Another failing AirSense 10

[Odiferous]

6 mos. past the warranty and my AirSense 10 has started the obnoxious noise reported my many others that seems to be a failing motor. My DME says they could send it back to ResMed, but no one knows what the repair would cost until it comes back with the invoice due--they're guessing $500. There does seem to be inconsistent availability of used motors online around $200, but no source of new parts. I'm on a different insurance than when I bought the machine, so my cost to replace it would probably be less than the used motor.

So a few questions:

1. Has the AirSense 11 been out long enough to have any clue if it suffers the same failure rate? I realize that most folks have had no issues with their 10, but there does seem to be a recurring issue here.
2. Can anyone confirm the length of the AirSense 11? cpap.com shows it being only 0.17" longer than the 10, but the images make it look much longer.
3. Have there been any reports of folks breaking open the sealed motor enclosure to attempt to find an off the shelf replacement? The 10 worked great for me, and I paid quite a lot for it; I hate to trash it because it's cheaper to replace than fix.

[Pugsy]

You might give acbio.com a call about potential cost of repair.
They are a licensed ResMed repair facility
https://acbio.com/

Has the AirSense 11 been out long enough to have any clue if it suffers the same failure rate?

Not really been out long enough to judge failure rates at all. It's just too new to the market

For your question number 2 I am zero help...I haven't seen the AirSense 11 at all.

Have there been any reports of folks breaking open the sealed motor enclosure to attempt to find an off the shelf replacement? The 10 worked great for me, and I paid quite a lot for it; I hate to trash it because it's cheaper to replace than fix.

No reports that I can think of but maybe someone here will see your question and they have done it.

It's not easy to get replacement parts at all. You might look at your local craigslist or facebook market place and see if there is a machine for sale cheap that you could rob parts from but then right now with the shortage it's hard to find anything cheap anymore. Plus you don't know what you are buying but if by some chance cheap enough...a risk worth taking.

Sorry I am not more help but do give acbio.com a call.

[clownbell]

Regarding Question #2, the OP could call the folks at CPAP.COM to confirm the size.

[ChicagoGranny]

2. Can anyone confirm the length of the AirSense 11? cpap.com shows it being only 0.17" longer than the 10, but the images make it look much longer.

ResMed's specs (https://document.resmed.com/documents/p ... er_mul.pdf) say the width of the 11 with HumidAir tub is 10.21". The width of the 10 with water tub is 10.04" (https://document.resmed.com/documents/p ... er_eng.pdf).

[Odiferous]

You might give acbio.com a call about potential cost of repair.

I did so today; they refuse to give a ballpark guess. Their process is to ship them the machine, then if you decline their estimate, they charge a diagnostic fee and ship it back.

I ran across another company that buys used machines to refurbish, but they don't want units that have been in regular use for two years.

I'm fortunate right now in that my cheapest option is probably a whole new machine; I'll probably end up with an AirSense 11. No clue what to do with a $1000+ machine that needs a part that noone will sell. [insert rant here about wastefulness, right to repair, medical insurance, etc.]

ResMed's specs (https://document.resmed.com/documents/p ... er_mul.pdf) say the width of the 11 with HumidAir tub is 10.21".

Thanks! I figured the numbers I was seeing were copied straight from ResMed's materials, but I was afraid that it might not be including the tub. Looks like the fact that the 11 is so much shorter than the 10 makes comparing the images deceptive.

[latskogkatt]

I did so today; they refuse to give a ballpark guess. Their process is to ship them the machine, then if you decline their estimate, they charge a diagnostic fee and ship it back.

Oh, that doesn't sound like shady business at all... /sarcasm

[lynninnj]

you said a magic word. right to repair. i use ifixit.com and was swapping out iphone parts for years. ebay had cheap replacement parts for the phones. unsure of the cpaps but guess what?

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/ResMed_AirSense_10

They often have walk thru and individual replacement instructions included with video and crowdsourced comments.

Have fun taking your machine apart!

[lynninnj]

OK so I looked at the repair manual at I fix it. I looked at it and thought piece of cake.

You need set of micro screwdrivers. It also helps to have one single screwdriver available that is magnetic. But you want to be careful you don’t wanna touch it to certain circuitry. It’s just handy to have around in case you drop a screw in the middle of some thing.

when I worked on my iPhones I would get a an old egg carton and have it right on the table. I route one through 12 inside on the cardboard. The first two screws were the same and they went in slot number one. When you’re looking at the instructions to make a mental note of how you want to arrange things. If they’re all the same put them in the same bin so that when you have to put everything back together you know what goes where. It’s very important that different size screws have their own slots. If you have to make notes of what step slot one is and slot two etc.

Also when I looked at the instructions I would start at the upper left and work clockwise. So I knew when I was putting different size screws back in I would work counterclockwise to rebuild.

If you have poor eyesight I recommend getting a magnifying glass or if you have one of those lighted makeup magnifiers you hook to a table then you’re in really great shape. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to get something that big.

Notice for example step 4 has 2 10mm screws and 4 14 mm. I would give them each their own edd slot based on size rather than clockwise.

HTH

[Pugsy]

I did so today; they refuse to give a ballpark guess. Their process is to ship them the machine, then if you decline their estimate, they charge a diagnostic fee and ship it back.

Oh, that doesn't sound like shady business at all... /sarcasm

Tell me why you think that is shady business?

They don't know exactly what is wrong with any machine until they get it and check it out. Just because we assume that the motor is the ailing part doesn't mean it is with certainty. Maybe the noise is a fan bearing.

They explain up front what their business practice is....they tell you ahead of time what the diagnostic fee is should someone not want to go to the expense of paying for the fixing. You want them to take the time to do all the diagnostic testing to isolate the problem and not get paid for their time??
You don't get any ugly surprises because everything is explained up front and then you decide if you want to ship it to them or not. They have done this for years and years...

Yes it would be nice if we could know ahead of time exactly what is wrong and how much to fix something but there aren't many working crystal balls out there that could give us a clue.

[lynninnj]

Moving forward I see they use a spudger. One can get these parts cheap on ebay if you want to buy a cheap screwdriver spudger combo usu listed if you search for them.

A good substitute is a guitar pick. Has to be plastic so you aren’t breaking stuff. Also handy to have plastic tweezers which can be helpful for spudging.

ie step 8 those wires connect to a cable. He might be able to use your fingernails but it might just be easier to use a pair of plastic tweezers or a spudger or a guitar pic.


If you are a relatively handy and the thing is just gonna be a brick anyway you don’t necessarily have anything to lose.

I apologize for making it sound like it was a piece of cake. It’s actually pretty difficult but not insurmountable.

There’s a few comments and an interesting one at the bottom by a guy named Mike after the very last step. His post was dated November last year and he said he paid $238 for a motor and had a brand new one for sale.

Sorry for the irregular voice texting.

[latskogkatt]

Just because we assume that the motor is the ailing part doesn't mean it is with certainty. Maybe the noise is a fan bearing.

Oh... yeah, that's a fair point. I was thinking entirely on the assumption that they knew basically what needed replacing, but wouldn't say for how much.

It reminded me of trying to get an estimate for having several things done to refurbish a bicycle I have, so it'll be usable, at a place that did both repairs and selling restored (donated) bikes. They wouldn't give me an estimate, and I got the impression they just wanted me to donate it and buy another from them... got really cagey when I tried to get them to give a price.

[Pugsy]

Just because we assume that the motor is the ailing part doesn't mean it is with certainty. Maybe the noise is a fan bearing.

Oh... yeah, that's a fair point. I was thinking entirely on the assumption that they knew basically what needed replacing, but wouldn't say for how much.

It reminded me of trying to get an estimate for having several things done to refurbish a bicycle I have, so it'll be usable, at a place that did both repairs and selling restored (donated) bikes. They wouldn't give me an estimate, and I got the impression they just wanted me to donate it and buy another from them... got really cagey when I tried to get them to give a price.

Reminds me of a story that happened to me many, many years ago.
I had a car that had a clutch that was making horrible noises. Called a few places and they said it sounded like I needed a new clutch. Seemed reasonable to me...so I got a lot of estimates from various places for a new clutch....700 to 1100.
Had a friend recommend a place and they actually gave me one of the lower bids so I took the car to them fully expecting to get a new clutch. Midway in the day I get a phone call from the owner who wanted to verify what the clutch was doing and I said "just making a horrible racket every time I use it"...and he said that there was nothing wrong with my clutch and in fact there had been a recall notice in the past (I never got) about the clutch and all that was needed was some sort of clutch adjustment kit. They didn't do warranty work but offered to go ahead and fix it and the amount I would need to pay was $49. Honest people...imagine that. They could have just did the clutch adjustment kit and charge me the 700 and I wouldn't have ever known the difference.

As you all can imagine...that guy worked on all my subsequent vehicles over the next 20 years until I move away from the area.

acbio.com people are honest people. They have done work for me on one of my machines. Now we might prefer to know ahead of time that so and so is going to cost X amount of money but sometimes what we think is the problem isn't the problem and I guess they just don't want to promise X amount of charges without knowing for sure exactly what the problem is and just because we might think something is the culprit I would bet that a lot of time it turns out to be a different culprit. They will also give the whole machine a good going over and run diagnostics on everything to make sure all the other parts are in good working order.

I don't know what their diagnostic fee is now but it used to be 50 bucks. Probably more now but I think that the diagnostic fee isn't charged if they do the repair. It's only charged if the customer elects to not fix the device....I think anyway.
Don't anyone hold me to that please. I could be remembering wrong.

Now if someone is handy and they can isolate the problem and then obtain the needed parts (which isn't easy to do for cpap machines) then by all means give it a go and try to fix it themself.
Me....I am real good at taking stuff apart and total suck at putting it back together so I don't even try anymore.
It always ends up costing me more in the long run. I learned that lesson after multiple failures.

[Odiferous]

I'm not disparaging acbio for charging a diagnostic fee. The fee I was given ($65 in this case, ymmv) seems entirely reasonable (probably even generous) to cover shipping of the machine and a tech's time. I wish they'd have been willing to give me a non-binding ballpark estimate, but I can understand why such a business wouldn't want to.

They're probably a great option for many folks, but in my situation it's just not worth gambling on whether it'll be $100 to repair, $500 to repair, or $65 still broken vs making my insurance buy a new machine.

I'm also not disparaging the refurb company for not wanting the machine; they want to clean up working machines and resell them, not buy replacement motors (assuming they can get the parts).

The only one to be grumpy at is ResMed for not making parts available. Of course, none of the others do either, so it doesn't even help to switch brands.

[Pugsy]

The only one to be grumpy at is ResMed for not making parts available. Of course, none of the others do either, so it doesn't even help to switch brands.

Does it surprise anyone that manufacturers, who think that we (the end user) are too stupid to do anything, will not make it easy to even try to repair something??? Remember we aren't supposed to be able to see our own data or make changes or use available software because we just don't have the "knowledge to understand what is shown". PC for "not smart enough".
Irks me to no end.

They don't want us opening up these machines at all.
They don't want us fixing anything....they want to sell us a brand new machine instead. Duh...

[lynninnj]

The only one to be grumpy at is ResMed for not making parts available. Of course, none of the others do either, so it doesn't even help to switch brands.

Does it surprise anyone that manufacturers, who think that we (the end user) are too stupid to do anything, will not make it easy to even try to repair something??? Remember we aren't supposed to be able to see our own data or make changes or use available software because we just don't have the "knowledge to understand what is shown". PC for "not smart enough".
Irks me to no end.

They don't want us opening up these machines at all.
They don't want us fixing anything....they want to sell us a brand new machine instead. Duh...

That’s why I love ifixit so much. thier whole premise of setting up site is a right to repair.

I literally was able to buy two cheap “for parts only” iphones and put them together to get one that worked and resold other “for parts only”.

Some are now more complicated then i am comfy working on but great guides. please see posted ifixit link above.