My F30i full face has finally arrived. Have you owned a F30i before?

[S. Manz]

I can't wait to test drive my new F30i by Resmed, right after posting this.
I have tried the entire range of Respironics masks and the most comfortable in that selection has been their Dreamwear full face, however I have a couple of not so serious issues with it, one being that the vent holes on front of the mask are positioned too high so the vented flow of air hits my eyes, depending on my pillow position and I end up with very dry eyes in the morning .
The Resemed F30i is almost identical to Philips Dreamwear full face except that the F30i vent holes are positioned as low on front of the mask as possible, reducing the chances of vented air hitting the eyes. (The person who designed the F30i Must have been a astute observer ,  because it is pretty much a copy of the dreamwear except for this difference).

The other very subtle contrast is the type of silicone that is used in F301 for facial cushioning in that it has a more shiny finish to it than the Dreamwear's which makes for a better seal with skin and thus providing a better seal than the Dreamwear, without having to tighten it too much.

Wish me luck and let us know what your favorite mask is....I went with Dreamwear based on an earlier discussion with board members who recommended it.

Ps.
I was very disappointed with Respironics Amara View mask because even though it is super comfortable to wear, its vent holes direct the air out at my eyes, besides the fact that it has a mouth tube which I can't deal with having flow hitting my moth directly, why I can only use "frame type" masks that deliver the air to the mask, indirectly from both sides. ...so the Amara View has become another unused addition to my collection.

[SevereApnea]

Hi S. Manz

We all wish you luck with the F30i !

Agree with you, the DrW seems to be a different type of silicone and seems to have more of a texture to it. Harder to clean.
Agree with you, the DrW vents upwards, not kind on the eyes!

Interestingly, I almost always had "0 leaks" with the DrW even though I could feel some.

Also the DrW has that harder inside support: I think this is good design feature but could be a bit hard on the face and jaw areas. Resmed could copy this with a softer design to get the best of both worlds.

The DrW is harder to clean on the inside, I found anyway: more nooks and crannies to get into to clean and dry.

Yes, the F30i vents more downwards, and I do appreciate that about it, but keep in mind the air can still bounce of the bedding back into your face.

I will be most interested to hear how your night went. It may take a while to adjust, but hopefully this will become your go-to mask.

Hope you land up with a great night.

(PS, yes the Amara View blew air straight onto my top lip: frozen lip syndrome, so glad to hear it was not my imagination!  it also was a bit noisier.)

[Dawnstar]

The hybrid full face masks can occasionally blow air up, the solution to that is an eye mask, which will have the side benefit of blocking out light and promoting more restful sleep

[NelsonM]

I just switched from an F20 to an F30i two nights ago. So far so good! I really like the top hose. The smaller profile works better for my nose, too. It's definitely more fiddly getting adjusted in place and if it's not just right it does leak air annoyingly. In general it seems to let a lot more air out than the F20. The machine seems to be working fine so I don't really care but it's a strange difference. Maybe necessary because of the headgear piping?

My biggest concern now is finding a cheap source of replacement F30i pillows. They don't seem as common as the F20 (ie, not on Amazon) so all I can find are folks selling them near MSRP.

There's more discussion of this mask here: http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...-Face-Mask

[hegel]

Nice looking mask! I just changed my script with Kaiser to a P30i (?) nasal pillow mask which I'm loving. However, I love F30i mask covering the mouth. I have a goatee, tho, and I think this mask will leak when I turn on my side, like my last mask with a similar design.

[NelsonM]

FWIW I'm doing OK with the F30i and a full beard. The hair is trimmed short, about 1/2". All 3 masks I've tried seem OK with this much facial hair, the leakage I get is much more around the fit of my nose cartilage (F20) or the just-under-the-nose design of the F30i.

[hegel]

" ...or the just-under-the-nose design of the F30i."

It's that 'just under the nose' area that causes problems for me with all mask designs of this type. Otherwise, I really like them! I had to give up, or go part time, with the super comfortable N30i nasal cushion and return to the P30i nasal pillows because of this. The Amara View type masks are great but...leak under the nose.

[S. Manz]

So I finally woke up this morning, thinking that I had no mask on and had to physically touch my face to confirm that the mask was indeed still firmly on my face...That's how comfortable the first night with F30i proved to be, so a big thumbs up because I am probably one of the most difficult test subjects when it comes to various mask designs.
However it was not all smooth sailing as you can see in the chart attached.
To begin with, I ended up going to bed really late, after all the urge to sleep had already subsided. I stayed up after posting this thread, surfing the net and doing some research on subjects that were definately of no priority and could have waited....My first mistake.
Then I spent a while fiddling with the new mask to get it just comfortable enough so I could fall asleep and that meant that it wasn't secured well enough and ended up leaking....this ended up costing me because at about 7 am I took it off for an hour (the machine somehow turned itself on after I had shut it down and taken the mask off) and finally put the mask back on and had a great sleep from 8 am to around 11 am, when I had a REM sleep with some pretty cool dreams, wakening up  thinking the mask had come off...That's how comfortable it was.
So all in all a success and I think that the F30i is a keeper for sure.
I think locating the right sizes is still a challenge. I have a rather large head so I definitely needed a Large frame and I always thought that my nose was rather large but the cardboard pattern that came with the mask, measures my nose somewhere between the lowers range of the medium nose to the middle of the small range. So for my a medium or a small pillow would work (I ordered medium).
They also have two more sizes of pillows (Medium wide and large), which I think or for extraordinary noses.
The Large, Medium and Small frames all work with the four sizes of pillows, which is great.

[S. Manz]

True, an eye mask is a great idea to both block light and air in your eyes, however my idea of a great sleep is to use as few accessories as I possibly can...A mask bitself is already too much for me:-)

[S. Manz]

You are right about the "smaller" profile.
A carboard nose pattern came with the F30i and I was surprised to find that my nose (which I think is on the large side) mathes the smaller range of the medium pattern and right in the middle of the "small" range. 
I ordered a "Large" frame with a "Medium cushion" and you are also right about availability of pillows online, because right now F30i availability and variety of sizes are not easily found online.