Does anyone here have a problem with their CPAP machine?

I returned 2 Phillips CPAP machines for the recall, a Dreamstation and a Dreamstation Go. I ended up buying a less expensive ResMed AirMini and use it as my everyday CPAP. I gave up on waiting for a year to get a replacement and trashed both Phillips CPAPs. Then finally I received a barebones replacement Dreamstation with no power cord and I sent it back. They have so many users I don't think it's an option to send it back for repair if there is a recall. I did have one instance prior to the recall where the CPAP stopped working and did send it back for repair. I used a loaner until I received it back in about a month if I remember correctly.

I'm more than a year into my second ResMed Airsense 10 machine - literally wore the previous one out - the maximum usage hours had been exceeded.

I've not had any issues with either, just normal maintenance items. If mine breaks, I can use my old machine as a backup.

Is it safe? Probably. It's been out there for a long time without issues.

Is it effective? I don't know - it appears to not help enough with apnea when laying on my back (AHIs are too high) but are much better when sleep on my side.

I'm trying to get a pressure bump since the sleep med people want me to sleep on my back, but that's been rejected for 4 weeks.

My AHI numbers are high if I sleep on my back also so I try to sleep on my sides as much as my achy shoulders and arms allow me. I've never been told by my sleep medicine team that I need to sleep on my back. They've always been focused on me trying to keep my AHI below 4 events which is normally what it is if I sleep most of the night on my sides.

ResMed is arguably the better of the two machines, quite apart from the fiasco over the deteriorating foam component in the Dreamstations by Phillips. Over at our forum dealing with apnea, another site, we make no bones about the ResMed having the better algorithm of the two machines. They're both durable, and are meant to be replaced at the five-year mark. I'm on my second AS-10 Elite, now AS-11, from ResMed. Great machine, 100% reliable, and reliably fixes my apnea. I don't leave home without it.

I haven't had a problem with mine but perhaps what my doctor keeps on mentioning to me is to make sure I replace the filters often, take a cloth and wipe where the tube goes in in the back and also where when you take out the humidifier where the mist(?) goes into the machine. Of course plus all the other cleaning steps in the beginning I would do it every day now I am down to every 3-5 days and the filter is never more than 30 days. Amazon is a cheap place for filters. I have had mine for nearly 9 years and I can usually sleep for 6-8 hours. I recently changed masks and can only sleep for 2-3 hours at a time so right now I am not even using it ( I am bad ), I've got to call my doctor. However, for me it is not the machine -- hope my experience does some good 🙂

Look it up on Youtube turn it up by 1.

I know how to adjust it, I do not want to go against my doctor's recommendation... yet.

He wants me to be patient with it.

Based on my experience, there is little need to be patient with the settings for CPAP. It's either right for you, or it isn't. You'll know it over three blissful nights if it's right, or three longer ones if it ain't.

Most prescriptions, for some unfathomable reason in the 21st century, start with the expiration pressure at 4 or 5. That's too low for about 75% of all patients. Or, their EPR (Expiration Pressure Relief) is too much or too little. Further, quite a few of us develop what is called 'treatment emergent central apnea'. Our diagnosis is for obstructive apnea, meaning the air passages are pinched or actually blocked much of the time. But, when we commence treatment, particularly if our EPR is set too high, we begin to have 'open airway' show up on the ResMed machines' readouts next day. Sometimes this phenomenon is self-limiting, but sometimes changes have to be made to the original prescription. Open airway is ResMed's characterization of the machine getting no feedback, as if your airway is open, but you're not inhaling or exhaling. That is what a central apnea is...you stop breathing, sometimes for extended periods as long as 30 seconds.
There is a lot more, and its quite complicated, and it really behooves all of us users of PAP machines to learn what we have, how best to treat it, and then how to adjust our machines so that they help us to sleep well.

I had asked for a new sleep study (it's been 8 years since my last) and was declined. Was at 8, then moved to 9, then to 10.

Regarding the " 'open airway' show up on the ResMed machines' readouts next day" is there a way using the OSCAR reports to determine if the EPR is too high/low?

Thanks!

BTW - Just found the EPR in OSCAR... it is off.