Physical Failure Checklist

Here are phys­i­cal fail­ures that can result in fail­ure to desaturate.

#1: Enthusiastic user cranked the oxygen flow meter too high

The oxy­gen flow meter should be set to 10 LPM or maybe slight­ly above. Some new users will open the oxy­gen flow to max­i­mum and the ball will be at the com­plete top of the oxy­gen flow range. This error will also cause the air sep­a­ra­tor to dis­play an amber light that will nev­er go off.

This push­es so much air through the air sep­a­ra­tor that both the oxy­gen con­cen­tra­tion in +O2 is low, and the oxy­gen con­cen­tra­tion in the ‑O2 is high. The extra oxy­gen at the ‑O2 set­ting often pre­vents users from desaturating.

This push­es so much air through the air sep­a­ra­tor that both the oxy­gen con­cen­tra­tion in +O2 is low, and the oxy­gen con­cen­tra­tion in the ‑O2 is high. The extra oxy­gen at the ‑O2 set­ting often pre­vents users from desaturating.

#3: Ripped breather hose

This occurs when the breather hose is pulled so hard the mem­brane between the ribs rips and allows room air to leak in when the user inhales.

This leak allows room air to dilute both the +O2 and ‑O2 air which inhibits both oxy­gen sat­u­ra­tion and oxy­gen desaturation. 

The best way to test this is to care­ful­ly inspect the hose to assure the mem­brane between the ribs is intact for the entire length of the hose. 

Tuto­r­i­al: Inspect and replace a dam­aged breather hose

If you doubt your inspec­tion, remove the breather hose from the reser­voir and plug one end with your thumb. Air should not escape when you blow air in from the unplugged end. 

If air escapes or you find a tear you will need to replace the breather hose.

#4: Poor Mask Seal

1. Make sure the mask is sealed prop­er­ly- suck test. Put the mask on your face and inhale while block­ing the upper air inlet port. This should cause the mask to draw to your face.
2. Use a mir­ror to make sure the mask valves are open­ing and clos­ing cor­rect­ly when the mask is on. 
3. Make sure to not touch the sil­i­cone valve flaps when putting on the breather hose. 

#5: Pulse Oximeter Issues 

See Also: Trou­bleshoot Your Pulse Oximeter

#6: Failed Air Separator (LiveO2 AC)

Each air sep­a­ra­tor has an inter­nal tester to assures air is sep­a­rat­ed into oxy­gen rich, +O2, over 75% and oxy­gen reduced, ‑O2 mix­tures, below 16%.

This is the amber light tester assures that oxy­gen is at least 75% pure. At a 10 LPM flow rate, it also assures that the ‑O2 lev­el is less than 16%. 

This test allows LiveO2 users to know their sys­tem is always work­ing with­out need for repeat­ed test­ing. We test all air sep­a­ra­tors before ship­ping, but they can fail over time, and some­times dur­ing transport. 

When an air sep­a­ra­tor fails, the amber light glows like in the image below. If you see this then go to the amber light diagnostic.

#7: Failed Valve

This one is very rare. Every sys­tem is pres­sure test­ed before shipping.

Switch­es between +O2 and ‑O2 should cause a dis­tinct and audi­ble latch as the valve locks into the oppo­site posi­tion. This latch mech­a­nism assures three things:

1. The mechan­i­cal com­po­nents of the valve are work­ing prop­er­ly each time the user switches;
2. The valve ful­ly switched between ‑O2 and +O2 air to dis­al­low mix­ing inside the valve;
3. The valve is inter­nal­ly sealed.

If you there is no dis­tinct latch. Please con­tact cus­tomer ser­vice.

#8: Oxygen to Hypoxic Air Leak

If you are still hav­ing prob­lems dis­con­nect the breather hose from the black valve and insert it into the over­flow release port, or use the ‑O2 zip­per to trap the breather hose into the ‑O2 compartment.

This iso­lates the air sup­ply to only ‑O2 bypass­ing the oxy­gen reser­voir and valve.   Exer­cise breath­ing this air.   If you desat­u­rate with this con­fig­u­ra­tion dif­fer­ent­ly than on the ‑O2 set­ting then oxy­gen is mix­ing with the hypox­ic air inside the reservoir.

Please con­tact cus­tomer ser­vice to arrange repair or replace­ment of your reservoir.

Please note the hole in the ‑O2 com­part­ment is not a defect. It releas­es excess air.

All else fails Order a Tester

Con­tact sup­port and we can pro­vide a sep­a­rate oxy­gen tester that will enable you to test the actu­al out­put of oxy­gen from the reser­voir at the mask.

We put this last because every air sep­a­ra­tor has a built-in tester that con­tin­u­ous­ly tests the oxy­gen lev­el cre­at­ed by the air sep­a­ra­tor. This built-in tester con­tin­u­ous­ly assures prop­er oxy­gen concentration.

Our sup­port depart­ment can option­al­ly pro­vide an oxy­gen tester to con­firm the lev­els are cor­rect as deliv­ered to the mask. Oxy­gen Test Meter Deposit

Relat­ed articles:

• Is my sys­tem set up correctly?
• Why is there a hole in my reservoir?
• My amber light won’t go off
• Why is there a hole in my reservoir?