Slept With Empty Water Thingee

[harmon k]

Stupidly forgot to fill it. Used machine all night. No benefit?

[Sleeprider]

We've all done this. You got CPAP therapy without added humidity. No problem.

[harmon k]

Thanks, Sleeprider

[pholynyk]

And if you were perfectly comfortable all night, you've just simplified your nightly ritual...

[eseedhouse]

The humidifier is a comfort feature, not a treatment feature. If you feel better with it on it's fine to use it, or if you don't notice any difference it's equally fine to turn it off. Either way you are still getting Positive Airway Pressure which is the treatment.

Mine ran out of water last night, but I didn't notice any difference. I suppose if the heating element gets too hot that could damage something but if there's no discolouration I doubt if it's a problem.

[Mosquitobait]

Shouldn't be a problem, but you MIGHT have a burn sortof smell when you start up tonight. I found that annoying while taking a nap, so rinse the bin and put about an inch of water in. Dump that water out and refill before going to sleep tonight.

[Beej]

Its winter here in Ohio and the condo doesn't have a humidifier. When my CPAP humidifier tank went dry in the middle of the moght, I woke up with such a dry mouth and throat I had to go drink a couple glasses of water.

YMMV.

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Nah - As stated by others, it's a comfort feature. I have never found that it added much in the way of comfort. I tend to still fill mine fi I'm home, but I don't turn on the heater. Probably a waste of time and water for me. For passive humidification to be effective, I think you would have to have MUCH more surface area. Heck, I don't even HAVE a humidifier for the trusty S8 Autoset II that I use on the road. And I spent the last two months in Phoenix which is notoriously dry. Heck, the state it's in is named Arid-Zone, uh. No problema whatsoever.

I don't know, but some folks mentioned that the unit might "burn" the bottom of the chamber. I don't think the heating plate gets much over 100 deg F in any case, so I don't think that would be a problem either. I would actually be skeptical of claims of scorching. Keep in mind that the "heated" part of heated humidification is only intended to keep the water temp marginally above room temp so the "hot plate" won't get much warmer than even that. The "heated" feature is not to heat up the air temp so much as it is to increase the relative vapor pressure of the water in the tank so more of the dihydrogen monoxide molecules will jump up into the air.

OMMOHY.

[kwhenrykerr]

I no longer use water, just run it dry with the heater off. Much less work and no discomfort after moving to a FFM.