How have those on PHD dealt with heat machine puts out? Understand it can heat up the room.
I’d say warm up a room. Because I am cheap I don’t turn my furnace up very high in the winter so first thing in the morning I get dressed in my dialysis room where it is warm.
The machine does get warm but it isn’t something that I have to address - I have an 9’ x 12’ dialysis room and I say it warms the room a few degrees when the window is closed.
Even my Baby K Fresenius heats up a room pretty well, especially if it’s already hot. I had a hard time in that room all night during the 3 solid months of heat wave we had here.
Pierre
Sounds like the extra warmth is a benefit in winter, but not summer. Does a fan help?
Yes, a fan helps. I use a large box fan on the floor when I need it.
Pierre
a fan with a remote is swell and open window and lowering the Blood Temperature from 37 C to 35-36 C are the variables that I use(in the winter I always put my blood Temp or Dialysate Temp up to 38 C{, the Aksys only puts out discernable heat during the heat disinfect cycle which is in the post treatment period or the first 8 hours after Tx.
Heather, are you in-home now… what kind of machine do you use?
It is my family member that is on dialysis. Not in a home program yet. Helping out with the reseach as to which machine would work best in the home.
Hi Heather,
As you can probably tell from the responses to the questions you’ve posted in the different threads on the Home Dialysis Central message boards, there are avid proponents for and just as avid opponents of each machine made. Every machine has its positives and its negatives. What might have been the deciding factor for one person may not be important factor for someone else.
Often the deciding factor as to what machine the patient is able to use depends on:
– what company the dialysis clinic that will do the training has a contract with
– what machine has their staff been trained to train patients to use
– who does the technical support and what machine are they able to repair and maintain
– what machine does the doctor believe is the best for any particular patient
Some patients choose a clinic based on the machine or the type of home hemodialysis offered (daily, nocturnal, convention). However, most patients are referred to a clinic because their nephrologist is affiliated with that clinic.
Those of us that are home dialysis enthusiasts would love to see patients offered all types of treatment using multiple machines, but the reality is that the dialysis industry is not there yet. For most clinics (and thus for most patients), cost, reimbursement, lack of awareness and education about home hemodialysis can all be barriers to choice.
I hope after you’ve done your research that your family member can get the treatment that he/she would like to have using the machine that he/she thinks would work best with his/her living situation and lifestyle. If you haven’t seen the compare chart under the 5 Types of Home Dialysis from the Home Dialysis Central home page, you might want to review that too.
It is my family member that is on dialysis. Not in a home program yet. Helping out with the reseach as to which machine would work best in the home.
That’s great, I know I would appreciate that kind of help when I was in need. I’m sure you’ll figure it all out, you seem pretty determined to get it all sorted out. You they decide on a machine, of course, the trick is to get the Dialysis folks to go along with what you feel is best.
Good Luck,
Guillaume
Thank you, Guillaume. I really appreciate all your help answering my questions re Aksys PHD. My loved one has always been my greatest support and now it is my turn to give back. We will keep pressing on until we find the best solution in a home program.
Thanks for your input, Beth.
Heather -
In response to your original question concering the heat that the PHD puts out, in my opinion it puts out quite a bit of heat. The heat is definitely at its highest when the PHD is in its disenfection cycle (which last almost 2 hours), but it also puts out a very noticeable amount of heat during treatments.
My husband/partner/significant other - whatever you want to call him – does not like the heat at all. Since we live in Houston, TX where heat and humidity are pretty much the norm, anything that adds to the already permeating heat is not looked on favorably. The heat from the PHD is so considerable, that my husband can’t even stand to be in the room with it during either its disenfection stage, or when I am dialyzing.
Noone told me about the amount of heat the PHD produces when I was deciding on where to put the machine in my house. Luckily, I chose to put it in a room that we only use 1 or 2 hours a day (not counting my dialysis treatments, of course) so the additional heat in that room is not a big deal. Had I chosen another room to put my PHD in, it would have been a huge problem.
Just keep that in mind if you decide to go with the Aksys PHD. It does generate a considerable amount of heat, especially during its disenfection cycle which starts about 3 hours after every treatment and lasts almost 2 hours.
Thank you for the heads up about the heat PHD puts out… I have had one other patient mention it to me, yet others don’t seem to mention it as being a problem for them. I would love to get more opinions on this as if my family member chooses the PHD, it may be for a nocturnal program and then the machine would be situated in the bedroom.
Aside from the heat issue could you say how you like the PHD?
What kind of cooling do those that notice more heat from the PHD have? Do you have floor or ceiling fan(s), window air conditioner, central air conditioning in the room with the machine? Could a heating and air conditioning expert adjust dampers and vents to make sure that the room with the PHD has the most air movement to keep it cool when the machine is producing the most heat? Do you have a thermostat that can be set to automatically lower the temperature daily when the PHD produces the most heat? Just a few ideas…
What kind of cooling do those that notice more heat from the PHD have? Do you have floor or ceiling fan(s), window air conditioner, central air conditioning in the room with the machine?
Nada… just the machine in the breakfast nook and a drissily outdoors…
Bertha (my Aksys PHD) is in a 2 story house that has central air conditiining. There is one unit for the bottom floor, and a second unit for the top floor. The room that Bertha lives in is on the first floor and no, we don’t lower the temperature of the air conditioner for the first floor in order to try and compensate for the extra heat she puts out. If we did that, then the rest of the first floor would be too cold. It wouldn’t make sense to adjust the dampers to send more air into Bertha’s room, either, because that room is only noticeably hot during Bertha’s disinfection and treatments.
For us, it is not a big deal because as I said earlier, we only use that room for about 2 - 3 hours a day. My husband just stays away from the room while Bertha is disinfecting, and only comes in while I am treating every so often. I, myself, don’t really mind the heat while I am treating since I lower the blood temperature anyway which makes me colder than normal to begin with.
I guess if the excessive heat ever did become a huge problem, we would either put a fan in the room, or a window unit, or even of of those portable ACs they have out now.
Heather - You asked what I liked about the PHD? I really like it alot, despite that fact the is gets interrupted sometimes by an error and my treament times have to be moved in order to accomodate these glitches.
The things I like most about my PHD:
- incredible flexibity in my dialysis schedule
- quick set up and tear down time between treatments (especially when compared to the more traditional SHD machines)
- the initial priming is done with blood from my access (versus with saline that just has to be drawn off later, during the treatment)
- more of the larger molecules in my blood (like phosphorous) are removed during each of its many backflushes that occur during every treatment
- all the benits of SHD as compared to traditional in-center dialysis (much more liberal diet, less fluid restrictions, ability to dialyze for longer or shorter times if choose to do so, complete control over my dialysis session so I can tailor it to fit my specific needs each time)
- much less storage space needed for supplies than what is needed to store the supplies for a more traditional machine used for SHD
Some of the things I don’t particularly like about my PHD:
- the fact that it is hard wired into pumbing and electrical because that means I can’t move it to a different location in my house w/out a lot of work and expense
- no UF profiling
- no sodium profiling
- no heparin pump (although the tech that services my machine tells me that it is coming “soon”)
- the amount of time added to my 2.5 hour treatment due to the backflushes that occur during treatment (Bertha is set to do a backflush every 15 minutes; each backflush adds about 1 minute to my total treatment time)
- because no heparin pump, it’s inability to do nocturnal dialysis which is what I really want to do
- the incredibly loud noises it makes during most of it recycle period
- the length of time required between treaments (up to 15 hours)
Despite the things that I don’t like about it, I would definitely not go back to doing in-center dialysis unless I absolutely had to. Just the fact that I now have complete autonomy in my dialysis schedule, freed up from the strict weekly schedule of 4 hours x 3 days that I had to follow at the clinic, has greatly improved my qualty of life. I no longer have to work things around my dialysis schedule - instead, I just schedule my day’s dialysis around the things that I need/want to do. Makes life a whole lot easier for me.
Estomb wrote:
- no UF profiling,
- the incredibly loud noises it makes during most of it recycle period
- the amount of time added to my 2.5 hour treatment due to the backflushes that occur during treatment (Bertha is set to do a backflush every 15 minutes; each backflush adds about 1 minute to my total treatment time)
-I profile by increasing my weight at ‘modify treatment’ dialogue, post weiht input… I set it til the UF equals 2.0 then later in the treatment usually 1 hour I turn it down to my true target kilo removal. I use the highest UF when I can most tolerate it…I usually only have to do this when I have an unusual weight gain.
- see my post under 'how noisy is your machine?" thread
-I consider backflush part of my dialysis time -since it is removing larger molecules during this backflush stage- and I subtract the backflush minutes from my Tx time. Also see Bill P’s notes on Treatment times and getting more/ better dialysis the more times you intiate treatment rather than how long you dialyze for. I found it very credible and insightful.
Guillaume