- Morning, everyone. Nick from CPAP Reviews!
Thanks for tuning in again to another one of my videos.
Yesterday, I did a little video
on the ResMed AirMini travel C-PAP machine.
I just talked about a few of its features
and also went through the AirMini app.
I've also done some tutorials
on some of the other travel machines as well.
So I thought in this tutorial,
instead of having all these separate videos,
I'd just have this one video.
I'll keep it pretty brief,
but I'll just have the three travel C-PAP machines.
I'll quickly go through the important things
like size, weight, noise level,
and some of the features of the machines.
There is a few differences between them,
which I'll talk about.
And that way, if you are considering getting one,
you sort of have all the information you need
to go ahead and make a nice informed decision.
All right, cool!
So in front of me here - I'll just take you through it.
We've got the Transcend travel C-PAP machine.
So I'll just give you a bit of a pan around of this unit,
so you can have a quick look at it.
Then we have the Z1 travel C-PAP machine.
And then last of all, we have the AirMini by ResMed.
They're your three different machines.
Now in terms of pricing,
I'm going to talk just retail pricing.
Obviously there's different degrees
of discounting on the different machines.
So let's just talk retail here.
The ResMed AirMini is the most expensive,
retailing at $2,100. You do, however, get a mask with that.
And that was either
a ResMed P10, a ResMed N20 or a ResMed F20.
Those masks normally retail around $275 to $300.
Once again, retail; there are some discounters
and stuff like that. So you do get a mask included.
The Z1 retails at $1300.
Now I'm talking about the automatics here,
just so you know.
These two machines you can get in fixed pressure modes,
which are slightly more affordable,
but majority of our customers are going Auto these days.
So I've just cut to the chase and go for the automatic.
$1300 for the Z1 Auto, retail,
and $1200 for the Transcend travel Auto.
All right, so that's retail there.
So quite a big leap up in price
once you get past a Z1 to the AirMini machine.
Let's talk about weight,
because obviously that's one of the important things.
When you're going to get a travel C-PAP machine,
you're looking to save on size,
and you're looking to save on weight,
because it's obviously more convenient to carry around
something that's nice and light and small
than it is a big unit.
Alright, so sizing. Start with the Transcend,
the actual machine: 433 grams by itself.
When you add the power supply,
it takes it up to 657 grams. So it's the heaviest.
Next in we have the Z1. The machine weighs 297 grams.
And when you add the power supply to that,
it takes up to 545 grams.
So around 110 grams lighter than the Transcend.
and then the ResMed is 299 grams.
And when you add the power supply to it,
it takes it up to 501 grams.
So it's about 44 grams lighter than the Z1,
when you add the actual power supply for the unit to run.
it obviously needs a power supply to run it.
Size: when it comes to size,
the ResMed AirMini is the smallest.
Then you have the Z1,
and then the Transcend's got the largest footprint
of the travel C-PAP machines.
You know, if you compare them up there,
you can get an idea as to the size
and not a huge amount of difference.
But there's a little bit of difference there.
So there you have the size.
When it comes to noise level,
if you look at my AirMini video,
you would have seen I used this little device,
which is the decibel recorder,
just to give you a realistic expectation
of the noise levels.
They are a little bit noisier
than your standard full-size machines.
I've gone through that before.
And the manufacturers,
when they give out those decibel readings
on their little specifications charts,
are very misleading.
They will give you numbers like 26, 29;
very, very low numbers.
where ambient room noise...
If I'm just very, very quiet,
ambient room noise is around 30 decibels.
So the machine's obviously noisier
than ambient room noise.
So when I do this decibel meter,
I use the same mask across all machines,
set the machines to 10 centimeters,
which is a nice middle of the range pressure,
breathe the same in all of them.
We had the ResMed coming in at a max of 59 decibels.
And it was sort of going between 56...
the Z1 was coming in at 60 decibels,
which is one decibel louder.
And we had the Transcend coming in at 62 decibels.
So there isn't a huge difference
in the volume of the machines across the board.
A couple of decibels here and there,
it's a very small difference.
You can do things to improve the noise level.
There are some Q-tube C-PAP mufflers,
and things like that if you are concerned.
Some of the masks certainly make the noise appear louder
than it actually is.
You know, the DreamWear with the travel machines,
isn't fantastic because the air streams are rushed really
heavily through the tubes that run next to the ears.
And so, different masks definitely make
the machines appear to sound differently.
That's my experience.
So some I've used made it sound really quiet.
So I've used... I definitely notice a difference there.
So maybe just try a few different masks with it and see
which one you find is the quietest.
But noise level. Yeah, look; a little bit noisier.
I don't think it's a massive issue
when you get up to those higher levels:
15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.
You're probably going to notice a bigger difference because
they start to get a bit of a pitch to the noise.
There's little motors tend to have a higher pitch
and that pitch can sometimes be
a bit distracting for people.
Alright, so we've gone through cost, size and weight.
So let's just talk about maybe a few of the features.
At the moment the Transcend and Z1
are the only ones that come with battery options,
although ResMed is soon to release a battery option
at some point in the near future.
At the moment the Transcend batteries look similar to this.
They have a P4 and a P8.
P4 being a single night battery, lasts for a full night.
The P8 being a multi night battery.
That can be true and it can be not true;
if you're not high pressure, sometimes you don't
get two nights out of the full P8 battery.
But you should get close to, you know, six,
seven hours of use with the P4.
So that's your P4 there.
This is your Power Shell, which goes with the Z1.
They have these little batteries that just
pop into the actual shell itself.
So you can get replacement ones of them,
but they just pop in pretty straightforward,
stick it in and the machine just clips in as well.
So that's kind of like your whole little pack.
They're like your power pack.
If you want to get camping or something like that,
obviously everything's conveniently put into the one place.
Whereas with the Transcend, it's a free standing battery.
So you do have that battery sort of floating around.
So that's your battery systems.
You can get aftermarket batteries as well,
but I can't be bothered going into that right now!
Let's talk about the features that separate them.
I'm going to do a chart, which is just like a PDF.
So it has you know, ramp,
and it will have a tick next to all the machines,
so you can basically just view it all,
and I'll put that in a link at some point
in the description of the video.
The only one with the screen is the Z1.
So if you want to change settings on the actual machine,
instead of doing it though your computer or a smartphone
the Z1 is the only one with that screen option.
So it has things like the pressure,
changing things like the pressure relief,
the ramp time, all those sorts of things
you can change on the actual screen as well.
It does have an app as well, called Nitelog,
and you can change settings on the app as well,
so they've got Bluetooth.
The ResMed also has Bluetooth,
and an app called the AirMini app.
The Transcend doesn't have an app.
You have to connect it up to a PC
to be able to load software on the PC,
and then change settings through a Transcend software.
Okay. So the Transcend doesn't have the Bluetooth there.
What else?
They've all got pressure relief, which is great.
So if you're someone who struggles
to breathe against the pressure,
the machines all have pressure relief.
What else...?
The ResMed has smart start and smart stop,
which the other two don't have.
So it will automatically turn on when you start breathing,
automatically turn off when you stop breathing.
The others, you actually have to
physically press the button.
which is not the end of the world,
but sometimes the machine might be
in a place where you can't get to it.
You know, maybe under your seat on an airplane
or something like that.
So it might be easy just to
put your mask on and start breathing,
instead of fiddling around looking for it.
It also has the smart ramp, which is...
basically the machine will stay nice and low
until you fall asleep.
It can detect your sleep onset,
and then it will adjust upwards accordingly.
So that's the ResMed.
These two don't have a smart ramp.
They've just got a standard ramp.
To be honest with you, most of the auto algorithms
are pretty good anyway,
and they will just stay nice and low when you're awake
because you're not having sleep apnea.
And then when you start having sleep apnea,
that will go up
as your breathing starts to become restricted.
Um, that's pretty much it!
I've sort of had a bit of a brain freeze
on what other differences there are!
At the end of the day, I think,
all these little bells and whistles,
they're not really that important.
The main thing you want to look at
when you're getting a machine is
A: What can you afford? What's your budget?
That's the first thing.
B: What sort of size do you really need?
Like, the smallest, lightest?
Or you're pretty happy to have a little bit of extra weight?
and then C: Do you need things like a screen,
if you're not good with smartphones and stuff like that.
Most people really go on price,
because between the three of them,
although there's a little bit more size than the Transcend,
they're all around pretty similar weights.
They're all pretty similar noise levels.
You know, some have a few little extra features,
but at the end of the day, it is a traveling machine.
Once you put that mask on and start breathing away,
it's just air pressure. To break it down quite simply!
it really is just air pressure.
I will talk about one more thing just before we go:
the heat moisture exchange filters.
So Transcend actually have built
a humidifier with this machine,
but it's really big.
And I wouldn't get it if you're looking for a travel machine
because it's too big. It makes the unit way too big.
They don't actually have heat moisture exchange filters,
but you can buy the same heat moisture exchange filters
that the Z1 have and use them with the Transcend.
So you can get these heat moisture exchange filters,
they last for 10 days before you need to re-use them.
You can pick them up for around 10 to 15 bucks.
ResMed have what they call the Humidi-X ones,
and the Humidi-X Plus ones;
they're little heat moisture exchange filters again.
They can only be used with the ResMed machine and they last
30 days, each one, before you need to replace them.
One note before leaving:
With these two machines, you can use any masks.
They have your standard tubing
that you can use any mask with.
ResMed, you can only use the P10, the N20, or the F20.
And they're specifically modified versions of those masks
that come with a special connector to be able to put these
HME filters in. They screw in.
So that's a really important note
just to make on that last little bit there.
You know, if you're really comfortable with your own mask
and you don't want to change...
If you're happy to check out the ResMed P10,
the N20 or the F20 and you find it suitable for you,
you can definitely go a ResMed AirMini.
So I hope that has given you some insight there,
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Comment, if you want to leave some feedback,
and yeah, like the video, share the video,
whatever you want to do!
Hope everything's going well for you.
Make sure you check out the travel C-PAP machines,
especially if you are someone who moves around a lot,
likes camping, likes boating, likes caravanning;
they are pretty cool.
Alright, cheers!