Daily Battles: Airsense CPAP Machine Leaking Water

I just found out recently that my CPAP machine has been slowly leaking water onto my nightstand and ruining the surface of the nightstand.

For those of you who don't know, and don't suffer (good for you), a CPAP machine is a prescription machine that uses constant air pressure to help keep the breathing canal open for people who have sleep apnea, so they can get better sleep and better rest at night. According to sleepapnea.org, 22 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea (moderate to severe), which is 6.7% of the entire US population. Basically, if you snore pretty loudly at night, changes are, you have sleep apnea.

The model of my CPAP machine is AirSense 10 by ResMed.

After some research, again, turned out this leaking problem is actually quite common:
http://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic/t107107/My-Airsense-10-Autoset-leaked-water.html

The problem resides in the water chamber for the built in humidifier. Probably due to low quality gluing work, after some usage (Your Miles Might Vary), the part where the metal is glued to the plastic would eventually start leaking. And because most likely the leak is very slow, you won't notice it, since there would still be water left in the tank in the morning, and the leakage is well hidden underneath the CPAP machine. 

Once I found out the exact problem, I gave my CPAP supplier a call to try to order a replacement. Turned out since I didn't order supplies from my supplier once a month, they deactivated my account. And in order to activate my account again, I have to schedule an appointment with my sleep doctor. I can't even just buy parts from this supplier, because it would require a doctor's prescription.

In my case, since I have already hit my high medical deductibles this year, it makes sense to get the prescription from my doctor, so my health insurance can help cover the majority of the cost on the replacement parts (which means I have to wait 5 weeks before I can see my sleep doctor and then order my parts).

If you have the same water leakage problem and just want to take care of it right away, you can visit CPAP.com to order replacement parts directly out of pocket. The web site does charge shipping if you don't order over $99 of products.

It is unfortunate that my nightstand now has visible water damage. But that's life and life has many challenges. So be strong and be ready for your next battle with technology and life in genera!

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: Quicken Quickbooks Can't Download Credit Card Transactions from American Express

One of my involuntary jobs is to manage bookkeeping and accounting for my wife's small business. Not a fun job, to be honest. That's why I was willing to pay Intuit hundreds of dollars for the software tool called Quickbooks, because it allows me to download bank and credit card transactions directly, saving me all the hassles of entering everything manually myself. In fact, I was just coerced into paying Intuit another hundreds of dollars for an upgrade recently, because they decided to stop supporting transaction import with the 2016 version of Quickbooks Pro.

Then today, when I was going through receipts, I found out that I can't download credit card transactions from American Express website in the QBO format for Quickbooks Pro to import. The only download options are Adobe PDF, MS Excel, and CSV.

After digging around the web site through other means, I finally found this on AMEX website:

QBO and QFX file types are unavailable for download at the moment, but CSV and PDF are available for use.

A bit more research revealed that I am not the only one suffering. Many people actually have already talked with Intuit support and American Express support on this issue:

Suddenly unable to connect to American Express

American Express Not Downloading

Totally American Express's fault, and American Express uses the excuse of website maintenance. But come on, AMEX, given how big you are and how rich you are, why haven't you fixed the problem after at least two weeks?

Well, I guess for now I'll just have to wait for AMEX to put their acts together, because I AM NOT MANUALLY ENTERING ALL THOSE RECEIPTS MYSELF!!

If you are also suffering, I am sorry, tough luck. This is a battle that is simply out of our control. Maybe you can call or chat with AMEX to put on some pressure for the fix. But I seriously doubt how much pressure we puny consumers can give to a Giant Corp like AMEX.

Just another battle with technology. The war goes on....

[Update on August 1st]: Contacted AMEX support they said in less than 7 week, the problem should be resolved.

[Update on August 6th]: Figured out that on AMEX web site, if you switch to the Preview New Web Site, you can now download QBO transaction files. You just have to disable bank feeds for your AMEX accounts and then as you import transactions, select the right AMEX Quickbooks Accounts inside Quickbooks to re-link with AMEX, and things should be back to normal!!

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com