Anyone's F20 Quiet Air Elbow Not Diffusing/Venting ANY Air?

[Hydrangea]

Last night I had dreams of people trying to kill me.  I won't elaborate; but I'll just say the dreams were numerous.  This is extremely unusual for me (not my normal genre of dreams).  

I noticed the F20 quiet elbow wasn't venting out air.  Usually, it's sort of tough to tell if it's venting, but if I put my hand there for a bit I can feel something.  But when I finally woke up fully from the terrible dreams, I put my hand to the venting area and felt nothing. This has happened to me before with my other quiet elbow.

I'm wondering if the F20 Quiet Elbow has the same problem as the P10 diffuser mesh - they get clogged and eventually just stop diffusing?

Anybody else experience this?

I'm switching to the non quiet elbow to see if I can have success with sleeping peacefully.

[SarcasticDave94]

Negative on my side. I've no issues with the vent not doing its job.

[Hydrangea]

Negative on my side. I've no issues with the vent not doing its job.

Do you wash it?  How long do you use it before replacing it?  Do you use humidity with your xPAP therapy?

Mine was doing its job, but isn't any longer. I think it should last longer, at least according to the replacement schedule.

[Sleep2Snore]

I've never had any problems.  Only time I had a problem is when I pushed it onto my hand and of course blocked it myself.  Don't know for how long I had blocked it, but I woke up eventually (or am I dead?) but I had a bit of a headache next day, this has happened three times now, all I have had is a headache next day (and a little bit grumpy) but nothing else.
One night I lay on my arm and blocked it, the mask came away a bit and saved the day.  My arm had the mark of the mask for a few hours before it faded away.  I don't like lying on my back, so it is likely to happen again.
I do wash it and just hang it up to dry, but i am not very fussy.

[SarcasticDave94]

Negative on my side. I've no issues with the vent not doing its job.

Do you wash it?  How long do you use it before replacing it?  Do you use humidity with your xPAP therapy?

Mine was doing its job, but isn't any longer. I think it should last longer, at least according to the replacement schedule.

I don't recall washing quiet elbow/vent at all. After seeing black gunk on those of others, it's not being immersed definitely. As best as I remember, I've had mine about a year without replacing with others on hand. I use humidity on manual set between 4-8, depending on seasonal best for me numbers.

[Big Guy]

I used my original quiet elbow for over a year, before I replaced it with a new one. I washed it in hot water and Dawn dish soap along with the other equipment. 

I'd probably still be using the original quiet elbow, except that about two weeks ago, my mask (Airfit F20) was leaking on me, and I was getting frustrated (read: mad) and I used too much force on it to make it seal. I broke it in the process.   

I tend to do that to things at times. My wife reminds me of that fact all too often. 

[Janyn]

My elbow vents quite a bit of air actually. I am set at 12 for air flow and there is quite a bit of air coming from the vents.....

[Homerec130]

My elbow works fine. I usually replace it when I replace the hose as it is too much of a pain to pull it off. When the hose starts to separate from the elbow, then it is time to change the hose. BTW, I use a 10' unheated hose.

[jgunders]

I was switched by my DME to the "quiet air" elbow without my knowledge about 4 months ago on my Resmed F20 mask.  I have since noticed increased daytime dizziness.  When I finally started investigating what coud be causing this I found the Apnea Board and the wonderful support group.  I have been using CPAP for more that 12 years and have seen increasingly sophisticated machines, but I had stopped paying attention to the technology.  A couple of days ago I loaded the Oscar software and also started usig MyAir.  I had no idea that the daily data was being stored at other than the smiley face displays I saw on my CPAP display.

I currently have two "quiet air" elbows.  I also have an old unused Mirage silicone full face mask.  For 3 nights I switched to the old clunky Mirage mask and the results were good.  One night had no events and the other two had an AHI of 0.16 and 0.4.  Last night I switched to the F20 with the diffuser and had an AHI of 1.8 with a 30 minute eplisode by obstruction and other events.  Also felt dizzy this morning.

Since calling the manufacturer to inquire if the old elbow without the diffuser was still available, I was told the it was but they could not tell me for how long since the new one had replaced it.  My DME could not get one for me either since they used a different supplier.  I was kind of desparate to get an old elbow this morning and decided to try to remove the diffuser with an exacto knife.  It appeared to work.  

After removing the diffuser, I was surprised to find a thin ring of foam that came out with it.  I assume that this is for sound deadening and you can just see the bottom of it in the other unmodified elbow.   I was disturbed with the new elbow just because it was so quiet when I discovered that it was different a month or so ago.  I used to be able to feel the outflow to verify that the CPAP was on.  My current model is incredibly quiet.

I just tried running the modified elbow and it appears to work OK.  I don't think the manufacturer modified the pinhole rng or hole diameters, but I don"t know that for sure.  I plan on using it tonight and will report on the Oscar results tomorrow.  I took some photos of the cutout ring and the piece of foam.  You may have to bear with me on presenting my Oscar results and postig the pictures hopefully tomorrow.

[Hydrangea]

Jgunders - I did a similar data-dig today. I pulled out my SD card and plugged it into Sleepyhead (I haven't switched to OSCAR yet). My AHI was fine with the quiet elbow, but my leak rate was very low (0 on some nights). So I'm wondering if that's indicative of it not venting my exhaled air.