HAS ANYONE BUILT A GOOD HOSE COOLER?

[Adoniscmj]

I still need a good way to cool my air from the CPAP. I think that running a length of hose through a small fridge is the best idea I have heard yet. Any other thoughts?

[AlanE]

Sure, the hose would need to be sealed but the cooler air, once it hits warmer room air, will form condensation and could lead to rainout. So not sure why you need to do this. With the humidity turned off and climate hose, if any, off it would be the same temp as room air. Same as you would be breathing without cpap. Compressing air does raise its temperature but you are not compressing air enough with CPAP. In fact, if you still had water in the tank you would benefit from passive cooling due to evaporation. Granted it would be small.

Liquid cooling is an efficient means to cool a surface. If I were to do this, I would look at possibly using a Peltier module to cool a small chamber of water and pass air through a coil immersed in the water. Rainout is still likely once the cooler air hits the warmer room air.

[justMongo]

Sure, the hose would need to be sealed but the cooler air, once it hits warmer room air, will form condensation and could lead to rainout. So not sure why you need to do this. With the humidity turned off and climate hose, if any, off it would be the same temp as room air. Same as you would be breathing without cpap. Compressing air does raise its temperature but you are not compressing air enough with CPAP. In fact, if you still had water in the tank you would benefit from passive cooling due to evaporation. Granted it would be small.

Liquid cooling is an efficient means to cool a surface. If I were to do this, I would look at possibly using a Peltier module to cool a small chamber of water and pass air through a coil immersed in the water. Rainout is still likely once the cooler air hits the warmer room air.

The coil would change the sound characteristics of the air flow conduit. That would likely cause the FOT algorithm to mis-score apena events.

[Mosquitobait]

There is a minimum temp for operation, but try adding some ice cubes to your water. Large cubes (frozen in a muffin cup) last for many hours. Rain out likely. Shouldn't be any worse for your lungs than living in WI or MN.

[Mark Douglas]

First of all what temp do you want? What is your ambient temp and Rh? The times I have attempted to wear a FFM I can relate to a desire for cooler air.

[Sleepster]

The most effective way to handle this issue is to air condition the air in your bedroom. Air conditioning not only cools the air but also dehumidifies it. Then, if the cool air in your bedroom is too dry you can use your CPAP humidifier to add moisture. I know it sounds like a waste to both remove humidity and then add it, but it's really the healthiest approach.

On the other hand, if you live in a dry climate and need to only cool the air, then using a "swamp cooler" in your bedroom may be an option.

[Adoniscmj]

First of all what temp do you want? What is your ambient temp and Rh? The times I have attempted to wear a FFM I can relate to a desire for cooler air.

Well room temp is to warm and the heat produced from the blower raises the temp so it is to hot for me, so I have been coiling the hose up in a small ice chest and filling it with ice. I guess I like cold air. I need to run the hose into a small fridge so that most of the hose is in it so there is less of a chance of rain out.

[OMyMyOHellYes]

You are not alone, Adoniscmj. There are several folks, me included, that have brought up the fact that we like breathing cold air.

One ting that I don't like about the Respironics machines is that they tend to overdo it WRT the whole heated humidification thing. I have found that once it get going, say if I have to go pee and then come back to bed, the air is just a labor to breathe in if the unit is set to anything more than a 2. And often, whne I run the humidifier, it is a 1 or a 0.

Nothing like stepping outside on a cold winter morning and getting a blast of cold air up the schnoz. Oh, and cold air is actually thicker so you could get more O2 in with each breath!

OMMOHY

[Mark Douglas]

I still need a good way to cool my air from the CPAP. I think that running a length of hose through a small fridge is the best idea I have heard yet. Any other thoughts?

Way # 1.
Check with resmed for maximum hose length.
Use a small fridge that also has freezer space so the ice will be your heat sink if the fridge can't keep up. (A TE fridge might work but it must have sufficient instantaneous cooling capacity as there is no ice option and they burn a lot of juice for what little cooling the do so a Rankine cycle fridge would be my choice and you can keep a cold bevy in it .)
Stand your coil on edge and add a tee fitting and use as a 90 at the bottom of the coil just before the hose rises and exits the fridge from the top. In bottom of the tee use a cap to make a short drip leg with a very small hole to drain any condensate and aim into a container. Exit the fridge thru the top so any condensate stays in the box.
As soon as the hose exits the fridge and assuming the ambient is higher then the tube temp the air will move away from the dew point so rain-out shouldn't be an issue. You might need to insulate the hose to prevent condensation on the outside of the hose.

Way# 2 is much sexier and hi tech and costs a lot more but you do have the perfect machine for it.

[PaulaO2]

Put ice in the humidifier. Fill tub most of the way, put in freezer. Take it out, top with water, and put in machine. Sleep.

However, the sensation of breathing in the warm air is, basically, in your head. Especially since you are using nasal pillows. With the pillows off, the air "feels" cooler, because there's not the sensation of being closed in, locked to the machine, getting your air somewhere else, blah blah. Sometimes I think nasal pillows are worse for heat sensation. The temp increase is so minimal, you would need a temp probe on a Fluke meter to detect it.

But that in no way means for you and everyone else that the miserable existence isn't real. It is very real to you. What it does mean there are ways to get around it. Instead of investing tons of money into a refrigeration system, work on the ice set up. A bucket of ice the hose runs through, ice in the tub, whatever. Then just convince yourself that the air is cooler because of it. Sit up with it during the day and feel it, test out different (cheaper) methods.