Water in mask

I use a DreamStation Auto BiPAP machine with humidifier with a heated hose. I use a Resmed Airfit N20 nasal mask. I fill the humidifier with distilled water, set the humidifier setting to 3 (of 5), set the heated hose to 4 (of 5). I wake up with lots of droplets of water in the mask. I'm amazed I'm not drowning myself. Why am I getting so much water in the mask with a heated hose? What can I do to stop it?

Jeff_Snore_No_More wrote:I use a DreamStation Auto BiPAP machine with humidifier with a heated hose. I use a Resmed Airfit N20 nasal mask. I fill the humidifier with distilled water, set the humidifier setting to 3 (of 5), set the heated hose to 4 (of 5). I wake up with lots of droplets of water in the mask. I'm amazed I'm not drowning myself. Why am I getting so much water in the mask with a heated hose? What can I do to stop it?

If your home us already humid, you may need a lower setting for the humidity, or you may not need it at all. You should also check to see if your heated tubing is actually heating, which is easiest to test at the highest setting. Check that your filter is clean, as reduced airflow can allow more humidity to build up in the tubing.

You may have some moisture in your own exhaled breath mixing with the incoming moisturized air and the heated hose just can't quite keep the ambient bedroom temps from cooling the air in the mask so as to prevent condensation adequately.

Either warm up the hose some more....warm up the ambient bedroom temps....lowering the humidity may or may not help. Depends on just how much moisture is in your own breath that you are exhaling. I know of people who don't use a humidifier at all and they still get condensation in the mask.

Make sure your machine's located lower by a few inches than your head - water will run back down to it instead of to you.

Thank you all for your replies and suggestions.

1) My machine is at least a foot below the level of my head.
2) I've tried using the machine without humidification. I am awakened by my throat being parched.
3) The heated tube feels like it's working. It doesn't get really, really warm, though, even at a setting of 4. But it's definitely warmer than room temperature. I'll try setting the tube on 5. That's the highest it goes.

I've never had this problem before with my previous BiPAP machine and masks. So I don't know if it's the machine or mask causing this. I just started using this mask recently, and the machine is about 9 months old. I wasn't using the humidifier until about 2 months ago, same time as the new mask.

Ambient room temp might have changed ever so slightly....cooler.
The heated hose works great up to where it ends and then once it ends the warmer air going to the mask can start to cool off and how much it cools off depends on ambient room temp.
At the mask level the air in the mask has to be warm enough to hold onto the water (warm air will hold on to more water than cool air) and if the ambient bedroom temp is cooling the mask just a little more than it used to....condensation can happen.

I have fought this battle for 10 years especially in the winter because I usually keep the thermostat quite low and the bedroom gets even cooler by 3 to 5 degrees since it faces north on one side and the insulation is of poor quality.

I need to go look at your mask to see how much of a distance there is between the end of the heated hose and the mask but some people use a little short hose cozy to help keep the air that reaches the mask a little warmer so it doesn't cool to the point of releasing the moisture so often. I have always used a mask of some short with a short hose from the long heated hose to the mask and that short hose does get exposed to the cooler ambient temps....end result is water in the mask if I don't keep the air in the mask itself warmer.

I looked at your mask in your profile.
Unless you are using a hose attachment of some sort to lengthen the hose you don't really have much space between the end of the heated hose and the mask on the F20. No room for a hose cozy.

About the best you can do is increase the heated hose temp or increase the ambient bedroom temp a little.
Try to keep the air in the mask itself from cooling to the point of releasing the moisture.

The having the machine lower than the bed so the water can drain...really only maybe helps when there is water in the hose.
Won't/can't help much with water in the mask because unless we sleep face down totally the water can't get into the hose to let gravity help remove the water. The water just pools in the mask and becomes annoying or we get a cold shower when it goes out the vent holes.

Thanks for the awesome explanation, Pugsy. My mask does have a short hose that attaches to the regular hose. And the room is a little on the cool side. So I think I will try a hose cover, whatever it's called. The thing that wraps around the hose.

I need to change my profile. I'm using an Airfit N20 now.

So it does have a little short hose...take an old sock and cut the toe out and slide it over the short hose. Secure with scotch tape or bread ties or anything to keep it in place and from sliding down.

You can edit your profile to reflect the new mask.

Much cheaper than buying a short hose cover and works quite well. I used it often back in the dark ages when heated hoses weren't available.

Thanks again, Pugsy. Good suggestion.

If that short hose from the mask is problematic, you might want to consider switching to a mask that connects directly to the CPAP hose.

Water started dripping in my mask when we opened windows at night to cool off the house. The hose is heated and does not seem to collect moisture. I added a cozy around the short hose dangling from the mask, and a cozy to snap and fit around the mask nose cone. This helped enormously. When I get up in the night to use the bathroom I check for moisture in the nose cone and dry it out. With this practice and some insulation, the mask no longer drips on me. Yeah!

Jeff_Snore_No_More wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 05, 2019 2:51 pm

I use a DreamStation Auto BiPAP machine with humidifier with a heated hose. I use a Resmed Airfit N20 nasal mask. I fill the humidifier with distilled water, set the humidifier setting to 3 (of 5), set the heated hose to 4 (of 5). I wake up with lots of droplets of water in the mask. I'm amazed I'm not drowning myself. Why am I getting so much water in the mask with a heated hose? What can I do to stop it?

Turn the damn humidity setttings DOWN

Where do you think all that water vapor is going?

Den

.

I discovered a solution to water in my BiPap mask. The mask started dripping water when we opened bedroom windows to cool the house at night. Solution: I cut several inches off the end of an old [clean] sock, then cut the toe off the sock to make a hole large enough for the mask hose to fit through. Trimmed up the sock edge to fit around the mask just right. Used the straight part of the sock around the short hose. This all worked to keep the air in the tube and mask warm, and prevent drips. The sock construction was a bit annoying, so I made a similar cozy from flannel, to snap around the mask, with a flannel tube for the air tube. The mask dripped once over 2 months, when night air was especially humid. This is a big improvement over drips every night.