Have you run your AirSense 10 out of water?

[Ron AKA]

I woke up last night thinking there was a fire in the house and I was smelling smoke. Looked around and decided that no, the house was not on fire. Then I thought my CPAP had a fire or the air intake was blocked. Checked it, and no fire, no blockage. I then tried to go back to sleep but the stink just didn't go away. It smelled like I was breathing from the inside a hockey equipment bag, if you can imagine what that smells like. Then I finally realized that I forgot to fill the humidifier and I use nearly a full amount every night. When I removed the reservoir it was dry, quite warm, and that was where the smell was coming from. Have you ever done it? Did it stink like I describe? Should the machine not know better and shutdown when the reservoir goes dry?

[Mosquitobait]

Yes, I've had that and no it doesn't shut down. There is no 'level' in the bin to tell the machine that the bin is out of water.

[Walla Walla]

Don't worry, you'll never forget again.

[MobileBasset]

If you use distilled water and wash the reservoir occasionally it will minimize the chance of some residual “sludge film” producing odors as it cooks.

[joelrk35]

I have run out of water several times. I don't remember any smell coming through the hose, however it turned the metal plate on the bottom of the reservoir slightly brown from overheating. It is still working over a year later. I do keep a reserve tank just in case of a failure.

[Ron AKA]

Thanks for the replies. It is a good wake up call to not forget again. I do use reverse osmosis treated water which we can get at the local Canadian Tire store for $2 per 5 gallon container. The RO uses local municipal drinking water for a feed, which in turn uses river water for the water treatment supply. At this time of the year there is a lot of runoff with lots of organic material in the river. This includes cattle feed lots which are now thawing out and contributing to the runoff. So there is some chance that kind of stuff makes it through the municipal water treatment and the RO. There didn't seem to be much more than a faint trace of minerals in the bottom of the pan though. 

I did a careful look through the Clinical Guide and found this in the specifications section:

Temperature
Maximum heater plate: 154°F (68°C)
Cut-out: 165°F (74°C)
Maximum gas temperature: 106°F ( 41°C)

This does seem to suggest there should be a cut out when it reaches 165 F.

[Hydrangea]

I've done it with my DreamStation several times. To me, it smells like burned popcorn.

THIS is the reason I MUST have a back-up reservoir.  Then when I wake up to a burned smelly reservoir, I can quickly replace it and go back to sleep.  

I go through a reservoir of water each night.  If I've slept 10 hours, it's likely to run dry.  But if I turn the humidity down on my machine, my throat hurts because it's too dry.  Thus I CANNOT comprehend why "they" wouldn't make the reservoirs bigger.  It's ludicrous.  

And yeah, "they" should also make some sort of feature that stops the heat when the reservoir runs dry.  Essential oil diffusers have this feature, so surely it can't be too hard to do.

[SarcasticDave94]

I don't recall ever running out, though it's been very close at times. Still using the original tub from August. It does have a small brown spot just off center. And I've never gotten any smell from it.



Edit: above was true until this past evening. I was just adding water, when I noticed my tank was empty. And I recall a smell on waking. Was just an unpleasant smell.

[Gary1of2]

I did it last nite. I forgot to fill it and got the smell you describe.

[Sleep2Snore]

Did it just the once with the ResMed and woke up as soon as the hot smell hit me.
With the old machine it happened only to often, but after my nose getting battered with cpap all night I rarely smelt anything but hot metal.