Life Span?
Does anyone know the average life span of a CPAP machine? Mine is almost 5 years old. Hate for it to fail and I have to find a new one during a "Holiday" weekend or something. And as pessimistic as that sounds, as a mechanic I live by two simple codes. 1 - anything mechanical WILL fail. 2 - anything electrical WILL fail. And it usually / always happens at the most inconvenient time. And I am well aware that something new out of the box can fail in 5 days, as well as something that has a life of 5 years can last 50 years. Just trying to get and average and an idea.
RE: Life Span???
The machines are designed to last about 20,000 hours. Your machine should have somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 hours on it. At 5 years, it's probably getting time to look at a new one.
RE: Life Span???
If you're on insurance, most have it set up for a replacement every 5 years or so for the reason that Bama describes.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
RE: Life Span???
Yup. 5-6 yrs. Even then, depending on the insurance, they may not replace it simply due to age. But DMEs are usually good at smoothing those lines. Noise levels, fading display screens, etc. Not that I'm saying that's what my DME did when I my S7 reached 5.5 yrs old. Nope.
(Also, I removed the extra question marks from the subject line. Sometimes the forum software hiccups with repeating punctuation in subject lines. And whatever the forum software wants, it gets!)
PaulaO
Take a deep breath and count to zen.
RE: Life Span?
I'd echo what the others have said. My main concern would be it's most likely way beyond warranty and if you have insurance you are likely beyond the guideline to replace your machine. Better off messing with insurance replacing it and having a backup than waiting in my mind.
RE: Life Span?
It's not a bad idea to keep an eye on Craigslist or similar sources for a cheap used CPAP machine while your current one is still working. I've found good deals and made great upgrades, but I had to watch CL for 3 months or so before I found good deals.
Get the free OSCAR CPAP software
here.
Useful links.
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here for information on the main alternative to CPAP.
If it's midnight and a DME tells you it's dark outside, go and check it yourself.
RE: Life Span?
Mine came with a 5 year warranty and my insurance will not cover me for another in under 5 years, so I reckon 5 years is the life give or take. I know at 5 years I will just buy another machine (and claim my insurance rebate) and the current one will become the backup/travel machine. Then at 10 years, rinse and repeat.
