Nasal Mask vs Nasal Pillow

[taswulf]

I started CPAP therapy in July 2009 using the F & P HC405 nasal mask.
Found it extremely comfortable and user friendly.
As the heat & humidity of an Australian summer increased I decided to switch to the F & P Opus nasal pillow mask.

This works fine and has solved the problem of getting hot & sweaty around my face during the night.

What I'd like to know is, the HC405 has an air vent with baffle to diffuse the expelled air.
The Opus pillow doesn't and has a continuous stream of air blowing out of the front of them mask.

I actually tried one of my diffusers from the 405 over the vent on the Opus but it made it extremely difficult to use.

Anyone know the reason why the pillow mask doesn't use a diffused outlet and the nasal mask does.

BTW, It's not a problem, I'm just intrigued by the different design feature.



Paul

[threewheelweave]

Check Capacity Balance?

Hi taswulf

Its an interesting one that; it may have to do with one mask having less retained capacity within the mask area (less space) so any exhaust air has less pressure to release at the required rate to balance the mask input.

If they put the exhaust through a diffused outlet then the mask does not release sufficient air and it becomes difficult / impossible to use - a bit like your experience.

I had a bad cold a few weeks back and being a tinker (engineer) thought I could biase my liberty hybrid mask to work with closed nasal pillows - cable tired a spare set, trimed, reversed into the mask holes looked great tried to use but the pressure blew back through my nose. Down the garden at 1am cutting a armoured cable clip to make a nose clip - worked but the pressure on my nose was so hard that my nose went white and dead!

So after trying it all out and putting up with the pressure of the clip and trying to mouth breath for 40 minutes (no sleep possible just dosing in pain) I gave up - stripped the mask replaced all the bits back to the way ResMed intended and stopped scaring the neighbours with me fabricating bits of black plastic in the garden in the wee small hours of the night!

Perhaps the lesson I learnt the hard way is despite my relative success at a Heath-Robinson alteration of my CPAP gear - it probably explains why there are no pure mouth breathing masks on the market - but being the crazy british engineer I had to try!

Anyway it seems that there is more to mask building than one may at first think - only benefit was that my body must have decided that feeling my nose had been punched repeatedly by a champion boxer that it could not put up with fighting its crazy owner and a stinking cold! Result the body got rid of the cold within six hours of a "long night of crazy experimenting"

Have fun but hopefully this will enlighten you without the need to inflict some sort of crazy hair-brained delight that I foisted on myself!

Any other thoughts - I'd be interested in Tiger Fans comments

Take Care & Cheers

TWW
Cambs UK

[taswulf]

Laarrf...I nearly wet meself

[Tigers Fan]

It must be to do with age

Hi Taswulf and TWW

Clearly, TWW, you are a fully qualified British Engineer (What the hell does the designer know? The Instruction Book is just the Makers covering their backs!) and I greet you as a fellow being. Respect, Man!

Your ingenuity is truly mind-bogglingly British - and thus, I contend, misses the point as if it didn't exist!

Your logic seems to run like this: the mask works fine under normal conditions; the mask ceases to work when I have a cold; the problem is that I have a cold. OK - let's fix the mask.

Now, a few years ago that would have seemed so blindingly obvious that I'd have had to agree with you. Today, I think, 'Numpty!' What you obviously need is a good woman to care for you till your cold is better. QED.

Or am I missing the point? Are you telling us that a resoundingly good thump on the nose is good for curing mancolds? I hope that is not wihin the remit of a good woman!

An aside: isn't English English great??! 'I would have had to ....' I bet that tense doesn't exist in American English.

TF

[Tricia]

I bow down in front of you both, TWW and TF, for informing me that all I have to do the next time my hubby has the cold - oops, I mean manflu! - is thump him hard on the nose.
I'm sure that he will be grateful to you both too!