[This is for nerds who like technical details. I’m not mocking anyone, I love technical stuff. I own and enjoy a 3d printer! Also it’s for the CPAP people who care about such details and want something other than an ad from a company. These are bits of “empirical evidence” about CPAP camping.]
On my last campout (a simple overnight with nothing interesting except crashing off my tailgate), I tried a new CPAP “setup”.
Here’s my baseline: On earlier campouts, the enormous battery pack has only had enough juice for 2 or 3 nights. I’d also inadvertently run humid air through a hose in a cold tent and created an awful situation called “rainout”.
This time I had it figured out!
I have a cigarette lighter power supply cord for the CPAP. I plugged that in to my battery pack. Now the DC battery was directly supplying the DC draw. Skipping the AC inverter makes things more efficient.
I also bought a cheap ($25?) “side cover”. It “replaces” the water chamber in my CPAP. (This is not a travel CPAP, it’s one meant for a house. It has a chamber where you add distilled water. The water is heated to manage the hose air’s humidity for your comfort.) The “side cover” eliminates that. It also tells the CPAP the chamber is absent. The CPAP responds by turning off the reservoir heater. Eliminating the heater removes a lot of the battery draw.
I set the heated hose to “off”. That also cut my CPAP’s power use dramatically.
One last “ace in the hole” was a “hose cover”. It’s a simple fabric insulating tube that covers the hose. I bought it from Amazon. It’s cheap and works great! The night got chill but the hose was insulated and thus had no condensation. Unpleasant “rainout” was avoided.
As for sleep, I conked out immediately. Part of that was being exhausted from “near injury”, the rest was my comfy Teton XXL cot and mattress.
The CPAP worked well. It ran it all night (and charged a phone) and still had 91% on the battery at dawn! Turning off the humidity chamber, turning off the heated hose, insulating the hose, and running DC to DC power made a HUGE difference in the CPAP’s draw. I went from 2-3 days per charge to something like 9-10 days. Big difference!
With the minor tweaks I may try a much smaller (motorcycle saddlebag sized!) battery, or maybe I just won’t spend the money yet. I’ll try a motorcycle campout with extension cord eventually. That might work well enough for the short term.
One caveat, humidity and heating systems aren’t pointless. I disabled them but I suspect they really do matter. Travel CPAPs have various humidity solutions and it’s not the same as my non-travel CPAP with NO humidity solution. In the morning, I could feel the difference. It was mild but I felt it.
I think my approach is safe for a few days while camping (especially in a humid climate) but I recommend you don’t push it too far. I’m sure sleep doctors have opinions more informed than mine. Lungs matter, pay attention to them! Don’t let some rando on the internet talk you into stupid shit!
Anyway, it was a good time (aside from the tailgate attack). The smoke and weather has once again turned against me but I’ll probably be out there again when the cool clear air comes back.
A.C.
Bet you can’t 3D print a hamsterwheel emergency cpap airpump. Or, even less possible, a racoonwheel, though any suitably sized quadroped should suffice, given motivation.
Stefan v.
Finally! A use for the prowling raccoons!
Been there without the heated humidifier. I did find that leaving the water in the tank, but turning off the heat and the hose “jacket” eliminated the dry sinuses and rainout issues. This was an older unit that let me control everything. New units are so automated, I have very little adjustment. Also, the old unit ran on 12VDC from the power pack. The new unit requires 48VDC from the power pack. That pretty much requires an inverter of some sort.
I’ve always wondered why my country neighbors called a pile of branches and plant matter waiting to be burned a “slash pile”. Now I know where that likely came from. You never know when and where you’ll learn something new, thanks!
nick
Yep, “slash” is the branches and twigs and mess left over when the main log volume of a tree is harvested. “Slashing” is when you hire a young Curmudgeon to hack that mess down enough that it’ll contact the ground. The guitarist from Guns N Roses with the big hat does a much cooler version of shredding.
Glad to help.
Couple of CPAP comments. I’ve got an Air sense 10 machine that runs on 24VDC. We do a week every year at hunt camp off grid. I’ve had a little problem with the inverter system running the machine, so I think i’m going to get a couple of 12V/100 AH batteries and run them in series. They can be had, delivered, for around $100 ea.
I’ll use them the rest of the year during the long cold North Maine winter power outages.
A little tip on your water reservoir. I use tap water in mine, as our water here in this little burg is as good as anything you’ll buy except for a small amount of calcium.
I’ve been rinsing the tank with Listerine every three to four days. It is a great disinfectant along with the So-Clean ozone cleaner, and it seems to react with the lime to help with that build-up problem.
Diluted as it is, it is a pleasant addition as well.
I like your batteries in series idea. I actually have had good luck with my 1000aH anker solix when I camp by truck but it’s just too bulky for motorcycle. I’m going to experiment with a $15 cord and renting a campsite with grid ac. It’s simultaneously a lame idea and a simple cheap idea.
I can’t use my tap water, it has too much crap in it. But I do use plain bottled water if I run out of distilled and that never causes trouble.