From the Mountain High FAQ:
Q:
Why does the EDS cost more as compared to something like an MP3 player or a cell-phone that seems to be just as, if not more, complicated than the EDS unit?
A:
We don’t have the benefit of marketing the EDS anywhere outside of the aviation market. The FDA, which treats any oxygen device as a medical device and oxygen for consumption as a drug, vigorously inhibits any such marketing unless it is registered as a medical device and strictly sold through pre-approved marketing and distribution methods. However, the FAA requires the use of oxygen in aviation, placing such equipment and AVO/ABO marked oxygen just barely outside the ospisios of the FDA. With the FDA on one side and the FAA on the other our market freedom is indeed severely restricted.
Much R&D, money and man-years of testing along with state-of-the-art micro-electronics and proprietary sensor technology went into the patented EDS system so that it could be the best oxygen delivery technology available to the aviator.
The R&D was a costly gamble, but became obviously worth it in the first year it was released (1993). Feedback shows that aviators all over the world and of all types appreciate and use the EDS every day.
I think MH did a clever job of sensing the start of the inhalation cycle via the single cannula tube, which is quite long. I don’t know how they did it but they must be looking for a very small pressure drop.
Others who have tried (e.g. Precise Oxygen) did a bad job and use a dual-tube cannula with large diameter tubes which are awkward. I used them for about 7 years. They told me they no longer sell their mechanical demand regulator but I have just had a look and it is still here
MH gear works much better than anything else out there.
