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Old 2005-11-10, 6:50pm
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Cosmo Cosmo is offline
ManBearPig
 
Join Date: Jun 28, 2005
Location: Roanoke, VA
Posts: 8,540
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Justin L
There are a wide range of concentrators out there. Heres is a quick shakedown of what you may be able to buy:

Assuming all concentrators are rebuilt properly:

-Airsep Newlife: Last about 12k hours, no real filters to keep contaminants out of the system. Sieve beds tend to get contaminated easily from lack of filters, and will harm purity in the higher flow rates. Should put out about 8-9psi which is good. Pretty noisy valves as they age. If you get a relatively "new" Newlife, they seem to be quieter.

-Invacare Mobilaire 5: Last between 20-25k hours. Many many HEPA filters to keep the system very clean. Sieve beds are very very resilient and hardly ever go bad. Put out mid 90% o2 at all flow rates for a very long time. Factory PSI is 5 or 6. Quiet machine.

-Healthdyne Alliance: Lasts about 20k hours also. Good filtration. Sieve beds are very resilient. WHISPER quiet! 96% purity at 5LPM is very common. Factory is 5 or 6 psi.

-Devilbiss MC-Series; Solairis 505/515- Last about 20k hours also. Great filtration, pretty quiet. Good purity. These machines chug along at 8-9PSI from the factory with no problems whatsoever.

Respironics Millenium: When you get one that works, they are good...for about only 8k hours. "Fewer moving parts" doesnt always mean reliability. There is a reason they are on ebay for $100 AS IS. They are pretty quiet. 6PSI output pressure.

Unless you buy a new concentrator, these are the " main contenders" for used oxygen concentrators now. Anything else you may find, ask the seller all the same questions you just asked and you *should* be able to get an intelligent response if they service the equipment.

Also, and if you want to take ANY guesswork out of the purity your concentrator is putting out, get one with an oxygen monitor (OCI/OPI). If the "Normal Oxygen" light is on, you know it is maintaining at least 87% oxygen! Unless it has the "OCI" feature, no series of beeps, clicks, wooshes or anything else from a standard concentrator will let you know the purity is good, unless there is a decent warranty and they stand behind their work.


I would say the quietest machines out there would be a Devilbiss Solairis 505, or a Healthdyne Alliance. Both can also be had with the OCI/OPI oxygen purity sensor feature!

A bunch of good info there. When we get our studio up and running, I'll have to drive a half hour down 460 and come see you....
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