Goal zero yeti 150 & cpap

[NEOK]

Is anyone using a Goal Zero Yeti 150 to power their CPAP? If so, I would like to hear your feedback in how well it works for you.

Thank you

[Bumpyroad]

how many amp hours are the 150 and the 400? seems to me that the only thing this does is store up juice and then powers a 120 inverter. with most CPAPs converting 12 to 120 and back to 12 is sort of foolish and wasteful?
why wouldn't my portable battery jump starters do the same thing at 10% the cost? what is the real advantage. as was said $$$$ for $$ worth.
bumpy

[pianotuna]

Power hungry laptop? Have actually measured the wattage required?

[greenrvgreen]

Since "Goal Zero" is in the subject title I would like to say a few words about these Yeti unit, almost all of it positive.

While it is "one more thing to lug around" if you already have a battery, a charger and an inverter, when you have none of those things the Yeti is a very convenient method of toting them around. And while it is more costly than buying the individual parts separately, I know of no other combo setup anywhere near as convenient for travel as the Yeti units.

I first purchased the 150 for use snow camping in a tent where every last thing was being dragged in on sled by human donkey. All I needed to do was power a small tablet, but since I am addicted to electronic devices I needed the tablet powered on pretty much any moment I was awake.

The Yeti units are solidly built and lightweight--apart from the dead weight of the battery. My main gripe with the 150 is simply its small battery.

I bought the 400 even though it was less luggable, because it offered far more power. With the 400 I found that I could power both my laptop and sat reciever and tailgater, for short durations. The problem I found was that the power cord charger offered very low amperage--five, I think--and since there is no transfer switch in these devices, and power that goes into the cord has to be charged into the batts and then inverted out again. In practice this meant that they were still better suited for short-duration uses.

There are two ways to improve this. The first is simply to clamp a Meanwell single-stage power supply onto the external anderson ports and do bulk charging by that method. The second is to add solar panels and feed power inthrogh the solar input, which is higher. I did both these things, but in both cases you're now lugging around more clutter, and less clutter was the whole point with the Yeti units.

My Yeti 400 (and extra batts) now travels with me in my car. This allows me to run my power-hungry laptop for hours on end, say if I decide to head out to some picturesque spot and day-camp for the afternoon. For that use alone I don't know how I ever got along without it. Idling my car for hours on end, if memory serves.

Bottom line: Highly recommended for limited-duration uses where the recharge cycle is not part of the equation. Highly recommended for its portability. Neutral recommendation on price--high priced but there really is no other alternative short of making your own. Not recommented for long-duration uses beyond the onboard battery capacity. The cord charger takes an eternity and solar or a Meanwell adds that much more clutter.

In aperfect world I would go back and buy the 1250 (100 pounds) and keep it permanently in the back of the jeep, trickle charging every time I start the car and ready whenever I need it.

[NEOK]

Thank you for the replies. My cpap is a ResMed Air Sense 10 that runs off of ac or 12v. I was looking at the Goal Zero 150 as a way to power the cpap and save the camper batteries. I do appreciate the input you have provided.

[time2roll]

Ugg one more thing to lug around and manage, no thanks.
Use the existing power system, upgrade as needed.

[pianotuna]

Better to do a proper solar system. The Yeti are $$$$ for $$ value as far as capacity goes.

NEOK wrote:
Is anyone using a Goal Zero Yeti 150 to power their CPAP? If so, I would like to hear your feedback in how well it works for you.

Thank you

[Tiger4x4RV]

On Amazon, I found some Q&A on the Yeti 150 and CPAP. here

Reading what they say makes me doubtful that your Yeti 150 could run the CPAP for very long. Plus, you'd have the issue of recharging the Yeti daily and it seems to take a very long time for recharge.

Perhaps a Yeti 400? You need a fair amount of power for a full night every night, and that is a pretty big drain on a smaller Yeti.

My CPAP runs fine on the 12V power from an outlet in my RV (2 6V batteries which store 110 usable amp hours and recharge from the truck alternator). I also have tested it with a small Duracell inverter (100W) and it ran OK on that. Sometimes people get a separate 12V deep cycle battery and dedicate it to powering the CPAP, but that still leaves the issue of frequent recharging.

[beemerphile1]

Our CPAP operates off the RV's 12vdc batteries, nothing else needed.

[The_Texan]

My CPAP runs on 12V or 120V and I use a 12V outlet at the beside nightstand. Also, Respironics recommends a PSW if you use an inverter.

[RoyB]

I would say NO based on this spec sheet... It shows the Inverter as a MSW TYPE inverter and the battery that is being charged while in high sun is a very small battery to operate a CPAP machine very long.

It appears the YETI 150 is more or less a good power source unit using solar power that is used to re-charge things like USB port, cell phone and computer batteries etc...

I would want some extra power to make sure the CPAP machine would run the whole night without any problems.

YETI 150

Appliances that uses motors and electronics do not do well being run by MSW type Power Inverters - especially the cheap built version AUto Parts stores Power Inverter units.

I do not have any experience with the CPAP machine but recently was talking with AIMS Inverters Technical folks about their 600WATT PSW AIMS Inverter performance and they brought up the fact that this unit solves the problem alot of their users of the smaller PSW Inverters running the CPAP machines. I assumed they was talking about the popular 150WATT and 300WATT PSW Power Inverters.

I think your best bet is to get a CPAP machines that runs from both 120VAC and 12VDC or at least get a medium power POWER INVERTER like the AIMS 600WATT PSW Power Inverter (AMAZON) that states in their description being used with CPAP machines.

Another issue that is discussed on the forums is using the 12VDC 8AMPS socket that is associated with the BAT WING Roof OTA Antenna panel. This would not be a good place to plug in a 300WATT and UP Power Inverter to use. You would want to connect directly to the Battery Bank terminals and then run an extension cord from the remote Power Inverter Installed location up to the bedroom area where you are sleeping using the CPAP machine.

Being a somewhat medical thing that is required to work for heath reasons you want to beef up on these things to insure great performance.

Would not be a good idea to run out of battery power at midnight or sooner on a poorly designed power setup with something as important to you as the CPAP machine is.

Need to check your CPAP power specifications before setting up any power sources for it.

Just some of my thoughts
Roy Ken

[Bumpyroad]

so that is basically just a storage battery that you can charge with an addsitional solar cell, wall outlet, etc.? if so it is an expensive battery pack. and to use it to put out 120 which needs to be converted to 12 volt for most? CPAPs seems a little silly to me. don't think a CPAP without humidifier will be that amp hungry but don't remember the numbers to run one 8 hours.
bumpy

[greenrvgreen]

I don't have a CPAP, but I do have a Goal Zero Yeti 150 (and a Yeti 400). You should be aware that the Yeti 150 outputs Modified Sine Wave power (MSW), if that makes a difference for a CPAP. The Yeti 400 is Pure Sine Wave (PSW). I found that a fan would run only at half speed using the MSW from the Yeti 150, and I think there will be other issues like that. If I knew more about how CPAPs work I could give you more info, but I've never even seen one.

[PatrickA51]

You need to post what model Cpap Machine you have. My machine is a Respironics M Series BiPap. It runs on 12v. I use a 12v receptical by my bed in the RV to power my machine.