Sleep Apnea Machine - How many years of use?

[macheta]

How many years have you gotten out of one machine?  Do you need to replace it every year, five, ten, twenty?  Assume that you do not have insurance and need to pay for one without insurance.  Can you get one overhauled if it has a lot of usage?  Thanks, Macheta.

[Mosquitobait]

Hi Macheta. Xpap machines are designed to last through 15,000 hours of use (about 5 years). According to a repair guy I talked to, the Resmed and Respironics have very little fallout up to and through 5 years, but the number of fails increases dramatically at 7 years and later. Other machines had higher rates of fail by 5 years. Many folks have machines that last well past 5 years. If you are reaching the end of life of your machine, it's a good time to either start looking for a good deal on a used machine OR consider Amazon or open box or a machine through a used machine retailer.

If it has a lot of usage, it may not be worth getting it overhauled. BUT, that said, if you have a Respironics or Resmed and are at or about 15,000 hours, consider one of the suppliers who repair machines (see link above). Perhaps all you need are new seals. That's all my brother needed for his bipap which has 17,000 hours (he had it repaired for a backup machine).

edited to add: I see that you have an S9 autoset. Right now, these are being sold out, so you might get a better deal on a new or low hour one than getting it repaired if it involves the computer board. Most DMEs do not have onsite repair.

[problemchild]

I was assigned a machine six years ago and I am just getting a new one.

My old one was a bit klunky by today's standards: no wifi or memory chip, so I spent six years not getting any feedback on what was happening at night on my CPAP.

Now, with a more modern machine, I'm finding out that (perhaps) I haven't been doing well on therapy. Still working that out.

To answer your question, though, if you rely on doctors and insurance to provide your equipment (or to prescribe and cover some of the cost), you're kinda at the mercy of their standards. If you're buying on your own? That's up to you, I guess.

[PollCat]

This sounds like a great idea for on of my formal surveys, but (un)fortunately our survey software has not been re-established on the new server.  On the other hand, one of us could set this up as a 'poll', if you thought anybody was really interested in the results.