Fisher & Paykel Evora Nasal Mask

The Evora from Fisher and Paykel is a compact nasal mask that seals under your nose rather than sitting across the bridge of it. It is held on by CapFit headgear, which pulls over your head like a baseball cap instead of threading around it.

Very little of the mask touches your face, which keeps your line of sight open and leaves lighter marks in the morning. The cushion and frame are compact enough that most people can read a book or wear their glasses with the mask on.

Key Features:

• CapFit Headgear: Pulls on over your head like a cap, so there are no straps to unthread and rethread each night.
• Minimal Contact Design: Very little of the mask rests against your face, which keeps your view open and reduces morning marks.
• Compact Nasal Cushion: Seals under your nose and around the nostrils, so nothing sits across the bridge and nothing enters your nose.
• Quiet Diffused Venting: Exhalation ports spread your breath out gently rather than directing it as a stream at your bed partner.
• Four Cushion Sizes: Small, Medium, Large and Wide, with a Fit Pack that ships every size in one box.
• Simple to Strip Down: The cushion, frame, headgear and tube come apart by hand for washing and go back together the same way.

The Evora suits patients who breathe through their nose and who want the least mask on their face that will still hold a seal. It is a particularly good first mask if threading and rethreading headgear has put you off other designs.

Why the headgear is the headline feature

Conventional CPAP headgear is a set of straps that has to be separated, positioned behind the skull and rejoined every time the mask goes on. It is the step new patients most often get wrong, and a strap rethreaded slightly differently changes where the cushion sits.

CapFit removes the step. The assembly holds its shape and is drawn on in a single motion, with one crown strap setting the height. Because that setting persists, the geometry that produced a good seal on the first night is reproduced on every night after it.

Where the mask actually rests

Two contact zones do the work. A soft band passes across the cheeks and above the ears, carrying the tension, while the seal itself bears only lightly against the skin immediately beneath the nostrils.

Nothing bears on the nasal bridge. That single contact point produces most of the red marks and pressure sores patients report on other designs, and removing it is the reason clinicians reach for this shape when a patient has broken skin there.

Sealing pressure and strap tension

A leak tempts most patients to tighten. On a low-contact design that response usually backfires: pulling harder deforms the seal away from the contour it is meant to follow, and the leak widens.

The correct response is almost always a size change or a small repositioning. Therapy air escaping toward the eyes usually means the seal is sitting too high, and air escaping downward usually means it is too low. Both are geometry problems, not tension problems.

Care, wear and replacement

Silicone picks up facial oils, and an oily seal is a leaking seal. Daily washing in warm water with a mild soap, then air-drying away from direct sunlight, keeps it pliable. The fabric components tolerate a weekly wash and should dry flat.

Seals wear out well before frames or straps do, because they carry the sealing load every night. Order a replacement when the silicone feels tacky, looks glazed, or needs more tension than it once did to stay quiet.

Here's everything that comes in the box.

• Evora nasal cushion (Small, Medium, Large or Wide)
• CapFit headgear with adjustable crown strap
• Short tube with swivel connector
• Evora mask frame