To humidify or not to humidify that ........

[SleepinginAdelaide]

Do any on the list here not use a humidifier and if so, do you use a particular mask style because of the lack of a humidifier. Here it is winter and the nights are ranging between 70 and 97% humidity. I don't seem to react too well to warm moist air in my mask.
Supplementary question: Any thoughts on having the water chamber filled but just allowing airflow without any heat?
Thanks ahead of time and I look forward to your discussion.

[trish6hundred]

Hi SleepinginAdelaide,
If you find that you don't need humidification and you just want to run it in passover mode, if memory serves me right, you just turn off your humidifier but fill up the water chamber.
Hang in there for more answers to your question.

[PaulaO2]

Yep, what Trish said. It is called either "passover" or "passive" humidification when the tub has water but the heat is off.

There's a lot of members who don't use their humidifiers. SuperSleeper never has. I use mine in the winter due to the dry heat we use but don't in the summer because of the humidity of the US South. If I'm being bothered by allergies, I will use the humidifier in "passover" mode.

The humidifier is strictly a comfort issue. Do whatever you need to do to be comfortable. The idea is to use the machine.

[zonk]

SuperSleeper uses nasal pillows and don,t use humidifier, it works for him, definitely don,t works for me .. everyone is different
You don,t wan to heat the humidifier without water in the tank, you can use use humidifier as Trish talk about in "passover mode" .. no heat but water in the tank so you get some moisture or no water in the tank providing humidifier turned off

Edit: For me humidifier is more than just for comfort, its a necessity for CPAP compliance

[Tez62]

SleepinginAdelaide, I live in Melbourne so our humidity is similar, I have always used it mainly because it came with it and have never tried it without a humidifer.
As our outdoor humidity is different to indoor humidity, I use mine like a air conditioner / heater, I have it higher in winter and lower in summer. At the moment because it is winter I have it set at 24c and in summer have it around 19c. It works for me and no one has ever been able to tell me what the correct temperature should be so I just go by comfort.

[SuperSleeper]

I used my humidifier one night - the first night of CPAP at home back in 2004... the DME told me then that it was optional. So, I opted out on the second night and thereafter with no major problems.

I must admit that the past couple of weeks, I've switched temporarily to a nasal mask from my nasal pillows system, but this is simply because I'm trying to get rid of my larger nose-holes (see The "Henry Waxman" look - an issue with nasal pillows?)