Soft water for humidifier?

[hobbs]

Anyone every try soft water in their humidifier?

[Deborah K.]

If you mean soft tap water, I'm sure it would work just fine. Our tap water is extremely hard and chemically, but I use it anyway. Then, every week or so I fill the tank with very warm tap water with citric acid powder mixed in, let it soak a little while, then dump it out and rinse. I can then easily wipe out the inside, and it's clean and sparkling.

For months I used distilled water, but got tired of constantly carrying it upstairs. Then I learned that a fair number of folks just used tap water so I decided to try it, and have been happy with the results. If your water is soft, your tank should be even easier to clean than mine.

[Julie]

Isn't soft(ened) water salty?

[Pugsy]

Isn't soft(ened) water salty?

No. Even if salt is used to "soften" the water or remove the minerals it doesn't leave you with salty water at all.
And not all mineral removing water softeners use salt anyway. There are other ways to get those minerals out.

[chunkyfrog]

Distilled water is by definition "soft".
It has also has other gunk removed from it.
For cpap, we are concerned with minerals, which form nasty crust inside the tank.