Is humidifier necessary for me?

[oliverpool]

I have a resmed autosense 10.  It came with the humidifier tub.  For the past month, whichever level I fill the tub, lowest, in between or hugest level,  the water level the next day seems to be the same.  It does not seem move at all.  I do see the humidifier cooling or heating signal and the metal plate does seem warm to touch.  But if the water level does not “seem” to be dropping, does that mean that I can make do without the humidifier tub? 

Running it at level 4.  But does not seem to make a Different at 3 or 5.  Sleeping mainly in a aircon environment at 24 degrees.  Throat seems fine mostly but
Mouth could be dry sometimes which I attribute more to mouth breathing.

[DeepBreathing]

The humidifier is really only for your personal comfort. You live in a very humid environment so maybe it's not surprising the machine isn't using much water, though I'd expect the airconditioning to knock the room humidity down quite a lot. There's no reason not to experiment with various settings (including Off) and see what is the most comfortable for you.

[mesenteria]

At a given temperature, air has a defined maximum capacity to absorb moisture.  If your room air is already at, or close to, its capacity, then the water in the reservoir is not going to evaporate.  Water evaporates based on 'vapour pressure'.  The vapour pressure of the water in your reservoir is close to what the air running over its surface resists because it's already close to capacity.

The reservoir tray and the climateline hose have heating elements to help evaporation and to impede condensation respectively.  They help when the room air is cool and somewhat dryer than it could be. If you are in southern Asia, the chances are excellent that the system is effectively redundant due to persistent humidity and temperatures higher than they would normally be in much of the Americas north of the 45th parallel, as an example of comparison.

You say that you sleep in an air-conditioned room near 24 deg. If the cooling is done by a mechanical system with compressed and condensed refrigerant, that should dry out the air. So, it might be that you need to raise the temperature setting, or that your unit is defective.

[SarcasticDave94]

You could just switch it to Off. It's not a requirement to therapy or so some say. Your personal comfort is your guide on this.

[oliverpool]

Thanks all for the advice. I initially wasn't sure that the humidifier option could be switched off. I know now that it can go below 1 to off. Will try it off for a few days to see if I wake up with dry throat.

Is it possible to know from the data if I am breathing through my mouth? Clear Airway error codes?

[DeepBreathing]

Two easy ways to tells if you're losing air through the mouth:

1. It can sound like a loud whistling or rushing noise which your partner (if you have one) is likely to notice

2. The leak rate graph shows a distinct flat-topped trace, especially if the mouth leak gets excessive.

[friedspam]

I'm somewhere around 14 years into CPAP therapy, use my ResMed 9 every night.  My first machine was a ResMed 3 Auto something like that anyway it had a water tank, I used it for several months.  I thought carrying the correct type of water and just messing with the whole water deal was a bother, like you half the time it didn't seam to use any water anyway.  I live in the middle of the US, humid in the summer and dry in the winter.  I sleep in a climate controlled home so in the summertime the airconditioned air is relatively dry.  Basically I decided to quit using the humidifier, took me about a week to get used to the slight difference.  When that machine spit out the bit I bought a ResMed 9 without a water tank.

That's thirteen or so years without the humidifier, hasn't seemed to be any big deal once I got off the nipple. 

Let's put it this way, try it without the humidifier for a week, if you are severely traumatized, you can start it's use back up, but if like me it's not a big deal, you might decide to eliminate that from the picture.  Some folks will say that's crazy talk and site data and proof that your CPAP circulates a lot more air through the mask than you would normally receive if you were just breathing like you did when you were a young lad, all that might be true, but I can tell you I'm glad I don't have to mess with that anymore.

Don't confuse the dry mouth with the lack of a humidifier, the dry mouth is more likely caused with your mouth venting air.  I use a nasal pillow setup, the ResMed AirFit P10, and as long as I do my part while sleeping I don't have a dry mouth problem.

YMMV

Mike