Does Humidifier know when its out of water?

[Allessio77]

I woke up today with a smell in my mask and found that the Humidifier had run dry sometime in the night. Should the machine have sensed this and shut down? What was the odor I was  smelling?...a little like something burning but inspection of humidifier revealed nothing.

(I realize I should be more careful before going to sleep and check the level...I actually did and thought I had enough, but the air must have b particularly dry or cold).

[Marillion]

This has happened to me before also. I'm afraid the machine is not "smart" enough to know when the water tank is empty and keeps heating the base. It is definitely not pleasant to smell that "burnt plastic" sort of smell when you are waking up. Yuck!

All you can do to prevent this in the future is to make sure the tank has enough water during the night. You can try experimenting to see how much less humidification you need (to allow for less frequent water needing to be added) by switching to manual humidification and adjusting the number downward. I find in the winter I am most comfortable with a #3 setting and in the Summer I can easily get by with a #2. At those settings I get 2.5 nights and 3.5 nights respectively from a full tank. It all depends how many hours you are sleeping. I generally get around 7-7.5 hours a night. For example if I sleep only 7 hours each night, I can get 4 full nights on a humidity setting of 2.

[Sleeprider]

It happened to me the day before yesterday. I can't recall if I forgot to fill it, or just didn't put the usual amount of water in. No harm from this, other than it can be unpleasant. There is no alarm or feature to warn of low water.

[dracus]

Interesting...I've had this happen as well.

Funny you're getting several nights out of a tank. I have mine set on auto and I always end up using nearly an entire tank of water.

[ajack]

Yes, it automatically gives you a bad smell, to tell you to refill it

[Sleep2Snore]

Fill your tank every night guys and girls, what is wrong with you?  

Mind you, I used to run dry every night almost with the last machine, if you have a leak it runs out even sooner!

The smell of hot metal with a hint of hot plastic is not very nice, but at least the bugs in the tank kicked the bucket   at least they did if they were on the bottom of the tank.

[Marillion]

Interesting...I've had this happen as well.

Funny you're getting several nights out of a tank. I have mine set on auto and I always end up using nearly an entire tank of water.

If I set mine on Auto, in the winter I will go through almost a full tank as well after 8 hours. 

This is in a relatively humid area also.  Though of course, it is winter now so less so than other seasons.

[Allessio77]

I have been manually setting mine at 3 since November..which I find very comfortable! I get two nights out of a full tank. (Until last night!)

"Yes, it automatically gives you a bad smell, to tell you to refill it Smile" ajack...I'm glad yours has that feature too.

[Hy Mezzanine]

Interesting...I've had this happen as well.

Funny you're getting several nights out of a tank. I have mine set on auto and I always end up using nearly an entire tank of water.

For me, manually setting to "6" will just barely get me through 8 hours with mouth/throat dryness well underway. Only a very shallow puddle of water remains at the bottom of the humidifier...

I'm reluctant to go to a "7" setting as the clinician said that she has never seen anyone use over a "6" in her career?!

[bluemom51]

My Aircurve VAuto water bin is empty after about 6 hours every night...no matter what the setting...grrr