Dreamstation - Humidifier Adaptive vs Fixed, 1-5 Setting

Grumpy48 · Post by **Grumpy48** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 10:12 am

Dryer nights have been emptying the humidifier water tray completely by the morning. Was thinking if I set the humidity rate lower the tray may last until the morning by reducing the evaporation rate to maintain delivery through the entire time of mask use. At the setting of '1' the tray is still empty in the morning. Does the 1-5 setting only apply when using the 'Fixed' mode or does it change the rate in 'Adaptive' as well? The ambient room humidity is low despite having a humidifier in the room and I'm not sure 'Adaptive' is over riding the '1' setting I've put on the rate to compensate the low humidity.

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 10:28 am

A setting of 1 is quite low no matter which mode you use..fixed or adaptive.

If your ambient humidity is quite dry it is entirely possible that even in adaptive mode that the machine is sort of becoming a fixed delivery.

Adaptive means the machine takes the ambient humidity into account and will try to maintain delivery of moisture at the level that 1 setting says you should be getting.

Fixed just means it delivers whatever moisture level the setting of 1 is supposed to deliver constantly.

Neither should be emptying the water chamber during one night of use at the setting of 1 unless something else is going on.

What is your ambient humidity in your bedroom with the use of the humidifier?

Grumpy48 · Post by **Grumpy48** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 10:43 am

The room is at approximately 40% and that is with a humidifier running (although I'm skeptical it actually does much). Is there anything in Oscar that may lend more information about humidity rate?

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 11:09 am

Maybe some hint to something might show up in a detailed report.
Can you post a very recent detailed nightly report please?

Is this water consumption issue something you have always had or just now starting????

40% isn't all that dry...You shouldn't be using all the water at the setting of 1...heck even at the setting of 5 it shouldn't use up all the water...fixed or adaptive. Something weird is going on.

Grumpy48 · Post by **Grumpy48** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 11:33 am

Yeah, I'll take a look in Oscar and see if anything seems off. It was having water left in the tray as of about a week ago. We've had a cold snap and increased dryness, but as you say at a setting of '1' we wouldn't think all the water would get used. That's kinda why my thought that the Adaptive might over ride the numbered setting. The manuals aren't really clear on this either.

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 11:51 am

If anything adaptive setting of 1 should use less water than fixed setting of 1....and you are correct that the manual doesn't make it very clear.
I think that the "fixed" humidity mode is more like what Respironics called the "classic" mode in prior models.
Just means continuous heat to the water chamber as need to maintain whatever setting is chosen regardless of what any ambient humidity might be. It was the old way of doing things back when we didn't have humidity sensors built into the machines.

Look for high pressures or large amount of time spent in big leaks on the OSCAR report.

The 3 main things that affect water consumption besides the obvious settings.

Ambient humidity
Pressures used
Amount of large leak

Grumpy48 · Post by **Grumpy48** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 12:29 pm

Just a quick observation from Oscar that the humidification level changed between 'session's (bathroom trip with stop of machine). Adaptive appears to sense what's needed and changes accordingly. Better than a week ago the humidity setting was 5 and when it was draining the tank and that's when I started lowering the numbers to stretch the usage out. While at 5 there were no drops below that for sessions

Not sure if humidity level can be set as a graph element(?)

Session 1 followed by session 2.

Grumpy48 · Post by **Grumpy48** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 12:34 pm

And a graph.....

DreamMapper 'Mask Fit' numbers have been running 95% to 100% for about a month now. Not sure if the leak rate shown jives with DreamMapper(?)

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 12:55 pm

You are using relatively high pressures all night long....that in itself will use more water.
You did have a short period of time in large leak (those gray areas on the graph) but not really enough to cause much extra water consumption.

As for the minor change between the 2 sessions of the humidity level...I would blame that on maybe bumping the knob.

Adaptive setting doesn't change the setting...it just makes use of the ambient humidity via the humidity sensor in the machine to try to consistently deliver whatever humidity selection you have made.

Example...if adaptive mode is used...and you select 5 for humidity...I don't know how much that is but probably 90% range....and your ambient humidity is 40% the machine will keep adding consistent heat to the water chamber in an effort to keep the air going to your mask at 90%. It will use more water obviously.
Using same situation and the setting is 1...maybe that is for 70...then less water would be need to keep the humidity at 70% delivered to the mask.

There is more air flow over the water when pressures used are higher...more air flow simply means more water will be used no matter what setting.

Have your pressure needs changed lately?

Grumpy48 · Post by **Grumpy48** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 1:22 pm

Don't believe the knob got bumped, but possible. On at least one previous night it changed from a 3 to 2, and a different night 5 to 3 (not necessarily in those orders). Just checked the actual setting in the machines menu that I set last night and it's still at '1'. Something I'll monitor for the next few nights to see what happens.

Pressure seems about consistently the same from previous weeks.

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 1:37 pm

Well....the other thing is that I take what the software says in the settings as not always correct.

Which version of the software are you using? The most recent OSCAR version 1.2 seems to be more reliable.

Prior versions of OSCAR and SleepyHead often told me that I didn't even have a humidifier attached and obviously I did since my machine has the humidifier built in.

So it is possible that the settings being reported are incorrect and nothing really changed.

Dreamstation - Humidifier Adaptive vs Fixed, 1-5 Setting

Dreamstation - Humidifier Adaptive vs Fixed, 1-5 Setting

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Re: Dreamstation - Humidifier Adaptive vs Fixed, 1-5 Setting

Re: Dreamstation - Humidifier Adaptive vs Fixed, 1-5 Setting

Re: Dreamstation - Humidifier Adaptive vs Fixed, 1-5 Setting

Re: Dreamstation - Humidifier Adaptive vs Fixed, 1-5 Setting

Re: Dreamstation - Humidifier Adaptive vs Fixed, 1-5 Setting

Re: Dreamstation - Humidifier Adaptive vs Fixed, 1-5 Setting

Re: Dreamstation - Humidifier Adaptive vs Fixed, 1-5 Setting

Re: Dreamstation - Humidifier Adaptive vs Fixed, 1-5 Setting

Re: Dreamstation - Humidifier Adaptive vs Fixed, 1-5 Setting