CPAP machine choice for sailor

[Sleeprider]

Ok, I thought someone told me that there was a DC power supply for the S9. I'll look at the Respironics machine you suggest. Do you know if any of the various CPAP sites out there publish the actual current/power draw of the units. Saying it comes with a 90 watt power supply doesn't mean that's what it actually draws.

Another question I have, is what is the likelihood that I would need a humidifier under the conditions I described above? High humidity and warm temps. It seems that the bulk of the power goes to the humidifier.

Thanks for the suggestion and info.

Posting links on this site is a good way to increase one's warning level. I'll just point out that a number of people I know are running the Respironics DS560 on a Poweradd Pilot Pro 32000 Ahr battery up to two nights with no additional connectors other than what comes with the battery recharger kit. If you have Prime, then you know where to look.

Also, Philips offers a 12 Volt DC Power cord, that directly connects to a cigarette lighter or battery. You could make your own with coax adapter for the machine for next to nothing. 12 Volts, and the machine runs. The machine maximum startup rating is 12 VDC, 6.67 amps. Normal power use is around 1.8-2.0 amps without humidifier or heated hose.

You're floating on tropical oceans. You don't need a humidifier.

[PaulaO2]

Your power consumption will depend on the pressure you are using so we can't really answer that question directly. I'm sure there's a chart somewhere, though. The higher the pressure, the more it will draw. A machine set to one pressure (straight CPAP) will draw less while an autoPAP (set to a range of pressures) might draw more but will offer better treatment. Since you will be doing this on your own, an autoPAP is a must.

Phillips Respironics works the best when it comes to battery operation. Less extra stuff to get. Machine and one cable vs machine, adapter, cable. Otherwise, they are both equally great machines, just different in how they present the data on the screen and a few other things. If you are going to be buying completely out of pocket with no insurance, I suggest you check out Supplier #2 in our Suppliers List (link at the top of every page). They sell open box and gently used machines at good prices. They also sell the DC cable you will need. (or DC cable and adapter if you go with the Resmed).

If you breathe through your mouth while you sleep, you will need a full face mask. Or a nasal pillow or nasal mask with chin strap. You may find that a mask that felt wonderful for 3 hrs is a literal pain in the cheek bone after 6 hrs. You can have the best machine in the world but it will be worthless if you can't stand the mask. I suggest you concentrate A LOT on getting the mask right.

Supplies:
hoses - main hose, one every 6 months.
filters - every month, maybe could make it last longer (they're cheap, get plenty)
mask - get as many extra parts as you can. Maybe two or three complete masks then quite a bit in extra bits like pillows or cushions. When it comes to masks, it is better to have stuff left over than be short. Again, that machine is worthless without the mask.
cords - consider getting extra cord/cables. You can keep one onboard ship and the other for if you sleep off ship somewhere fun
memory card - definitely an extra of those. Since you are doing this on your own, keeping track of the data is extremely important. You'll want an extra card in case the first one dies.

[SailingAway]

Archangel,

Thanks for the great post. We manage our power pretty well. Besides the solar we also have an 8kw 110v genset and a 200 amp alternator on the main engine. We just greatly prefer not to run them if possible. We carry 1250 amp hours of AGM's as our house battery bank. On good days we can out about 230 Ah into our banks from solar. We use about 160-180 on average. We run an RO watermaker twice a week that messes up those 2 days, but recover the next.

I found the dc-dc converter for the S9 for $69 which I didn't think was that bad. It said it will run the unit with the humidifier.

I also found a link to a PDF showing the actual power usage at various pressure settings for all the Resmed units. Very helpful.

Paula02 also. Thanks for your suggestions on the supplies. Not sure what exactly to do about the mask situation other than try them. I don't know to what extent we can purchase masks or supplies in French Polynesia. As of this year, in addition to the normal shipping costs and duties, they have instituted a $250 per box clearing charge for things shipped in. So everyone is trying to combine shipments. I hope to get a machine right away and really hope to get some time on the machine and trying masks before I leave.

Thanks for all the great info. Please keep it coming if anyone has any further thoughts.

[Ghost1958]

If your depending on DC power go with the Respironics machine. Itll run off batterys, or a straight genset with modified sine wave. Doesnt need pure sine wave. That is per Respironics tech dept.

The Resmed machines are way pickier about alternate power.


Ill have to go of the reservation here on the humidifier. 'Where I live 85 90 percent humidity isnt uncommon. Forced air in your nose and just breathing are two different things. Even with 85 or 90 percent humidity here I still need the humidifier even though it wont use much water per night during those times. But a few nights without it and the old snooze will let me know about it. System ONe humdification mode does really good job of preventing rain out on its own. With the heated hose rain out is non existant.

[me50]

I ran my S9 and humidifier off of a car battery for a few hours while taking a sleep break while driving a 16 or 17 hour trip. It worked fine off of the car battery. I know this is not the type of a solution the OP needs or is looking for but I was replying to Ghost comment about running off of a battery.

[SailingAway]

Thanks Ghost,
That is exactly what I was wondering about the humidifier. Just because the ambient is high I wasn't sure about the air blowing up your nose. i would think with the velocity it would tend to drop the rel humidity.

I found a link in another thread that gave the amps used at different flow settings on the ResMed machines. The converter appears to be a 12V to 24V converter. Shouldn't be a big deal. Using an DC inverter to AC then back to DC makes no sense and there would be a lot of loss associated with that.
We already have several things on the boat that have a DC converter and they are fine.

Does anyone have a link to the same power data on the Resperonics machines? I realize that they can take 12V directly, but would like to know the power usage curve similar to the one I found on the ResMed devices.
Like this: ResMed 198103r3_batteryguide_glo_eng.pdf

Board won't let me post link yet??????????

Thanks a bunch for all the info.

[SailingAway]

On the power note, I think our situation is different than a lot who try to use the 12V converter. Our boat is wired through out with 12V outlets that we use for things like laptops, gps, etc. Not using battery clips or cigarette lighter adapters. We can flip a switch to run an inverter that would powers all the outlets throughout with 110 AC. We just prefer not to use the inverter for long term usage as it has a little overhead usage as well.

My wife still likes her Vitamix so usually flips the inverter on each morning to make a smoothie, coffee and shuts it off.

Now, on the other hand, if the DC Converter is a piece of junk and just doesn't work that's a whole different story. There are many of those around. In fact, we have used a 12-24 converter to run the internet on boat for years. I am sure it probably isn't big enough to run this, but the point is there are many DC-DC converters around.

Wonder how sensitive the Resperonics unit is to 12V fluctuations. When our solar is outputting fully we see 14.4V as the batteries peak. During the night voltage drops off to around 13.2 at dusk to maybe 12.7 at dawn.

Thanks everyone.

[archangle]

Does anyone have a link to the same power data on the Resperonics machines? I realize that they can take 12V directly, but would like to know the power usage curve similar to the one I found on the ResMed devices.
Like this: ResMed 198103r3_batteryguide_glo_eng.pdf

Respironics is very stingy about publishing tehcnical information of any type on their machines. I've never seen any published Respironics power consumption information other than the power ratings on the devices.

I'd love to see some links to actual Respironics documents.

[SailingAway]

Archangle,
If you look at the link in your footer under Useful links, for the file I referenced above.
198103r3_batteryguide_glo_eng.pdf and go back to around page 12-13 you'll see the actual amperage draw by each ResMed machine in various configs, with/without humidifier etc, at about 5 different pressure settings.

Like to find something like that for Respironics.

Got my Dr visit tomorrow.

Sorry for the delay but the board won't let me post. Says I have to wait a day.

[Evpraxia]

You probably won't need the humidifier or the heated tube if the ambient RH is 95% with 70 -80 temp on your boat. There is enough moisture in the air. YMMV.

I run my Philips Respironics 60 series Auto machine with heated tube and humidifier at 70% RH with a temp of ~75 F. The max it can go to is 90% RH in auto mode anyways.

You should look into buying a machine without the humidifier for now but to have the option to add it later when you may find yourself in a low RH environment.

Actually, I would probably buy the humidifier WITH the APAP; just to make sure the humidifier will work the APAP if it is ever needed in the future.