Hose Cover and heated hose

[mdlinkous]

I am wanting to use a hose cover to cover my Climateline heated hose but most manufacturers of the covers say not to cover a heated hose.

I am wanting to cover it (not for the insulted rainout effect), but for the noise of it rubbing against the bedpost. They way I route my hose it makes a noise at night that could be quieted by a hose cover.

Is this OK or should I not do it? ResMed has unanswered my question.

[Mosquitobait]

I don't even have a CPAP yet, but I read at a couple of sites that they did not recommend covering a heated hose because it negates its operation. You might do better to put padding on the bedpost to protect the bedpost and reduce the noise. If you sew, even handsew, you could make a custom pad that velcro's on so that you can adjust it to stay.

[trish6hundred]

Hi mdlinkous,
I use a hose cover on my heated hose all the time and don't have any trouble with it, I have been doing it for at least a couple years, of course, YMMV.

[worn_out_in_lebanon]

I may be oversimplifying this, but here goes anyway...

Let's say the air in your room is 60 degrees, and the heated hose is at 70 degrees.
Ten degree difference, air temp vs hose temp.
Okay - now put on a cover. Let's say the cover is 100% effective. Now the air around the hose is 70 degrees which matches the hose temp.
Isn't this what would happen if the room temp was 70 degrees to begin with?
(and the cover isn't even going to be 100% effective anyway, so the outside air temp will be even less actually)

Regardless of the effect of the cover, you could probably cover/cushion just a portion of the hose to avoid the rubbing. This would likely have next to no effect on temps, if you covered a one foot section of a six foot hose.

[GrammaBear]

i have a heated hose and I've used a cover on it since day #1. My reason is that I don't like the feel of the plastic on my arms, I also have a cover on the short hose plus a cover on the cheek straps on my nasal pillow mask all for the same reason - I don't like the feel of plastic.

[Mr. Van Winkle]

If you were told don't jump would you?
I guess if it were me I'd cover the bed post...... too many rebels out there if you know what I mean.
If the manufacture said it was ok to cover then I would.
Good Luck on making the right decision

[Funkwit]

I have never used a heated hose and am a complete novice regarding CPAP, so these only my thoughts concerning operation.

A heated hose is to used to prevent excessive condensation of water vapour within the air supply hose. By heating the hose (and in turn the air) you reduce the amount of condensation forming on the walls of the hose. By covering it you will be insulating it slightly which should only assist the heating element.

The only possible issue I could see is that it is a risk to cover it in the same way that it is a safety risk to cover an electric fire. However the heat output of a heated hose will be so tiny that I can't see this being an issue either.

Hope this is of use.

[OpalRose]

I also use a cover on my heated hose with no problems and no condensation either.

[surferdude2]

Many people sleep on top of electric blankets, in spite of the manufacturer's warning that it's forbidden and dangerous. Occasionally one of them will die for their indiscretion. That's how it was found that a warning was necessary so that those who choose to live dangerously can do so with full knowledge of the risk.

If you insulate an electric heater well enough, it will be in danger of overheating beyond its rating, perhaps to the extent of catching fire or melting its electrical insulation. Either occurrence isn't safe for the user. Of course it would depend upon the wattage of the heater and several other factors but I would prefer to err on the side of safety, especially when I'll be asleep and in a very vulnerable condition. Insulate the bed post and leave the heated hose alone. Assume the worse case and think how "unpleasant" it would be to breath smoke while sleeping.

[TyroneShoes]

Please.

Apples and oranges.

The amount of energy from a heating pad or electric blanket is like a gazillion times what a heated hose consumes, and that is a gazillion times less what is going on in a water heater. And the risk with sleeping on an electric blanket is the eventual wear, and the possibility of that leading to a short circuit, where the blanket then starts a fire or burns your skin. But the fix is simple: don't do that.

The heated hose is to keep the air from dropping in temp from the blower output to the mask. If the ambient air is 20 degrees cooler outside a non-heated hose, the temp can drop a degree or two in that distance, but not if the hose is heated very gently. But there is no way the wire in the hose, encapsulated in plastic, could ever short out and cause a problem, and at such a lower current draw in the first place, it would not be an issue even if there were a short. The circuit might open up and stop working, but it's not going to short and cause problems.

There is also this new-fangled invention called a "fuse" that would prevent this extremely-rare possibility, and very strict UL compliance standards.

The heated hose circuit is essentially two resistors in series; a fixed limiting resistor to prevent the fused circuit from ever drawing very much current at all, and the wire in the hose, which turns the electrical energy into heat by virtue of its (fairly low) resistance. A low voltage to begin with, high resistance ahead of the hose limiting the current draw, and not much energy transfer at all, because it doesn't take much heat to keep the air temp in the hose from dropping.

There is a risk in everything, including walking across the room to get to your xPAP with its clever heated hose. Odds are there is still much more risk of injury in that exceptionally low-risk walk than there is in putting a cozy on a heated hose. About the worst that could happen is that your cozy makes the temp of the humidified air coming into the mask 81 degrees instead of 80 degrees.

I think I can live with taking my chances.