Will I have to give up camping?

[The Great Escape]

As a new user of a cpap machine I am unsure how much it will effect my passion for camping.
When reasonable weather returns I would normally be throwing the camping gear onto the motorcycle and heading for a weekend with fellow enthusiasts. Last year they were pitching away from me because of the snoring - unless they snored or they were not bothered.
When riding the bike I was receiving forced air and felt great, unlike when in the car. Now that I know what was wrong and I am receiving treatment, I feel unsure about how to adapt.
Can I still camp or will I have to consider a caravan. Will it be the end of my weekend bike camping?
Has anyone got any advice?

[Joe McManus]

Hi and welcome!

Fellow member Puffin is a keen caravaneer (is that a word?) who knows all about powering your machine with a battery.

Main issue will be whether the sort of camping you do involves access to 240V to recharge the battery every now and than. Or perhaps you can manage to power it off the bike's battery? I'm sure Puffin will have some ideas on that.

[puffin]

Less of a caravaner more of a VeeDuber. As you are a biker I shall assume that you use a tent! Why give up something that you love doing, when all you need is a little extra air at night? Biggest problem is power supply, you don't say what machine you have, and I am no expert on different machines.

Let assume that it's safe to say its a 12v machine. Check out the makers website, I know the maker of my machine does a battery pack with a 12v connector cable with fag lighter car plug adaptor. The down side is a couple of hundred quid for what is basically a battery, charger, another bag and cables.

As £200 plus was a bit pricey for me, I just got the shielded cable with fag lighter car plug from the machine makers web site. I got a battery connector adaptor from a camping shop for a fraction of the price for the same product from the machine supplier.

Your biggest problem will be carrying the 12v battery, but I am sure that either you or your biker mates would be able to work this out. Battery chargers can be as big or as small as you want to carry. A good camping and caravaning shop will have small plug in trickle chargers that are just a bit bigger then a mobile charger. Handy if the camp site has a power point.

My machine is 12v at 3amp. Batteries are rated in amp hours. A leisure battery may be rated at 12v 85 amp hours. So 3amp x 8hours sleep = 24amp hours used, 2 nights 48 amp hours. But you should never let a battery fully run flat, as this can damage the cells. I would not run a cpap directly from the car/bike battery that runs the vehicle, as you could flatten the battery over night, not a good idea when you are in the middle of nowhere!

A Leisure battery is better then a car battery because of the way they discharge. Car is designed to give a big jolt to turn over an engine. Where as the leisure is used to give a constant discharge i.e. run camping lighting. Leisure will also take a greater discharge before repeatedly recharging without damage. Car batteries are more likely to distort the plates if discharged too low/flat.

Also not all machines are rated the same IE a machine rated at 10amps would work out as 80 amp hours for one nights sleep. = one nights charge per 85 amp hour battery. There are 110 amp hours batteries but these are getting silly in terms of portability.

I am pretty sure that you can adapt something to carry a battery, even if its a small single night battery. I think that your biggest hurdle will be your biker mates when they first see you with your mask on.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on, as others may want to do the same thing.

[ChrisP]

Not much to add to the previous post.

I think Puffin has just about covered all the angles.
In short no you don't have to give up camping.
I have had a CPAP for a couple of years now and we go camping a few times a year.
More since getting the machine as I don't get abuse for snoring from family, friends, people within a mile radius
Get out there and enjoy yourself!
Hope this is of some help.
ChrisP

[The Great Escape]

Deadening the noise

Thanks for the encouragement and advice! I will investigate the leisure batteries and depending on size, weight and cost, I will go for either a one night or two night battery - based on the cpap machine's consumption per night. I am lucky insomuchas I have two solo motorcycles and I use one with a tow bar on it for my camping trailer. Lugging a battery around in that will pose no problems.

My machine has a 12V dc input. Does this only need a suitable connection and two wires to the 12V battery?

I have no idea how noisy my new ResMed S8 will be when under canvas. I wonder what other campers will make of the noise? Perhaps they will think I am trying to continually blow up an airbed even though I don't use one!

I have heard that the noise can be deadened a little by wrapping the hose part. This could be a good idea if it works for the initial part of the hose leading out of the machine (taking care not to block the air intake or any other part of the machine!) as I would think it would cause movement problems if wrapped nearer to the mask.

Has anyone tried this? If it does work, what is best to use for the wrapping - bubble wrap perhaps?

[puffin]

As transport is not a problem I would go for at least a two day battery, this gives you a little more flexablity for not that much extra. I've talked about leisure batteries which is the ideal soloution, I do use a car battery only because we had it kicking around, it's worked so far.

This is the power cable system that I use, note that there are fuses in line so that you do not power spike your machine. http://www.cpap-europe.com/power-options-o-38.html the croc clip bit is the bit I picked up from the caravan camping shop for a couple of pounds.

However a quick look on the Resmed site http://www.resmed.com/en-uk/products...nu=products#Q6 chucked this up.
Quote

Can I go camping and use my CPAP system?

With the use of a suitable inverter or converter unit, your ResMed CPAP can operate from a battery supply (in a truck or recreational vehicle for example). The inverter should be capable of supplying voltage in the 100-300V range and should be of sufficient capacity. The ResMed S8 CPAP range can use either an inverter or converter, however all machines prior to the S8 range only work with inverters. All flow generators with a humidifier need a pure sine inverter with a power rating of 200 Watts or more. A flow generator without a humidifier needs a modified sine wave inverter with a power rating of 150 Watts or more. Choose an auxiliary marine or deep cycle battery (used in 4WD vehicles and boats), as these are better suited to frequent discharge. The ResMed sleepVantage team can assist in your choice of a suitable inverter or converter for your CPAP. They can be contacted on 0800 917 7071.

What are an inverter and a converter, what do they do and where can I get them?

An inverter is a device that turns a low voltage (usually 12 volt) DC into a mains level AC voltage - either 110 or 240 volts – so that domestic appliances can be run from a battery supply. The S8 CPAP range have a 12V or 24V power input via ResMed’s DC-12 converter.

As for sound deadening take a look here http://forums.cpap.co.uk/showthread.php?t=150 very quick delivery and cheap. Don't worry about the sound the machine makes, it will make a lot less noise then you snoreing.

PS You could wake the camp site up if you roll on the bubble wrap. Pop, Pop, Pop!

[puffin]

Yes many proper camp sites have electric hook ups for a few pounds a night and are often reserved for caravaner's. Most of my camping is far from a hook up on smaller sites away from noisy kids and rules, hence the battery route.

As a VeeDuber I can and do camp up on Farmers fields, Show Grounds, Pub Car Parks, Laybys, Motorway Services Stations and VeeDub shows where up to 6000 Camper vans may turn up for a festival weekend! It's the freedom I like, to be able to set up at a moments notice or go somewhere interesting without being attached to all mod cons. Of cause we don't camp anywhere that is illegal and always ask first, normally a small fee or a nice plain yes is involved.

[The Great Escape]

An electric hook up may sound ideal but most of the sites I tend to visit have been arranged by someone else in the bike club and some sites may have hook ups and some may not.

As I normally go at the drop of a hat, I do not have time to enquire or to book for a hook up. The other bikers may also think I am antisocial if I am at one end of the site and they are at the other - even though thats how they may have wanted it when my snoring was at its loudest!!!

It has to be the battery route for me. Roll on better weather and I will be out there! I may even try one of the wraps that Puffin has recommended.

[puffin]

I've just reread the Resmed quote on my post.

An inverter is a device that turns a low voltage (usually 12 volt) DC into a mains level AC voltage - either 110 or 240 volts – so that domestic appliances can be run from a battery supply. The S8 CPAP range have a 12V or 24V power input via ResMed’s DC-12 converter.

What they are saying is first get a 12v battery, run it through an inverter up to 110/240v so that the machines transformer sends it back to 12v. Mean while you are losing power in the swap! Reducing battery charge time or requiring a much larger battery.

All flow generators with a humidifier need a pure sine inverter with a power rating of 200 Watts or more. A flow generator without a humidifier needs a modified sine wave inverter with a power rating of 150 Watts or more.

Right, someone may put me right, but it looks like you need an inverter to run the humidifier which draws higher energy to heat the water. Whereas just to run the Cpap requires a lower spec power supply. This is where I can get away with a shielded cable which cleans up the current on my machine.

If you are camping for only a few days, you may be able to get away without a heated humidifier or may be use a cold pass over type.

[Joe McManus]

Aside from one or two obscure models only available in the States, all humidifier models I've ever seen need to be run off the mains.

So for camping, either ditch the humidifier or use a passive pass-over model that doesn't require electricity.

ResMed's upscaling to downscale sounds a bit silly IMO.

[Kevin Balchin]

Hi, I'm new to this, and to my Resmed S8 Escape CPAP. Am a camper so really pleased to find this site.

Problem is, have been through many websites as well as these posts, and am still a bit lost as to what I need to buy, as Resmed dont seem to supply anything for this. Dont want to upset NHS by blowing up the machine, and don't really follow the technical stuff.

Can anyone advise - what converter and battery do I need (don't mind weight)? Happy to go to Maplins or wherever but can someone tell me what to ask for?

All advice gratefully received

[chelseauk]

Whilst it will limit you a bit (I assume you are a tenter - rather than a caravaner) - have you considered joining the camping and caravan club - I think most of their main sites have full electric hook ups for tents - and they also have loads of small sites (like farms and pub gardens) - i did a quick search in the South East and found 91 sites with Electric hook up for tents.

Then all you need is something like this

http://www.towsure.com/product/3214-Mini_Mobile_Mains_Unit

The upside is the main CCC sites are really nice.

(I'm a member of the Caravan Club - and all the CCC and CC sites are lovely).

https://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk

[Kevin Balchin]

Camping

Thanks for this, yes I am a camper and although (by coincidence) I have just got the camping & caravan club magazine, didn't think to connect it with electric hookups. Will give that a go, including that mains unit. Thanks again

However, are still a few favourite sites that I go to that do not have hookup, so if anyone can advise re portables as well, that will be the best of both worlds.

[The Great Escape]

Nearly ready!

Thanks for all the feedback so far. Just thought you would like to know how things are going.

I went back to the hospital who have supplied the ResMed and they have now kitted me out with a humidifier and a 12/24V converter.

The humidifier is difficult to get used to as I keep getting either a water blockage in the tube which causes the air to pulse or I get a wet face. I have tried putting the tube up high but it hasn't solved the problem. I have had the setting up, then down but still seem to get woken up early in the morning. Anybody got any suggestions?

When I do start camping (hopefully this Easter) I will be using the ResMed without the humidifier and with the converter. When I got the official ResMed converter I was surprised that it has a black box (of electronics?) in line between the crockadile clips and the machine plug. As for the battery, I decided to get a new 12V 20Ah bike battery as my present one still works well but is now fairly old and should the need arise I could just swap over. Also the bike battery is fairly compact (180.170.75) and does not weigh a ton. The new battery is an AGM type which is supposed to be marginally better than a Gel type and is a sealed unit the same as a Gel type.

I will let you know how I got on after I eventually go camping as the forecast for some snow is putting me off at present even though the BMW Club is camping in the grounds of a pub in mid Wales.

[puffin]

Unfortunatley I had to buy my convertor as the clinic did not supply them. The little black box on the cable is a voltage regulator, it just even's out the power supply. You will haved to let us know how the smaller battery works. How heavy is it?