thanks so much. Sorry to have just posted and disappeared. We left in the morning from SC for St. Petersburg FL and, for various reasons, it took longer than expected. Then we got here, had to unload all the luggage (so much!!!!!), get settled, spend time with my parents then we just dropped into bed. What I'm doing awake at 2 am is beyond me but here I am.

Interesting answers. Pretty much 1-1/2 and I can see that's what I would be doing. It's at 2 now and I've found that I've still gotten a few drops. I'm with RG that I would just top it off as necessary; that's what I did for years with my ancient Respironics Pro, which had a much larger humidifier. With the integrated M series humidifier, it was pretty much almost empty every day anyway and had to be pulled out to be filled.

I love that coupler idea but would never have thought of it since I'm nowhere near being mechanically, technially or otherwise knowledgeable. I can see that pulling that hose on and off would have lots of wear and tear so I want to get some. RG says Home Depot's plumbing so I'll check it out. One of the many good things of being here is that my father, who is very good at that kind of thing, is here so he'll be able to help me figure this out. Thanks RG for that tip!

Another great idea is OldLincoln's about a timer because I can easily see forgetting to turn it off.

Jerry, your pictures look like your unit is up on a table above your bed or am I seeing wrong? Don't we have to have it lower than the bed because of condensation or something like that?

Hawthorne, yes, normally I can see travelling with the integrated humidifier because this is a true hassle packing up -- it doesn't all fit in that nice little M series bag! Once the M series integrated humidifier is fixed, that's definitely what I'll do, but until then, this is what I have to use. Mind you, once we get back home in January, I don't think we'll be doing more travelling until my parents bring the fixed M series integrated humidifer back from being fixed. Now I just have to get it packed in a box and ship it off UPS to cpap.com to get fixed ... to do later today, I guess.

Thanks all!!!

France

Hey Fred,
Look here in Collective Wisdom:

"Help For New or Struggling CPAP Users"

There's an item under that category called "ALL LINKS by rested gal":


You'll find all kinds of good stuff there...

cheers
goose

frapilu wrote:Jerry, your pictures look like your unit is up on a table above your bed or am I seeing wrong? Don't we have to have it lower than the bed because of condensation or something like that?

Yes, a lot of folks like it lower than the bed. It has never been a problem for me unless I turn the humidifier up to high and get rainout. I put it up there before I found this form. I had a box kinda like one of the plastic egg crate things and I would set it on it at night but I noticed so little difference or problems I don't do it much any more. It was a little more trouble when I used a FFM, when I switched to the NAII it is not as heard to regulate the humidity. When I put it on the box I had no way to tie the hose so I would not pull it off or tip the box during the night although moving it from the chest to the box sure worked great with the tray. On the chest I have a little eye screw and I tie the hose so I can not pull it off if I roll over and tug the hose. It is very quite over my head, more so than on the box. The blue lights are also not as bothersome up high. Like Old Lincoln, I to have my HC150 on a timer. I guess the picture was taken before I added the timer because I forgot to turn it off a time or two.

Jerry

Ah-hah!! I found the couplers that came with the HC150! I had seen them when I first got it but didn't quite know what to do with them (I DID say that I'm very bad technologically or mechanically, didn't I?) so I put them back in the box with the 2nd chamber that I didn't know what to do with either. Then I promply forgot about them. It's just when I was going through the boxes this morning to get the best option to UPS my defective M series integrated heated humidifier to cpap.com that I found them. This time I knew what to do so I now have them on the HC150 to save on wear and tear for the hoses. And I found an amazon.com box that suited quite well for the humidifer, which is now on its way to cpap.com.

It's all working out.

Jerry, I use a FFM so that's probably why humidity and rain out are an issue for me. However, with my HC150, I ordered an Opus mask, in the hopes that I might be able to occasionally use it. I had a septoplasty a year back and I've lost 60 lbs lately so I'm hoping. So far, I've slowly lowered my pressure from 15 to 13 without bothering my AHI and I plan to keep slowly lowering it until either it becomes a problem or ..... dare I hope ... until I possibly discover that I no longer need a cpap?????? Wouldn't that just be so awesome? Not likely but I can hope. So I'm hoping that with lower pressure, perhaps, just perhaps I'll be able to use an Opus instead of a FFM. I'm hoping that my mouth breathing was possibly in part because of the high pressure. Who knows. If I still mouth breathe too much for it, I can always tape my mouth and see how that goes.

France