CPAP with no on-board battery

We'd really need to know the exact power draw of the CPAP unit in order to calculate how much battery would be needed to last through the night. If you are camping in a place with electric hook-ups, then you can just plug it in and not worry about it. But you definitely don't want the battery to run out and shut down your CPAP machine in the middle of the night when you are "roughing it"! A small/quiet generator might work when boondocking, but most established campgrounds won't let you run generators overnight so you're really going to need to look at battery options if you don't have electricity available.

I did a bit of searching and it looks like the ResMed AirSense 10 averages 53 Watts during normal usage, and up to 104 Watts at peak usage. That equates to about 4.4/8.6 amps at 12 volts. That seems to be on the higher end of the results I've seen for other CPAP machines (most seem to be between 2.5 and 4.5 amps, depending on the prescribed pressure level) but is definitely doable with a good battery. Assuming 4.5 amps as an average, you'll need about 36 amp-hours to run the CPAP for 8 hours over night. A good deep cycle battery can handle that, especially if you recharge the battery with a solar panel or generator setup during the day. Using the trailer battery/batteries would give you the advantage of having power for other things in the trailer like lights and a heater if needed as well. And a good battery and appropriate solar panel (or a pair of high capacity 6V golf cart batteries that could run the CPAP for almost a week without recharging) would likely cost quite a bit less than just the dedicated CPAP battery...

 

Unless you're camping in extremely arid conditions, you can leave the humidifier and heated hose turned off. That should cut your consumption in half or more. We run two ten year old Respironics M-Series BIPAPs (tend to use more power than a CPAP) off an AGM battery made for a Honda Goldwing.

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Stanley-...75035&wl11=online&wl12=14560016&wl13=&veh=sem

I have one similar to this for my cpap. i have used on tent camping trips and recently in my first Popup trip. should give you about 2 nights worth...

 

actually, this is the one i have:
https://www.costco.com/Cat-1000-Pea...r-Station-|-Compressor.product.100215309.html

 

I have one of those zero gravity batteries. we can see if it will work this week end...

 

It is a 24volt machine.

 

You are not going to get 24V out of a 12V battery

 

The machine can accept 12V and run at 24V no problem. An inverter runs on 12V and outputs 110V AC. All it takes is some electrical magic.

 

IMO your best bet is to get a deep cycle, rv/marine battery. You should be able to get at least 2 nights out of a g24 if you don't use it for anything else and turn the heater and the humidifier off. My previous machine, a Puritan Bennet, would run 3 nights on a group 24 with occasional light and water pump use. I got a battery clip adaptor with the 12v cord for my Resmed S9. You can just clip it to the battery and run the the cord under the bunk end tent. Before I got the S9 I had already installed a g31 and 100 watts of solar so I can't really say how it would hold up on the smaller battery.

 

Those jump packs have tiny batteries in them. You'll get a tiny fraction of a large deep cycle battery.

 

How about something like the Goal Zero Yeti "generator" battery packs? Not cheap, though. We have the Yeti 150, they have larger sizes, and upgraded batteries recently. 12v outlet. USB ports, ours also has a 110 outlet, which we've never used. Charge from the 110 outlet or solar.
With the previous GZ storage battery, we also had an adapter to charge it in the vehicle on the road, but never used it. Our Yeti 150 has lasted a week charging things like cell phones and Kindles. We kept the Goal Zero solar panels when we up-sized to the Zamp, so we will be able to charge the Yeti separately from the TT. I assume we will need to do that on our 2-week trip to Wyoming later this summer.

 

Yeti 150 has 14ah for $230. Compare that to a group 29 deep cycle for $100 and 100-120ah. Granted the latter won't recharge without more hardware, but that would be my choice.

 

Not for everyone, but good for us - no worries about leaking battery acid inside. The 150 would not be sufficient for Haybale's uses, though it works for us; we use it for one thing or another on almost every trip. We leave it plugged in inside the house all of the off-season, not just for maintenance, but so we have the use of a lantern, etc. if the power goes out, in addition to our small LED ones.

 

Inside that fancy Yeti is a standard AGM battery.

 

Understand that, still works well for us. Sometimes being able to buy something and use it is better for us than creating a similar item. Sometimes being creative is fun and money-saving. Just depends.

 

You can recharge with a pair of jumper cables attached to your TV in an emergency.