Does anyone have experience with light weight portable oxygen concentrators?

Some people are mouth breathers, and there is nothing wrong with putting the cannulas in their mouth ( or near it) Sounds gross I know, but I do it all the time in the hospital and it works fine. Its hard to get people to breath through thier nose if they are used to breathing through thier mouth.Gotta do whatever works!

Laura, thanks so much for locating one. That's very kind of you. I'm going to call the Oxus Company to make sure I can use an over the counter adapter - I don't see why I couldn't as the concentrator charges on a regular power outlet.

I appreciate that courtesy!

Staples has one for $14.59
CyberPower-CPS100BU-100-W-Mobile-Power-Inverter-12-VDC-Input-120-VAC-Output/product_IM1DV1501

Thanks, Laura, for the info on adapters; I will check it out - sometimes these things just get added to the "to-do" list! Your post is a good reminder that I need to bring this issue to the top of my list.

Questioning, that sounds like a pulse generated machine. Is it a cylindrical tank or an actual concentrator? The pulse generated ones deliver oxygen when the person breathes, so they're not delivering oxygen constantly; therefore, they last longer.

We have a portable for my dad & it's paid for by Medicare. We haven't tested it but we're told it can run up to six hours. The person needs to be breathing through their nose to get the oxygen. It's not like a concentrator where it doesn't matter how they're breathing. We have to keep reminding Dad to breathe out of his nose, as the alert is going off constantly. Good luck with your trip!

Just a thought... There are AC adapters for cigarette lighters in cars that the concentrator can plug into while you're driving.

Bumping this up so Veronica can perhaps get more answers to her question.

Actually, I do. We have a stationery concentrator and a portable Oxus concentrator with 3 lithium ion batteries, each of which lasts approximately 2.5 hours. At 2.0 hours, the alert begins beeping announcing that the battery is low.

Although I haven't tried it yet, a rep from our DME supplier told me that the alerts can be silenced. We've gotten used to it although it can be annoying.

There are different variations of combinations for the different alerts. So far the only ones that have gone off are the "low battery", "check cannula" and another related to the ventilation. It activated in a doctor's office, I couldn't figure out what the problem was, but it stopped when I moved it farther away from the wall, so perhaps it didn't have enough air clearance.

alerts, which occurs when the cannula is twisted, usually happening when it kinks up running from the back seat when I put the concentrator up to the front seat where Dad sits.

There's a nice little cloth covering that comes with the concentrator, as well as a portable wheeled carrier, the handle of which can be extended for walking or collapsed for stationary use.

Medicare paid for the rental cost since Dad was D'x'ed as needing oxygen 24/7. We pay nothing except the cost of mailing or shipping the batteries back when the alert advises a battery has been charged 300 times and needs to be returned.

If you're diagnosed as needing oxygen 24/7, you shouldn't have any trouble getting the portable concentrator. Know also that you might get one of the tanks only as a backup in case of power failure (there's the real vulnerability of using this), but our DME supplier advised that we can't get the portable concentrator and multiple tanks as well. It's an either/or situation.

We were given 3 batteries when the concentrator was delivered; I asked for another so we have 4 with a total battery life of about 10 hours.

What we haven't done yet is get the adapter that runs off a car's cigarette lighter. This is what you need to operate the concentrator off the car's battery.

If you do get one, ask for as many batteries as your DME will allow.

If they only supply you with a small manual, and it's copied and reduced, and if it's an Oxus, go to their website and download the manual. The manual we got was a copy of a version that was 50% reduced and was difficult to read. The downloadable one is much better.

The manual is about average; it addresses maintenance schedules, alerts, etc.

I don't know whether they can be rented. I did have some discussion with Inogen about purchasing one; the cost was around $3500.

If you can't get one, I think the E tanks last about 6 hours, but you'd need of course to at least 2 tanks plus another one for back up. Your car's back seat will be filled with tanks!

The Oxus brand seems to be good and reliable; now that I can finally see the manual it's easier to address the alerts. Inogen is the only other brand with which I'm familiar and I can't speak to its quality as I only have the literature.

I can tell you that one of the Inogen sales reps was very professional and helpful, and another was very pushy and determined, and gave what I thought were answers that didn't always make sense, especially when he told me that the cylinders contained jet fuel. What???

I thought it might be true if it was the propulsion method for releasing the oxygen, but he stumbled all over his claims when I asked that.

Hope this info helps.