Hi, folks. I have a question that may have been answered elsewhere, or I may be posting in the wrong place. Please excuse my newbie fumbling. But I have a question. Has
anyone information or experience with home oxygen compressors? I know the lpm flow is not high enough for use during a cluster, but filling tanks? I am having some trouble with my O2 supplier who thinks I am going through too much O2 and is threatening to limit delivery. Are there other options that do work, and is a home compressor possibly a solution? Thanks all y'all! Wimsey1

  Compressed air is exactly what you are breathing right now except that it is well....compressed. Not the pure 02 we need to abort, and the generator can and does get rusty inside from moisture, so breathing that would be a big no-no. 

Exactly how many tanks are you going through?  What your supplier thinks is too much could be exactly what we need while in cycle.  I know someone who can go through 12 e-tanks in a 3-day week-end. 


edited to add:  One option is to use welders 02.  Many of us here do. I have one in my garage because I refuse to bring that ugly thing in my house...LOL
You do not need a script from a Dr. for that, it is exactly the same as medical 02 and no one can limit how many tanks you get.

My guess is you're talking about oxygen CONCENTRATORS. They produce close to 100% oxygen, but at a very low flow rate. So you'd need to invest in a compressor set up capable of recharging a 2800 pound tank. The cost for that type of a set up is likely to be prohibitive, and is extremely dangerous to operate without proper training. (Picture the scene from Jaws when he shoots the compressed air tank and blows the shark up!)

So probably not a good option. Appeal to your insurance....loads and loads of oxygen is still many times cheaper then Imitrex...the bean counters know that. And welders oxygen. Cheap, but the tanks are ugly! You'll need a slightly different regulator as the medical grade oxygen regulators aren't the same as the welders.

Joe

There are a variety of home concentrator/compressors out there running nicely filling up smaller tanks.

They won't produce O2 of quite the same purity as the stuff that comes in a tank (around 90% average concentration from the concentrator)

You will find that it will need to run 24/7 and still may not keep up with what you need over time. Yes, it would be better than running out of O2, but is far from ideal.

I do not understand how an O2 supplier can presume to dictate how much O2 you need.......

Marc

Thank you for your quick replies my friends. You have confirmed what I mostly suspected. I will check out welders O2. I have a friend who is a welder and I'll see what she has to say about getting a tank.

I am chronic and have been for 3 years now. I'm having 3-6 attacks per day, and I'm currently going about 4 700 tanks, and two 2800 tanks (J size?) every two weeks. I haven't tried imitrex yet, although zomig did me no good. I am interested in the DHE injectables someone mentioned elsewhere. My insurance does cover it, with no restrictions on amount per month. Have any of you used it? And did it work for you?

Thanks again. I'll try to be helpful to others but so far, I'm in such a dark place myself seeing the light is hard to do. Blessings!  wimsey1

See this about welding O2, if you decide to go that way:

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And a little bit about regulators:
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Wimsey,

Unless your insurance company is complaining, tell your home oxygen supplier you have cluster headaches, not COPD, so keep your deliveries coming... Also tell them it's against federal law to alter a physician's written instructions without a license to practice medicine...  And if they claim to have a doctor on their staff, ask for the full name, address, phone number, and credentials so you can pass it to the FDA and State Medical Board.

If it's your insurance company that's complaining about your oxygen usage, tell them it takes from 150 to 200 liters to abort the average cluster headache attack.  That makes the cost to abort your cluster headache attacks with oxygen from a $30 M-size oxygen cylinder is around $1.25 to $1.50... (It's $4.00 to $6.00 if you're using a $20 E-size oxygen cylinder) and that imitrex (sumatriptan succinate) injections run around $100 each.

The welder's O2 info Marc sent you is spot on... Marc is a power user and knows his stuff.  You'll need to buy a CGA-540 regulator to go with the welders O2 cylinders so you may as well get a good one with 0 to 60 liter/minute selectable flow rates.  Flotec builds them to order from $140 to $190 and you can order over the phone or by email.  Shoot me a PM if you have questions.

Take care,

V/R, Batch

Welcome to the site,
The info the good folks have given you comes from people who know. The Flotec regulators Batch is  talking about are great, I have two and it's amazing how much faster & how many more hits I can abort with them.

You should also look into the O2pti mask available on CH.com, it's made just for CH and is fantastic.

Imitrex doesn't work for me so I do use the DHE. I'm episodic and got the DHE my cycle before this one. It is a powerful vasoconstrictor and has some dangers. But it gives me up to 24hrs pain free and has aborted runaway hits in 5-10 mins.

Most of us find we have to use IM (intramuscular) injections. For me Sub-q (under the skin) didn't work. I get few side effects, mostly feeling tired a few hours after an inj.

To learn more, go to the archives and search DHE. It's really made a difference for me along with the high flow O2.

Best of Luck,  Don (who was saved by Batch)

Most O2 compressors are for lung and heart patients with a flow rate of 5lpm. I have one that goes to 10 lpm and with a little tweaking of a valve got the rate to 14 lpm. You will need to have it serviced every year or two and have the o2 concentrations checked. After two years of use mine started  working  less effective so I had it serviced. The concentration was at 80%. After replacing a leaky air line   it started working again. Check the flow rate before you buy one. Mine was donated and it works for me so I use it when I need it.

Hi Mat,

You certainly may be correct, but I would be willing to bet that your numbers of O2 concentration at 14 lpm are optimistic at best.

The really good home style concentrators can produce 2-4 lpm at 90%. Cranking them up to high flows like 10-12 lpm drops the actual concentration down to about 70%

Again, you may have an unusually large unit that does better after being tweaked, but I'll bet that it weighs more than me at 200 lbs. and sucks more electricity than my central A/C  ;D

Please understand that I'm not in any way challenging your approach! I just don't want folks to think that they can get good, consistent aborts from a typical concentrator.

But then, I think 15 lpm is way too low..........

Marc

I use welders O2 at work and the concentrator at home. The concentrator came from Pops girlfriend who was a nurse who worked for a cardiologist in Texarkana. Its a double unit. made for two people and was donated after the elderly couple passed away. After removing a stop on the internal regulator, it increased the flow  rate. Like I  said it works for me, I  wouldn't use it if it didn't.