Using c-pap when dry camping

[chop]

Wonder if anyone uses a c-pap machine when dry camping. Not sure what to do about power supply? Any suggestions would be appreciated. We own a Rockwood 1909S.

[Bama Rambler]

If you use a CPAP that natively runs on 12 volts, you can install a 12 volt receptacle in the bedroom and plug the CPAP into that with a 12 volt cord. Without the humidifier, a CPAP can run a couple of nights on a group 27 deep cycle battery if you're careful about what else uses 12 volt power during the stay.

If you have a unit that runs on 24 volts (i.e. Resmed) you'll have to either buy a small inverter or a DC to DC converter in order to run the unit. Either of those are slightly less efficient but should still run a night or so on a battery.

If you have the ability to recharge the battery during the day, you can use the CPAP for a long trip.

If you don't have a way to recharge the battery, I'd suggest investing a a second or third deep cycle battery either paralleled or have a couple dedicated just to CPAP use. That way you could go several days.

[Davidceder]

Wife always uses her CPAP when camping. Her power brick puts out 12V and we have a 12V charging station in the rig. I found a connector for her unit at Radio Shack and made a long 12V cable with a 12V adapter on the end and run it off the 12V charging station. I was surprised at how little power it consumed in a single night. If you do not have a 12V charging station it should be fairly easy to tap into a hot 12V line and add a receptacle.

[CNYCamper]

We have a 2 battery set-up for general use and we also bring a 3rd (24 series) battery for one of our visiting daughters who uses a CPAP. We carry the battery in the camper and hook to a small (750) inverter and plug in the CPAP. Runs all night. A couple of times we've had 2 CPAP users at the same time and still ran all night.
While we're charging our main batteries during generator hours from the convertor, we concurrently charge the CPAP battery via a charger plugged into the genset.
Type CPAP in the Search function and there are quite a few posts on this topic.

[YoBobH42]

Get a relatively inexpensive Deep Cycle battery for use with the CPAP. Look for the most CCA (cold cranking amps) you can find (but also that you can lift). Battery is probably $100-$120. Then get an inverter (these are very inexpensive $10-$20 at Northern Tool). You don't even have to have a fancy hookup-alligator clips will do. You can also get a relatively inexpensive charging solar panel for around $15 which allows you to charge the battery by day. If you happen to use the generator at all, by all means, also hook up a charger to the battery. Recommend a high amp charger (12-15 amps) rather than a trickle deal because you want to get juice back in the battery quickly.

My wife and I dry camped for a 4 day weekend in 90+ degree heat and used this setup to power my CPAP and a circular fan at night and never came close to killing the battery the entire time.

We were camping recently when it got very cold and a fellow camper had resorted to sleeping in their car and ran the battery down (I mean dead too). They asked if I had jumper cables but rather than moving the RV off level to give them a jump I said, well, I have a portable generator and a battery charger. They were fine in a couple of hours. Always like to help out a fellow camper- you never know what you might use something for!

[tabascocat98]

Read all of the replies. My husband has the battery and has no problems. Never leave home without it

[rmoore0852]

I run a small inverter for the CPAP. Never had an issue with dead batteries, even when using the heater at night. I have 2 deep cycle batteries.

[Goat Man]

I have a Black and Decker power station that runs mine all night. I have never tried running it two nights without rechgarge, but my generator will do that.

[da.1249]

I use a resmed cpap and I was able to purchase a 12volt power source for my machine that I plug into a cigarette lighter receptacle. As long as I dont use the heater/humidifier I'm good for a couple of nights without recharging the house batteries.

[TMiga]

I use a Resmed cpap machine while dry camping. They sell a special adapter so your machine will run off of the 12 volt battery. I bought mine online from Ebay. I paid $ 40 - $50 for a used one, which I have used for 4 years now. My machine has a humidifier that I keep off or on low while dry camping, so I don't run the battery down. You can buy the adapter from the manufacturer, but you will pay more. The adapter is machine specific, and I wouldn't recommend using any other adapter because you could damage the cpap machine. I would take the model number of your machine and check out your options for the adapter.

[Arctic Wolf]

Is there a CPAP that runs off of a USB port?? I've got those in my bedroom and it would be convenient to plug into one of those

[sailski]

Originally Posted by Arctic Wolf

Is there a CPAP that runs off of a USB port?? I've got those in my bedroom and it would be convenient to plug into one of those

There are no CPAP machines that can be powered through a USB connector that I know of. However, you could ask Google. I used a 12V Power Outlet that I connected to the USB receptacles with a 12V Power cord from my CPAP manufacturer. Most machines are 12 or 24 volts that I know of but I am no expert in this field. I would recommend using the same manufacturer's power cord as the CPAP machines.

[Nala47]

I use a Phillips Respironics and purchased a 12V cord, added a 12 volt receptacle near my side of the bed. Removed the single 12V battery and added two true deep cycle 6 volt golf cart batteries. When on the battery power I turn off the heated humidifier and have run the trailer and the CPAP for 4 days with plenty of power left. Probably could go 6 days.

[Arctic Wolf]

I used to run my CPAP and several lights in my tent when at summer camp with the Boy Scouts. Using my solar panel, 2 12V AGM batteries, and a 1500 watt inverter. It was still charged after a week.
That was using the inverter to the converter to the CPAP. I didn't realize until later that my CPAP actually runs off 12 volts (dummy me just never looked) I've since made a "cigarette lighter" adapter for it which worked great in my pop-up which had a "cigarette lighter" receptacle near my bed. I guess I can install a 12V receptacle in my bedroom, I just thought it would be great to run it from the USB

[OldBob]

Originally Posted by chop

Wonder if anyone uses a c-pap machine when dry camping. Not sure what to do about power supply? Any suggestions would be appreciated. We own a Rockwood 1909S.

There's no problem at all. A little 150 watt power inverter has enough power to run the C-PAP. We've been doing it for years.

[dbledan]

Originally Posted by Arctic Wolf

Is there a CPAP that runs off of a USB port?? I've got those in my bedroom and it would be convenient to plug into one of those

If you have usb ports you could likely pull those out of the wall and find them attached to 12v wiring (hopefully not 120 in an outlet) it is stepped down to 5v for usb in the connector and should work on battery if so. You could replace it with one of these as it would give you battery status the usb ports and the 12v socket for your cpap. Two wires to swap...Just make sure you know which is positive and which is ground.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018222LUO..._jI7rAbCH1ZZPZ


If you don't need the heater on the cpap and it draws less than .8A or 800mA (it will say on the power cord output) you could use this but I would avoid it if you can.

[Granny K]

We have been running tests of a battery monitor using DH's CPAP for a load. With the humidifier on (DH says this is a must) it draws an average of 6 amps (6.8 on inhale, 5.5 on exhale). The bottom line is that for an 8 hour sleep we need 48 amp-hours.

Adding the amp-hours used by fridge, furnace and lights probably gets us to 75 amp-hours per day. If our state-of-charge floor is set at 50% of battery capacity we require a battery bank designed for a minimum of 150 amp-hours. With a 60 amp multistage converter, the batteries can be recharged daily by the generator in under 2 hours.

[garbonz]

Originally Posted by Arctic Wolf

Is there a CPAP that runs off of a USB port?? I've got those in my bedroom and it would be convenient to plug into one of those

USB port is 5 volts so won't work. However the wires goin into the port are 12 volt and may be able to be converted to the appropriate plug.

[Arctic Wolf]

Originally Posted by dbledan

If you have usb ports you could likely pull those out of the wall and find them attached to 12v wiring (hopefully not 120 in an outlet) it is stepped down to 5v for usb in the connector and should work on battery if so. You could replace it with one of these as it would give you battery status the usb ports and the 12v socket for your cpap. Two wires to swap...Just make sure you know which is positive and which is ground.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018222LUO..._jI7rAbCH1ZZPZ
Attachment 159240

If you don't need the heater on the cpap and it draws less than .8A or 800mA (it will say on the power cord output) you could use this but I would avoid it if you can.
Attachment 159239

That's awesome... I only use the humidifier at home anyway, but that first option is SWEET!!
This form is the best.
Thank you

[Mad Cow]

Dry camping, especially if one needs power for stuff like CPAP and other little goodies, the best way to do it is to go the 6v route. A pair of deep cycle 6v batteries hooked in series to make 12v power will knock the socks off of the best 12v deep cycle battery in terms of length of time before reaching 50%, the typical point where recharging should be started. A pair of 6v deep cycle batteries hooked in series can easily provide 3 times the amp hours of a 12v deep cycle. They will even beat a pair of 12v deep cycle batteries. Certainly much longer than a night of using a CPAP along with basic lights and TV.

Now, the ultimate way to go is Lithium Ion. But be prepared for sticker shock. But you will go thru several 12v or 6v lead acid or AGM batteries before you come close to the life cycle of a LI battery. And the LI battery will go 3-4 times as long as a traditional deep cycle battery and you have no diminished power all the way thru total discharge. And it only takes a couple of hours to have them back at full charge. They are off the chart fast at recharging.

All depends on how you want to tackle the problem, and that depends on how much a problem you perceive.