CPAP ripoff

[creamcrackered]

Being newly diagnosed with apnea i send up prayers of thanks for the NHS. I have a mains operated machine and was looking to purchase a battery powered unit for a holiday, research led me to the Breathex Journey. Perfect, complete unit self contained only to find that its been discontinued. Almost to me, having priced up equvilent separate battery systems, to make more money from those in desperate need of nothing more than a good nights sleep. The market for these products seems to be dominated in this part of the world by a couple of suppliers. Products from the U.S are very difficult if not impossible to obtain, all on back of a medical industry which does very nicely from health insurance thank you. Products which do make it this far seem to have the usual cross Atlantic price adjustment where the $ is replaced by the £, the Brits will pay. Hence the title.
Meanwhile if anyone has a breathex for sale or even knows where it might be possible to purchase a 2nd hand one please please do let me know.

[Guest]

You could try as I did, making your own. Just under £25.

[martin]

Not sure how this works but I have one of those battery things that you charge up and use for picnics and jump starting cars, can you just plug the cpap into that. I have lost the instructions as to how long the power lasts in it but the requirements of a cpap cant be any more thn an 8 hour party and a ghetto blaster.
Side gripe, hotels that no longer have sockets in their rooms !!! Have had to run a cable the length of the rooms a few times.

[Fredxx]

You would be surprised! From experience, a CPAP designed to run on 12v (sleepcube) running at 16cm will use about 100Wh; the CPAP super battery pack lasts me about 2 1/2 nights when I use it.

A big heavy Caravan battery I had before wouldn't even manage a night with an inverter to the old Fischer and Paykel machine.

Both of those are without the humidifier working BTW!

there is a lot to be aware of with batteries. Halfords do a power pack for £120 that has a 40Ah capacity (480Wh) but it does weigh 18 Kg - not something you want to lug about much

[Guest]

I use a 12ah SLA some spares I have from the electric bikes. According to the Resmed website the S8 needs 6AH per night but 10AH to be safe. I used 2 for a weekend camping last summer, I might of got away with the one for 2 nights but have fears of damaging the cells letting them go too far flat. Why use an inverter if the machine will run 12V, it just adds to loses.

And if you do power a Resmed machine be very careful, the power lead is wired odd. BE WARNED!

[Fredxx]

Simple answer about the inverter - the F&P doesn't do low voltage DC - I believe the internals work on 16V, but have to plug it into the mains. That is one major reason I got the Sleepcube - runs native 12V

[Guest]

Ahh I thought they all run 12V