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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis (CF) are some of the most widely prevalent diseases of the present time. Oxygen concentrators are a big relief for patients suffering from diseases like such. Portable oxygen concentrators are significantly more popular and useful than the oxygen machines like oxygen tanks and stationary oxygen concentrators since they are light in weight and can efficiently provide oxygen to the patient, without keeping them bound to a position.
Buying an oxygen concentrator is no child’s play. It has a lot of aspects that need to be taken into consideration. One needs to take care of factors like oxygen output, battery life, weight, size, and design. In this article, we shall be discussing what are the factors that need to be considered precisely, before one selects a portable oxygen concentrator.
What makes portable oxygen concentrators better?
When it comes to oxygen concentrators, one can question why portable oxygen concentrators should be preferred over regular oxygen machines. Like any other options available for the same purpose, portable oxygen concentrators have both pros and cons. But if you compare the advantages and the disadvantages of the regular oxygen machines and the portable oxygen concentrators, you would realize that the portable oxygen concentrators are a much more profitable deal and that they offer much more benefits than their contemporaries.
What factors to consider?
There are two basic types of portable oxygen concentrators. Now that one has finally decided that they want to invest in an oxygen concentrator, they must know some details about the two so that they can make an informed decision. The two types of oxygen concentrators are pulse flow oxygen concentrators and continuous flow oxygen concentrators.
Continuous flow oxygen concentrators release the same amount of oxygen all the time while the pulse flow oxygen concentrators are an upgraded version of the same. They use technology to detect the pulse and provide oxygen only at the time of inhalation.
People mostly prefer the pulse flow oxygen concentrators over the continuous flow oxygen concentrators. Since the pulse flow oxygen concentrators can detect when the oxygen is required by the body and have to supply a limited amount of oxygen, they are more compact and much lighter in comparison to the continuous flow oxygen concentrators.
This makes them one of the most sought-after types of oxygen concentrators. The difference in weights of a pulse flow oxygen concentrator and a continuous flow oxygen concentrator is quite significant. A pulse flow oxygen concentrator weighs almost half the weight of a continuous flow oxygen concentrator.
- The third type of oxygen concentrator is considered to be of the best kind. These oxygen concentrators come with an option to switch between pulse oxygen flow and continuous oxygen flow. These oxygen concentrators aren’t just easy to use and easy to carry but they also have a very long-lasting battery life that can go on for approximately 16 hours in one charge.
- One needs to choose a brand that is reliable enough when it comes to buying the equipment as crucial as an oxygen concentrator. Since everything has been digitalized and surfing an online shopping site is easier than walking into a store, one needs to choose a brand that has a good record of customer satisfaction and does not sell low-quality products.
An easy way to do so is by checking the reviews on the products that have been listed on the online shopping sites. The review section offers some really honest feedback on the product and whether or not one should buy them.
- One of the most important pieces of information that one should have before buying a portable oxygen concentrator is that there are two types of oxygen concentrators sold in the market, recreational oxygen and medical oxygen.
Recreational oxygen is used in the case of scuba diving, and when one has to go to places where the air gets thinner and where oxygen is scarce. While medical oxygen is required when a person is suffering from diseases like Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis (CF).
Conclusion:
Buying a portable oxygen concentrator is a serious task and one needs to know what factors need to be considered before buying an oxygen concentrator. There are two primary types of oxygen concentrators. Pulse flow oxygen concentrator and a continuous flow oxygen concentrator.
The pulse flow oxygen concentrator detects (via pulse) when a body inhales and provides it oxygen only during inhalation, while a continuous flow oxygen concentrator produces a continuous stream of oxygen. The pulse flow oxygen concentrators are lighter than the continuous flow oxygen concentrator.
Also, there are two uses and hence two types of Oxygen concentrators. Recreational oxygen is used in the case of scuba diving, etc, while medical oxygen is used in the case of diseases like Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis (CF).