This issue is specific to ResMed AirSense S-11. Please do not reply about older AirSense models. They do not have this problem.
13 year CPAP user. I used a Resmed S-9 for 6 years, and S-10 for 7 years. Never have had any rainout of humidity / tubing issues. Just switched to an S-11 and have had nothing but problems.
I have been getting horrible rainout problems. Here are the things I have tried (multiple times)
The tubing never feels warm. With my S-9 and S-10, I could feel the tubing warm up. The water tank level does decrease (but I think the water mostly ends up in the tubing).
I saw a post on here from two years ago, but saw no solution for a S-11. Lot’s of people replied with their experience using a S-10. But I have never had problems like this with an S-10. This seems specific to the S-11. There was no solution for the S-11 on the other post. Just replies about similar issues.
I don't have the A11 model, but the humidifier looks identical to the A10. The humidifier is not really a high tech device. All it does is divert air from the CPAP over the top of the water in the reservoir, while the reservoir is being heated. Some things to check is how much water does it use. My experience with a 9 hour sleep almost all of the water is consumed. That may depend on how dry the environment is in your home. Currently we are at about 30% humidity, so that is kind of dry and will need more water. When the machine has been in operation for a while, shut it off and take the water reservoir out. Feel the stainless steel bottom of the reservoir. It should be quite warm. If you are not using a lot of water and the bottom of the reservoir is not warm to hot, there must be a problem with the heater in the machine.
Another thing to try is the warmup feature. The idea is to select it from the menu at least 15 minutes before going to bed. It should blow a small amount of air through the hose and mask and at the same time warm up the water in the reservoir. It will indicate when it is warm on the display. Again check the bottom of the reservoir to see if it is warm after 15-20 minutes. If the heater is defective there will be no warmup.
I have been suspicious of my hose too. It never feels warm. I am on my second hose because the mask end of it got discolored and soft. It would no longer hold the mask hose reliably. It almost seemed as if it was getting overheated although I never felt it even warm. The new hose restored the fit, but it has never felt warm either. When we camp in our trailer off grid I turn off the humidifier and heated hose to save power. Most of the power used by the CPAP is for the hose and humidifier. We charge the batteries during the day with solar panels and run two CPAPs at night. I still put water in the humidifier but essentially none gets used. On one occasion when it was fairly cool (we don't run our furnace when off grid) I did get some rainout even though the humidifier was turned off. The tube was exposed to the cool air and was looped down behind my pillow and collected water. Very annoying as I had to get up in the middle of the night to drain the hose. I routed the hose under the pillow instead of behind it and the rainout at least to the point of not gurgling stopped. The point is that you can get rainout even when the humidifier and hose are turned off. At home with the heated hose on and humidifier on I never get rainout.
FWIW I have my machine on Auto with humidity set at 4 which I believe it defaults to.
I don't believe there is anything special about the A11 humidifier. You may just have a defective machine. If you still have one of your old machines, perhaps get a return approval and send this one and the hose back to ResMed for repair or replacement. We had some issues with my wife's S9 machine's DC to DC power supply. It would trip out when using it in our trailer. They sent two replacements before I gave up on them. The overload design on the power supply for this machine was obviously defective. It could not handle the extra power the heated hose and humidifier took. The problem was eventually solved when she got the A10 machine. For that one I got a DC to DC power supply off Amazon that was about 1/3 the price of the ResMed one and works just fine.
Though I appreciate your willingness to write a long reply, I specifically asked people with AirSense 10 to please NOT REPLY because this is a AirSense 11 problem. I used the 10 for over seven years with no problem.
The issue with A10 people replying is that your info does not help, but it makes it very difficult for readers in the future to scroll through answers to find information that actually relates to their machine. There is a post from two years ago on this same issue and it is filled with A10 users trying to help. But there is no resolution for A11 users. That is why I posted again.
Sierra, I know you are trying to be helpful, however, I just looked back and you were the person who hijacked the post from two years ago too. Please stop doing that.
