HDM Z1 Auto Travel cpap real world review.

I recently purchased, out my own pocket, an HDM Z1 Auto machine. Wanted a travel size machine so I could leave the Resmed Autoset 10 at home and not bother with packing it early in mornings when I leave on trips.

This machine certainly fits the term travel size. Weight is very reasonable too. This review is based on a 9 day trip with 8 nights use and a following addition to the accessories.

If you have an interest in these travel machines you probably have watched videos about their noise. I did, and not one are even close to what they do in actual use. This machine is not too loud when you hook it up and let it blow out of the mask. But MUCH louder than my home unit. The problem is that it really increases noise when you inhale. This is where the online videos are completely misleading! I cannot run this on the EPR 3 setting as the noise is unbearable. It makes a very high pitched chirping sound as it ramps back up. On setting 2 it is ok. If you inhale sharply it makes a LOT of noise. So, once you settle down it should be ok? No, not as delivered. There is a huge difference in noise as you inhale. No matter what. As delivered, this HDM Z1 is all but unbearable for the user, and if you had a partner with you they could likely not sleep without ear plugs. With the mask on there is one other issue. It is almost like the tubing is transmitting the noise directly to you. I wear a P10 mask and I can hear the airflow in it at a level that kept me awake. Here is a pic of the machine and hose out of the box.



This 4 foot long hose that comes with it is extremely stiff. I never got it to straighten out and stay that way. If leaving the unit on a nightstand, 4' might be just fine. But I had to put this on the floor to get away from some of the noise. Hose is a very poor part. The connector into the machine seems to be something to be careful with. Ok so far. I ordered several of the moisture exchange units to put between the hose and the mask. Brought 3 with me on the trip. I used them, I don't know how well they work that far away from the mask. I will try without them next. They are really cumbersome as they make the hose harder to move around with. HOwever, they do act as silencers! I put one on the outlet of the machine and the noise reduction was noticeable. Two days after I got the machine, a travel cpap hose I had ordered arrived. What a difference in noise it made! Less noise coming out of the machine, but most importantly no noise to the mask from the internal airflow.

Don't plan on being too happy with this as it is delivered. More on that with the next post. BUT....it is a travel machine and the comparison with the ResMed airsense 10 autoset carrying case says a LOT!



I did find the machine reasonably easy to set up and change parameters on.

So, I have the machine but it isn't going to work like I want without some modifications. The travel cpap hose shown below is what this should ship with. The difference in noise over the supplied hose is significant. Ease of packing is obvious from the pics of it I will show. The 6' length just works much better. The only problem is that the ends of the travel hose are a hard plastic, not the soft type of other hoses. This will NOT fit the adaptor of the Z1 as delivered! A few turns of electrical tape fixes that. Or you can use the moisture exchange unit as I did and that allows the hose to work properly without the tape. The travel hose is VERY flexible. Even better than the Resmed heated hose I use at home.





With the travel hose and the moisture exchange unit installed the noise is about half of what it was when delivered. But I would tell you that others in the room, unless you had some white noise in the background, would have a great deal of trouble sleeping with the constant up and down noise of the Z1.

I ordered a Q-tube as soon as I got back. You can find these for under $30 and I have to say I was skeptical. Ordered a couple refills for it to have.

Get one. You will need it. Not sure why it needs the short hose that comes with it? I would rather hook it straight to the Z1. But, that may be hard on the fragile looking outlet connection of the Z1. At any rate, the Q-tube makes enough difference that I will use it all the time. This is still not a quiet machine in use. If tested like you see in the typical video the noise as I have it now is very low. But it easily doubles noise as it ramps up to feed air on inhale.



This is the complete setup ready to hook a heat/moisture exchange unit and/or your mask to.



This is a pic of the complete setup as packed ( less the P10 mask ). My phone is in the center for size comparison.



Would one of the other travel machines be better? You cannot know without trying them. I like the size and weight of this unit. I think I have it where the noise is ok. I run a fan in the rv anyway, and in a hotel room I will just have to see how that goes when my wife is with me. By myself, I am good as it is now.

I hope this post gives someone an actual review they will find true if they buy one of these. If I had to use the machine as delivered, I honestly don't believe I could have.

I just noticed CPAP.com has the Z1 auto on sale, new, for $439.20. Not much more than I paid for a refurbished unit! HDM Z1 Auto travel machine

With the savings you can order the travel hose and the Q-tube!

You might want to point out that the travel hose you recommend is actually extremely flimsy. It's actually plastic over a metal spring and the plastic is about the thickness of the tarp, and it gets extremely poor reviews on Amazon. A better choice would be lightweight tubing from ResMed or Respironics. That's what I use with my travel CPAP and it's very lightweight, extremely flexible, and packs up to almost nothing.

If your hose fails on a trip, you'll be hard pressed to find a replacement easily.

I have a lightweight 6' tube also.

Yes, the travel hose seems flimsy. But that is why reviews from people that have actually used them are important. Read all the reviews on Amazon. Yes, some says it feels flimsy. Yet not one complaint about ANY failures. The unique way it stores will likely keep it from being torn when traveling. I suspect it is tougher than it seems. At any rate, a piece of tape would suffice for a temporary repair.

Plenty of complaints about it not fitting the Z1 adaptor and I point out that was the case with mine and how I fixed that.

Travel size is just that. The Z1 comes with a 4' hose, I assume in part to cut down the size when packing the hose. The 6' hose takes a LOT of space, lightweight or conventional, compared to the travel hose.

If I ever do have a failure with the hose, I will be sure to post about that here. For now, I highly recommend it! The difference it makes in noise compared to the standard hoses is substantial. That alone is worth buying one!

Unless you really believe that this hose somehow reduces the noise of the Z1, it's hard to see the advantage.

review: "Just weird, entire setup is heavy. I was buying it for travel. It was compact but not lightweight."

A regular lightweight hose like this:https://www.cpap.com/productpage/respir ... pap-tubing
is much lighter than this product. So basically you are trading a tiny bit of bulk for a heavier hose that is less durable. I usually put my hose in my carry on suitcase or travel bag, and it takes up no room since it snakes around other items.

Also, why would this hose, which is made of thinner material, attenuate the noise from the
Z1? I get that the muffler and the humidity capsule would do it, but a thin hose with a metal spring in it?

Maybe you could make a video of this hose versus the regular hose? That would be great.

In any case, anyone with the TravelHose should bring duct tape!

remstarcpap wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 04, 2018 3:16 pm

Unless you really believe that this hose somehow reduces the noise of the Z1, it's hard to see the advantage.

Also, why would this hose, which is made of thinner material, attenuate the noise from the
Z1? I get that the muffler and the humidity capsule would do it, but a thin hose with a metal spring in it?

In any case, anyone with the TravelHose should bring duct tape!

You quoted the reviews on Amazon about weight and negative reviews. Go back and read them again. I am not the only one that found a significant noise reduction using the travel hose compared to a regular hose. And yes, the thinner material could be a factor. Because it is thinner, it absorbs the noise instead of echoing it all the way to the mask. The metal spring is on the inside of the hose, not part of the plastic, and that may act to dampen noise. I don't know the science behind it. I will add it doesn't take a meter to tell the difference!

Why would anyone need duct tape? No failures of it that I can find. None in the Amazon reviews. Where did you find the reviews with failures? Got to be one or two, everything has that! Simple electrical tape would work in a pinch, just like it would on a regular hose.

Not sure about the weight problem? I just weighed my 6' non heated regular style cpap hose. 4.5 oz. Travel hose 4.8 oz. Weight taken on a pretty good postal scale. So there is no real world difference in weight. The hose you link to does not show a weight that I can find. There is certainly a big difference in how much room it takes to pack them!

I am sorry you don't find the travel hose suitable for you. But then again I have tried it and can speak directly about the good things it does. And it does attenuate noise significantly. It does pack up much smaller than a standard hose. It is very flexible. And at 4.8 oz I don't see how that is considered "heavy".

Just spent some time looking up the weight of the hose in the link.

3.2 oz.

That is 1.6 oz less than the travel hose.

Significant? Not when you have the power brick, Z1, mask, adaptors, and the other little things I keep in the travel kit.

Much of the weight of the Travel hose is in the storage device it comes with. A hard plastic rod made to store the compressed hose on. Has a cap on top to secure it all with a 1/3 turn twist. Which also helps protect the hose, but mainly makes it very compact. Which is what a travel hose is all about!

I bought this same unit to have as a backup travel unit. i prefer my transcend but this works well for me. its noisier for sure but the noise doesnt bother me. i tossed out the hose that came with it and just use my standard hose as it wraps up nice and fits in my travel bag

Thank you for the detailed review of the Z1. Very helpful information.

Wish I would have read your review before buying one. Thank goodness HDM has a 15-day trial period. My Z1 is going back, I could not sleep with that high pitched fan noise while breathing in.

Thinking about the Dreamstation Go.

I too could not have used the Z1 as it is delivered.

But there is a fix for it. The "travel hose" fixes more than one issue, I consider it a must have with the Z1.

I don't have experience with other travel cpap machines. But from reading about them, they are not immune from excessive noise either.

Thanks for review...good to know about work around.

Did anyone see they have a Z2 version (fixed & auto units) that will ship on 3/26/2019?


I guess it is supposed to be quieter motor, comes with the Q-adapter as well. Would love real reviews like this. Man so hard to find real info on this stuff and most info is years old!

Anyone use the powershell with extended battery? Wondering people's thoughts. Normally I wouldnt want the battery, but I thought flying I need it...

I'm going to be traveling a lot in next yr with long flights and never used a cpap on a plane. Australia & china... I'm gonna need sleep.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Here is my take. I purchased a Z1 auto recently. The criticisms about the noise are valid to some degree. There are a few things you can do to help mitigate the noise.
The first thing is that the unit breaks in over the first 20 hours or so. It reduced the whirring noise you heard upon exhalation. My observation is that the unit is not terribly noisy running at pressure (8 to 12 in my case), but during exhalation, and ramping back up. The next thing is that the Q tube helps a bit. I also found that adding a 19mm 6 foot hose helped some. With these things in mind, I was able to use the unit for the night that I tested it. I slept fine, and my AHIs were fine at 3.

The main problem.... my wife was not OK with the noise. So... at that point I had a decision to make. Do I keep the unit?
I decided to keep it because when traveling on business she won't be with me, and for personal travel, she can help lug the ResMed Airsense 10 autoset along.

Now... here is the interesting part. 2 days ago, I get an email about the new Z2 Auto. The main improvement, a redesigned motor specifically to reduce whirring noise.
Another improvement; Auto start/stop. I have that on my Resmed unit, and since I get up a few times a night to use the bathroom, that's a big deal for me.

I was within my return window at cpap.com, so they allowed a return, and I am getting a shipment of the new Z2 on 3/26/19. I gave up a large discount that I had on the Z1, but IMHO it's worth it, especially if the noise is substantially reduced. I also contacted HMD. The lady there said that the improvements are real. I mentioned that the "Z-Breathe" EPR feature was part of the problem, since it increases the pulsing of the motor as it ramps up/down. She told me that in addition to the choice of Z1,2,or 3, you now can turn the feature off. I don't like EPR, and I don't use it on my Resmed, so if this is in fact accurate, that is another reason that I think I'll like the Z2 Auto machine.

Bottom line, even if the noise reduction is over-hyped, I'll be happy to pay the up-charge for the new unit. I will use it anyway. The icing on the cake will be if my wife can tolerate the Z2. I will report back once I have tested the new unit.