hi every one i am new and my name is jerry and i live in greenville north carolina. i just got my cpap on 10/31/06. i have the resmed s8 elite. i have the resmed ultra mirage full face mask. i am having a lot of trouble with the mask leaking. if i pull the straps tight enough to stop it from leaking around my noise then it is to tight and hurts my face. if any one has any info / in put / please heip.

jerryinnc wrote:

hi every one i am new and my name is jerry and i live in greenville north carolina. i just got my cpap on 10/31/06. i have the resmed s8 elite. i have the resmed ultra mirage full face mask. i am having a lot of trouble with the mask leaking. if i pull the straps tight enough to stop it from leaking around my noise then it is to tight and hurts my face. if any one has any info / in put / please heip.

Jerry,

Welcome.

The Ultra Mirage mask works on the principle of inflating the cushion of the mask with the cpap air..........in other words from inside the mask. Once the cushion is inflated it forms a seal with your face. It should effectively 'float' on your face.

You must keep the straps loose as distinct from tight. The small tension must also be equal on both the top and bottom strap. Sounds strange, but that is the way it works.

If you tighten the straps the side wall of the cushion will collapse, and this defeats the workings of the mask, and causes leaks. The more you tighten the worse the leaks, until such time as the mask is 'plastered' to your face and the hard plastic frame will dig into your face.

I have been using this mask for a good number of years (since shortly after they were launched). It has an excellent record and its pedigree goes back to the original Mirage mask, and prior to that the Sullivan Bubble mask.............all worked on the same principle.

Best of luck..............

Daniel.


_________________
The untreated Sleep Apnoea sufferer died quietly in his sleep.......
Unlike his three passengers who died screaming !!!!!!

(Anon)

Hello Jerry,
  I am also new to Cpap. After 2 weeks of fighting the Ultra Mirage I switched to a Fisher Paykel Flexifit 431. Wow what a difference! It fits under my chin so I find it is much more tolerant of my sleeping on my sides and much less prone to leakage. Since you are still in your "trial" period, check with you DME and try the 431. They have a newer 432 that I understand is even better so I'm going to try to moe up to that one. The Flexifit is also a much simpler design so is easier to clean. My wife is also not a bothered by the exhaust venting when I sleep on my side toward her.

Jerry,

     I have the Ultra Mirage and love the mask. However if you don't get the straps right it will leak like a shieve. Check with your local DME and see if they have an RT on staff who can help you with the fitting. They should have done this when you got your equipment. If that fails check with the sleep clinic and see if they have an RT on staff. The DME I had the first time were scum and had to have the RT at my sleep clinic help me with the mask. Once it's fitted it will work great. As hpoque suggested there are other mask to try that work well. I hope you get this resolved quickly.

i tryed some of the thing's that you guy's told me to try last night and it did help a lot with the leaks. one thing that i was doing wroung is over tighting the mask / 2 putting the mask up to high and not on the bridge of my nose. my air pressure rate is ten. i did good with it last night until about 3:00 am when i started to have trouble with air leak's on the sides of my face and the noise would wake up my wife.   ps when i was at the sleep center they gave me a small mask but when i got the resmed s8 they said that the small mask was to little for me and change it to a large one , i dont know now      

                                                 thank's every one for the help.
                                                                       jerry

I use the same mask and love it now.But I had trouble with it as well. Here is what I find works better. Put your mask on and THEN turn on the machine. I don't use the ramp and it works perfect for me. Maybe a med is a size better suited for you. Play around with it a bit and do some of those things already suggested. You'll get it after a bit. Good luck

monday night was much better with the medium mask than it was sunday with the large mask. my wife did not wake me up to stop the mask from making noise so i guess that is a good sign. i will have to play around with the adjustment's a little to see if i can tweek little. i don't remember waking up any last night so i guess that is a positive sign. now if i can just get to bed earlyer instead of midnight.  

I have the same setup. I pull the straps down tight due to the amount of air/pressure coming at me. I like the tightness, having a great seal helps me sleep like a baby.

I basically decided to suck it up and sleep "tight"

maybe thats where the sleep tight saying came from  


_________________
How wonderful it is to be here, how wonderful it is to be alive. B"H!

Daniel wrote:

jerryinnc wrote:

hi every one i am new and my name is jerry and i live in greenville north carolina. i just got my cpap on 10/31/06. i have the resmed s8 elite. i have the resmed ultra mirage full face mask. i am having a lot of trouble with the mask leaking. if i pull the straps tight enough to stop it from leaking around my noise then it is to tight and hurts my face. if any one has any info / in put / please heip.

Jerry,

Welcome.

The Ultra Mirage mask works on the principle of inflating the cushion of the mask with the cpap air..........in other words from inside the mask. Once the cushion is inflated it forms a seal with your face. It should effectively 'float' on your face.

You must keep the straps loose as distinct from tight. The small tension must also be equal on both the top and bottom strap. Sounds strange, but that is the way it works.

If you tighten the straps the side wall of the cushion will collapse, and this defeats the workings of the mask, and causes leaks. The more you tighten the worse the leaks, until such time as the mask is 'plastered' to your face and the hard plastic frame will dig into your face.

I have been using this mask for a good number of years (since shortly after they were launched). It has an excellent record and its pedigree goes back to the original Mirage mask, and prior to that the Sullivan Bubble mask.............all worked on the same principle.

Best of luck..............

Daniel.

I havent experienced this, I prefer the mask to be tight. let me mask dig in as long as I sleep great. if the seal breaks oh well, I carry insurance. let it snap.


_________________
How wonderful it is to be here, how wonderful it is to be alive. B"H!

I had the same problem with the Ultra Mirage FF.  It just didn't work out for me. When I had it "floating" it leaked badly, when I tightened it down it hurt. I could never find a happy medium, and I always adjusted in my sleeping position (so it wasn't like adjusting the mask sitting up and then laying down and having problems). It seemed very sensitive to movement during the night, as I'd get it adjusted and wake up later with it leaking because I had turned my head from one side to the other (still laying on my back). In any case, I'm not knocking the mask because it obviously works well for a lot of people. It just didn't for me and I had to move on to something else.


_________________
<--Will-->
http://www.inside-corner.com
http://www.willwillis.us

jerryinnc wrote:

hi every one i am new and my name is jerry and i live in greenville north carolina. i just got my cpap on 10/31/06. i have the resmed s8 elite. i have the resmed ultra mirage full face mask. i am having a lot of trouble with the mask leaking. if i pull the straps tight enough to stop it from leaking around my noise then it is to tight and hurts my face. if any one has any info / in put / please heip.

I really like my UMFF, and I've tried quite a few different masks. It's now the only one I use.

It is of course important to wash your face every night, but I've found that it can be almost equally important to wash my mask every day.

I don't take it apart each time, but I do submerse it in warm soapy water for a few minutes, and then rinse and dry.

I don't tighten my mask too much, but I don't keep it too loose either. I always try to fit two fingers between the straps and my face.

Keep working with it, because I think it's definitely worth it. It's a great mask, and it's made very well.

i went back to the sleep center to get help with mask.the sleep tectnologist tryed servial mask on me and said that i needed a shallow mask so i have have a resmed ultra mirage shallow full mask . and i still got air leaks.     

Jerry-

You might want to try the F&P HC432 mask.  I've heard a lot of reviews saying that one is comparable to the UMFF mask as far as getting a good seal on the face.  It's a bit different because the bottom of the mask cups around the bottom of the chin rather than resting on it's apex, but I've tried it and it is comfey for the most part without having to wrench the straps down.  The advantage of the 432 over their old model, the 431, is that it has a foam cushion inside of the silicon cushion, which gives it strength and support.  It fixed the leak I was having at the top of my nose with the old 431.  As a rule I still like the UMFF the best, but like I say, this one is a close second and it may be worth a try if you've still got leaks.

I also have this mask and had a lot of trouble getting it to not leak.  I found when I adjusted the setting at the very top which tilts it helped me.  Hope you understand what I'm talking about.  You push this little button in and it changes the tilt of the mask.  This helped me with leaking.

man i am still having trouble with leaks. loose leaks / tight it hurts my face/ tryed the medium and the small.