Neighbours oxygen tank

Absolutely this.
A repetitive noise like that would drive me nuts.

How loud is the oxygen machine if you can hear it?

Machine sounds faulty .

Better soundproofing during development could be used to reduce noise transfer between levels.

welcome to shitty UK housing!

We have oxygen in our home and I agree it’s very loud! It’s in our bedroom and for my child so I wouldn’t be comfortable wearing earplugs.

What I have started doing although not ideal is listening to podcasts or watching Netflix on my phone right beside me to try and drown it out.

Moving room may not even help, I can hear it running in all areas of my house and although my neighbours say they can’t, I can even hear it when sat in their living room.

Difficult OP, I know. But they are so sick that they rely on external oxygen. It’s highly unlikely they’ll be in a financial position to sound proof they’re flat. You’re going to have to use ear plugs, sound proof, or move. I know how awful it is to have neighbour noise impinging on your life, it raises your everyday base stress level, but solving it is going to be on you, and whatever your situation, just be glad you can breathe and get oxygen around your body without assistance.

A thought for the pearl clutchers if I may be so bold - imagine yourself in the following hypothetical situation:

Toria's driving her car along the road. Not fast, got the limiter set to 32mph as per the posted speed limit.. and she falls asleep. Only for two seconds, not long enough even for the fancy car tech to respond, but just long enouBANG

Oops. just long enough to go straight through the red light at the Toucan crossing you just stepped on to it seems. By some miracle you're entirely unscathed, as is Toria.

The precious bag of shopping you had in your hand though? That's gone, like gone gone. it's nothing more than a red splat on the bonnet and a pungent smell of iron/copper that'll haunt your dreams forevermore. Then she pokes her head out the window and says:

"Oh my god I'm so sorry, that's totally my faul.. yeah, my bad, sorry. I must have fell asleep at the wheel, but it's all good - I've not slept in 12 days straight, and a girl's gotta get her beauty sleep whenever she can, right? Nah, it's just my neighbours, they've got this machine that runs all night and keeps us awake, but it's all good 'cause it's "life saving"... I know, the irony, right? Anyway hun, do me a favour woman to woman.. wipe all that claret off my windscreen please? I can't see with it like that, and I don't want to run someone over"

Then like that she just drives off. Do you find this acceptable?

This is really odd but it works for me too. I can sleep with the window open - I'm on a street, with a deafening church across the way. My fan isn't even noisy, it must be soothing somehow.

@Tevion1213, your neighbour's wife must be suffering as well! I second having a word with the delivery guy and carers.

Can you switch the room you sleep in to the other side away from the room with the tank in? Ear plugs… play music etc.

Better soundproofing during development could be used to reduce noise transfer between levels. There are also ways to retrofit soundproofing but it would be an expense for the OP that she shouldn’t need to pay.

They don't need to go to the expense of re-carpeting the floor. A cheap bit of insulation board under the machine should do it - if it is the vibration of the machine itself.

I would look into moving. This sort of thing is why I will only live in a detached now

I'm not sure why so many are against mentioning it politely to your neighbour. Worst case scenario, you mention it, neighbour checks equipment, it's working fine and there's nothing to be done about the noise, then you know they're not at risk and can explore other options to block the noise. You don't sound like someone who would be a persistent bitch about the issue, otherwise you would have gone in all guns blazing by now.

When we moved into our house, the boiler had been installed incorrectly (by a gas safe engineer) and was at risk of exploding our house. I was only alerted to it by my neighbour mentioning she could see flames coming out of the flue when she was in her garden. I'm glad she thought to mention it in a calm and polite way, as I had noticed the boiler was a bit loud, but put it down to the house being poorly insulated. Obviously getting our boiler serviced was on our to do list, but it got pushed to the top when she told us that.

Loop earplugs. The extra quiet ones. I swear by mine I'm noise sensitive

DH has covid fibrosis, never smoked, and is on oxygen.

I would hate it if a neighbour has a problem and didn't tell me. I would do every thing possible to solve the issue if I knew about it.

Noise can drive you crazy, huge sympathy to you OP,

I can understand how this would be irritating, but you are going to have to find the solution. Could you look at soundproofing your house?

Absolutely bet its horrible for them to live with it .

Although I would feel terrible about it, it would be an issue for me regarding sleep. I am a very light sleeper, and sensitive to noise. My husband uses a Cpap machine for sleep apnea, when it was faulty it became quite noisy and would disturb my sleep. My husband can sleep through anything, but I had to ask him to get the machine looked at because it was keeping me awake and obviously it was unsafe if faulty.

I think you have done the right thing by not complaining and understanding that it’s not intentional what so ever that they are disturbing you.

if you genuinely feel that there is an issue with the oxygen machine, you should contact local authority and report as a safe guarding as the neighbour may not actually be getting the health support that he needs.

They are the UPSTAIRS neighbors!!

Advice about paper-thin walls, next-door flats, acoustic soundproofing the walls, bookshelves or soft furnishings to block noises aren't relevant as the sound is coming from overhead.

Please, just read the entire thread-opening post for yourselves before you start commenting. It was literally stated in the first sentence.

Let me just apologize now, and climb down off my soapbox, and scuttle away. 😳 As you were.

This. Neither OP nor her neighbour are the problem. The properties they live in are not fit for purpose due to poor soundproofing.

What about using a fan in your bedroom to drown out the background noise? And the person going on about the person been a smoker. Go to any stay in a hospital, and they preach don't smoke, then you go to the garden area for fresh air to find doctors, and nurses smoking. And I have never smoked!

[Ultra high oxygen user]
All UK medical home oxygen users have access to their oxygen suppliers. It could be a faulty cylinder or something as simple as a piece of furniture pinching the tubing that connects to the nasal cannula. If you are on speaking terms with the neighbour pop round and ask if they can call their supplier to do a safety check on their equipment as you can hear it make strange noises. If not maybe call the supplier and report concerns that the equipment MAY have an issue and could they check. Home oxygen users get frequent and regular safety checks.
TBH it may be linked to hypersensitivity to some noises that you cannot control in which case it’s worth trying noise cancelling devices as others have suggested. Maybe think of things you can do that help distract you from hyperfocussing on the noise.

You would hate my set up in use as even I think it’s sounds like darth vader gasping after he has run a marathon. Thankfully my neighbour is a nurse and copes.

Youtube is worth trying as you get long videos of simple white noise and other choices without having to spend silly money on a'machine'.
I do have premium though so no idea if ads would wake you up!

Your neighbours need proper carpeting with underlay.

could you approach in person, explain how awkward and bad you feel, that the sound is keeping you up and would it be poss for them to install carpet with a thick underlay? Failing that, I'd wear earplugs to sleep, play white noise, music or a podcast to sleep.

I think the best solution in this case is a white noise machine. I’d be surprised if it won’t block out this sort of noise completely and you won’t notice it after a while.

I listen to a white noise app through earbuds because we have neighbours who let fire doors slam through the night and a machine won’t block that, but it will block almost anything else. More comfortable and better for your hearing than the headphone option.

This is really sad:(
Oddly enough I just read another post on a different board about something similar; a property with thin walls and a neighbour with COPD. In this case it was wheezing and coughing, but white noise, fan noise can help, unless the problem is very sudden impact like a door slamming.

I used youtube videos (12 hour ones) at night when we had a similar issue and subtle white noise or a jet sound can mask a lot of mid range noises. Better than apps as you have more control over the volume and far more choice too.

Good lord don't say anything to them. It isn't their fault the walls are thin. I know you didn't mention this but someone might! Perspective can help a bit too - I lived somewhere with heavy pallets being dropped for 9 hours per day, starting at 6pm on weekends. Nothing masked that and unlike what people often tell you, it wasn't something you 'got used to'.

Best of luck. I can't recommend earplugs as they don't work for me, and I am too wary of wax/infection issues.
for total protection I used to run the fan video and popped one earphone in from a different device to double up! It worked ok.