Backpacking with CPAP
Was just diagnosed last week. Had my first full night's sleep with the CPAP. Fell much more well rested this morning than I have in a LONG time. I do some backpacking trips throughout the year. My son is in his final year with Cub Scouts and we will be crossing over to Boy Scouts in Feb. The frequency of the backpacking trips will probably tick up just a bit. I usually go on 2-3 overnight or two night trips per year with some buddies. We also hike to the top of Mt. LeConte at stay at the lodge once a year. I don't really consider that a backpacking trip because they have real beds and feed you but they still don't have power. So.....I've done some research and have found two products that might seem to work but haven't found any good reviews or info on here about them. One is a ResMed Power Station II Battery Kit for S9 Machines. It looks like it's ResMed branded but can't find it on their website but can on cpap dot com -. The other one is made by Apria Health I believe - I can't find an estimated run time for the ResMed branded one. That would be nice to find for decision making. They both weigh about 2 lbs, that with the S9 machine w/o the humidifier would add about 4 lbs to my backpack. That's a LOT of weight for one thing in a backpack but willing to pack it if I can get a couple of good night's sleep out of the cpap machine, feel more rested and not annoy my backpacking buddies by snoring. :-) Any advice would be greatly appreciated by this cpap newbie!!
Jamie.
RE: Backpacking with CPAP
You might ask your sleep doc about Provent. Provent is a plastic tab thing with glue that you stick on your nostrils at night. It has a valve inside that restricts your exhalation to maintain higher pressure. Some folks love them, some hate them. My doc said that they sometimes work well with mild or moderate sleep apnea, less often with severe. One huge advantage is that they weigh next to nothing. A big disadvantage is that there is no data so you can't tell how well they work.
My doc sold me a trial pack of ten for $25, so it is inexpensive to give it a try. Lots of people use them when traveling.
RE: Backpacking with CPAP
RE: Backpacking with CPAP
(05-26-2012, 09:05 AM)jbarnes Wrote: Any advice would be greatly appreciated by this cpap newbie!!
You could get by with a lower-weight battery if you bring along a solar charger. That way you need get only one night of use out of the battery, presuming of course you have the sunshine during the day to charge it.
Another thing to consider is the use of the humidifier. If you don't turn on the heated humidifier on your CPAP, you save a
lot of battery charge.
Both sealed lead-acid batteries and lithium ion batteries are commonly used. I think lithium ion would suit you better as they are lighter in weight. The trade off is they don't store as much charge.
Sleepster
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: Backpacking with CPAP
OK, I'm back from my backpacking/hiking in the Smoky Mountains and a week of cub scout Webelos week long camp. What I ordered was a N-C20000 CPAP battery from thebatterygeeks dot com. They have great customer service and no I'm not getting paid to say that. :-) The battery was a bit expensive. The battery and ResMed converter was around $530. However, it was reimbursable from my flex spending account. I still paid for it but get to stick it to uncle Sam for about a nickle. :-) I spent two nights in the SMNP one at Icewater Springs shelter on the Appalachian Trail and the 2nd night at the lodge on top of Mt. LeConte. The shelter is around 5500 ft and the lodge is around 6000 ft above sea level. The battery worked great. Don't know if altitude affects it or not. Just took the ResMed S9 CPAP without the humidifier. Had two full nights of sleep with no issues. I took the humidifier to Webelos camp with me along with a marine deep cycle battery we have for our pop up camper as a backup. The fully charged N-C20000 battery gave me almost three full nights of power. I wanted to test out how much juice it had. My levels are a 10 so not that high. However, I suspect the humidity levels in eastern Missouri when we were having camp didn't make the humidifier work that hard if at all. I know I didn't have to put hardly any water in the reservoir the next day. I'm guessing with humidity levels in the 60% range during the day that it didn't kick on much, if any. No way to tell I supose. The weight of the battery, power converter and CPAP machine is around 7 lbs or so. That's about the weight of a tent or almost a gallon of water. That's a huge amount of weight for me to be adding to a backpack but maybe I can cut down some gear to make it manageable when I go with a tent instead of staying in shelters. So I found a workable, but pricey solution. Well worth the price and weight for getting a good night's sleep in the outdoors.
Jamie.
