ResMed AirFit N20 Nasal Mask

The AirFit N20 from ResMed is a nasal mask that seals around the outside of your nose rather than across the bridge of it. Its InfinitySeal cushion varies in thickness so it can support the sides of your nose and still stay soft where the skin is thinnest.

The frame flexes to the shape of your face and carries its own padding, so very little hard plastic touches you. Magnetic clips on the lower straps pull the headgear into place, which makes the mask easy to put on and take off one handed.

Key Features:

• InfinitySeal Cushion: Loops of varying thickness support the sides of your nose while easing pressure across the bridge.
• Flexible Padded Frame: The frame bends to your face shape and carries integrated padding, so your line of sight stays open.
• Magnetic Headgear Clips: Magnets on the lower straps draw the headgear into the frame, so the mask goes on with one hand.
• Quick Release Elbow: Squeeze tabs release the elbow one handed, and it rotates a full turn with an independent tube swivel.
• Diffused Venting: Exhalation ports in the elbow spread your breath out gently instead of aiming it at your bed partner.
• Integrated Flexi-Tube: A short lightweight tube stretches and bends off the frame so the mask does not drag.
• Three Cushion Sizes: Small, Medium and Large, chosen by the width of your nose rather than the size of your head.

The AirFit N20 suits patients who breathe through their nose and want a proven nasal cushion that holds its seal at higher pressures. It is a sound first mask, and a common step down for patients leaving a full face mask behind.

Why the cushion is not one thickness

A silicone flange of even thickness has to compromise. Made thick enough to brace the sides of the nose, it presses hard on the bridge, and made soft enough to spare the bridge, it collapses under pressure and blows out at the corners.

ResMed solved that by varying the wall along its length. The loops run heavier where the seal has to hold its shape and thinner where the bone sits close to the surface, which is why one cushion can do both jobs.

Where the mask rests on your face

Contact is deliberately limited. The padded frame carries the load along the cheeks, and the silicone itself bears only lightly on the skin around the nose, which leaves the eyeline clear enough to read or watch television.

That distribution matters more than total surface area. Pressure spread across a padded span leaves nothing behind by morning, while the same force through a narrow rim is what produces the marks patients complain about.

Strap tension and chasing leaks

The straps are meant to be worn loose. ResMed designs the cushion to inflate slightly under therapy pressure and find the contour of your face on its own, and cranking the headgear down prevents exactly that from happening.

So a leak is rarely a tension problem. Air escaping toward your eyes usually means the cushion is riding high, air escaping past your lip means it is low, and both are corrected by repositioning or resizing instead.

Care, wear and replacement

Facial oil is what ends a cushion. Wash the silicone daily in warm water with a mild soap and let it dry out of direct sun, and wash the fabric parts weekly, drying them flat rather than over a radiator.

Replace the cushion when it feels tacky, looks glazed, or needs more tension than it once did to stay quiet. The frame and headgear outlast it comfortably, so they are usually replaced on a longer cycle.

Here's everything that comes in the box.

• AirFit N20 InfinitySeal cushion (Small, Medium or Large)
• Quick release elbow with diffused venting
• Mask frame with integrated padding
• Plush headgear with magnetic clips
• Flexi-Tube short tube