Heated tube

[hevy6]

Hi, I'm new here, not new to sleep apnea, and just got the Airsense 11 a few days ago. My question is if I can use the heated tube without having to use, add water to, the humidifier? The DME provider said I had to fill up the chamber if I used any of the heating features or I will destroy the machine.

[SarcasticDave94]

These should be separate features. Be sure to have humidifier off if not filling it. The heated hose should only run the heater within the hose. Unless ResMed really changed things up on the 11 series.

Most DME training is scare tactics, because they lack the knowledge or time to address things. So they'll scare you into not doing anything involving edits to the machine, to bring you down to their level of incompetency.

[Zombie on my Lawn]

I really appreciate this question.

I am wondering if this is true for all machines (or most), that you should be able to use the heating feature of a heated tube without using a humidifier (or keeping it off).
Anyone have any experiences or insights to share?

Thanks.

[Big Guy]

I always use the humidifier, but I never turn the heated hose on.

[Rickyricardo]

I've used CPAP and now APAP for 15 years, in cold dry winters and in humid summers and very humid tropical locations and while I have heated hoses for my S9 and S10 I have never used them, despite a wide range of temperature and humidity.

I don't understand what environmental conditions have to exist to need it.

As for using the hose and not the water tank I think the point of the hose is only for when using a humidifier to compensate for ambient conditions . But tanks run dry overnight and I doubt machines world wide just die because there's no water in the tank. You'd have warmer air.

[G. Szabo]

In my experience, you can use the chamber without water as long as you keep the humidifier setting low (4). The chamber will not become too warm (you can check it after half an hour) and will not be damaged. You can set the hose temperature anywhere. The outcome is arid air. I have been using this feature for years on a decommissioned AirSenbnse 10 to dry my gear.

[WallyPepper]

I've used CPAP and now APAP for 15 years, in cold dry winters and in humid summers and very humid tropical locations and while I have heated hoses for my S9 and S10 I have never used them, despite a wide range of temperature and humidity.

I don't understand what environmental conditions have to exist to need it.

As for using the hose and not the water tank I think the point of the hose is only for when using a humidifier to compensate for ambient conditions . But tanks run dry overnight and I doubt machines world wide just die because there's no water in the tank. You'd have warmer air.

This is because we generally sleep inside a climate controlled home, so it really doesn't matter if it cold/dry, hot/humid outside because we don't sleep there. In my home we have the heat set to a single temp all year long and that is 64°F (18° C). In the late spring, summer and early fall the heat just never comes on. For the two weeks of winter we have here where I live the house gets cold, and therefore the CPAP blows cold air in my nose, that is the only time I use the heated hose.

I never use the humidifier, and ResMed is semi stupid about that setting since it will ignore the humidifier if it's not there but you can only turn off the setting if the humidifier is in place (or you cheat and hold up a magnet to the sensor on that side of the CPAP).

Also the heated hose still works fine and can be set even with the Humidifer OFF. I would like to say that ResMed engineers would be smart enough not to allow that condition if it could cause damage to their machine.