Starter Kits

Starting CPAP calls for five decisions nobody can take alone: the device, the mask, the mask size, humidification, the tubing. A Starter Kit reduces them to one. You order a single box, and the first night is possible on the evening it arrives.

This is not a discount in disguise. A kit does cost less than the sum of its parts bought separately, but that is not the point: the real value is no longer having to guess what goes with what.

Four configurations

• Starter Kit Basic: the ResMed AirSense 11 AutoSet with its standard tube, filters, power supply and bag, plus the AirFit F20 mask fitted in size M with the quiet QuietAir elbow, and the S and L cushions. No humidification.
• Starter Kit Plus: the same, with the HumidAir 11 chamber and the ClimateLineAir 11 heated tube added. Climate Control is active from the first night.
• Starter Kit Basic For Her and Plus For Her: the same two formulas with the AirFit F20 For Her mask and its smaller headgear. That mask exists in only two cushion sizes, S and M, and the kit contains both.

Basic or Plus?

The AirSense 11 works perfectly well without humidification, on the standard tube supplied. So the Basic is enough to begin with, and if after a few nights you find the air is drying your nose out, you add humidification then, with the Climate Control 11 bundle.

Take the Plus straight away if you already know dry air bothers you, if your home is heated dry, or if you are starting in winter. That is the case for most patients who begin between October and March.

Why the kits use a full face mask

All four kits start from a full face mask, and that is deliberate. Right at the beginning, you do not yet know whether you breathe through your nose or your mouth while asleep. A full face mask covers both, whereas a nasal mask lets the air escape as soon as the mouth opens. It is the choice least likely to miss.

If you already know you breathe through your nose, a nasal Fit Pack bought together with the device on its own comes to much the same and will suit you better.

The language of the device menus

This is the detail that surprises people most on delivery. ResMed sells the AirSense 11 in language packs, and the device only displays the languages in its pack. So the kits come in two versions:

• Standard version (Basic, Plus, Basic For Her, Plus For Her): menus in Dutch, French, Portuguese, Spanish and German.
• English menu version (Basic, Plus, Basic For Her, Plus For Her): menus in English and German. This is the one to choose if you want English.

For menus in Italian, there is no kit: order the AirSense 11 on its own, choosing the Greek, Italian, Estonian and Turkish pack, then add the Fit Pack of the mask that suits you. You end up with the same setup, in two order lines.

What comes next

Once you know your size, you only ever reorder the part concerned: the cushion every one to three months, the filter monthly, the headgear once or twice a year. That is the whole point of having had every size at the start: what follows becomes a short, predictable list.