How big a deal is it not to clean your air tube?

[SleeplessInOttawa]

So I've been using a CPAP machine since October 24, 2012 (just over 10 months), and I just realized that I have not been cleaning my air tube. I've been washing the mask and water tub regularly, but completely forgot about the air tube. I'm going to clean it today, and start cleaning it every week, but I'm just wondering if by not cleaning it so far I actually could be risking health problems. Does anyone have any information about this that they can share?

[nanwilson]

I only clean mine about ever 6 months or so, I have a spare so just trade out the hoses and let the used one dry out for a few days, then it gets put away until I remember to give it a change up.

[SleeplessInOttawa]

I only clean mine about ever 6 months or so, I have a spare so just trade out the hoses and let the used one dry out for a few days, then it gets put away until I remember to give it a change up.

I can't tell you how happy I am to read this!!! I had visions of bacteria breeding in my air tube, migrating to my lungs, and slowly but inexorably turning me into a zombie. Then I could kick off the zombie apocalypse...

[Julie]

Hi- been on Cpap x ? 10 yrs and think I've only cleaned it once. Have not had even a cold in triple that time.

[SleeplessInOttawa]

Hi- been on Cpap x ? 10 yrs and think I've only cleaned it once. Have not had even a cold in triple that time.

Thanks! Again, I'm very happy to read this. When I read in my ResMed guide that I'm supposed to wash the air tube every week, I freaked out.

[Not Fade]

My machine is nearly seven years old. The hose has maybe been changed once, but I can't remember. The inside of the hose never gets cleaned. It's been more than two years since I had a minor cold.

Others on the forum have posted that you are more likely to introduce something inside the hose by cleaning and rinsing it with water that by just leaving it alone. I agree with them.

[SleeplessInOttawa]

My machine is nearly seven years old. The hose has maybe been changed once, but I can't remember. The inside of the hose never gets cleaned. It's been more than two years since I had a minor cold.

Others on the forum have posted that you are more likely to introduce something inside the hose by cleaning and rinsing it with water that by just leaving it alone. I agree with them.

Interesting! I wonder if I shouldn't clean it at all? I figured cleaning it every couple months, or at least every 6 - 12 months makes sense. What do people think about it?

[Pugsy]

I can't remember the last time that I washed out the long hose. Some people feel better cleaning it religiously but I am not one of them. Now when I first started cpap therapy I had a much more rigid cleaning schedule but that got old real fast.

There's a huge range of opinions on cleaning of anything cpap related.
I usually tell people to do what they feel works well for them. Here's an old thread where people talked about cleaning the equipment. There's even more discussion available if you want to read even more...just use the search function at the top of the forum page.
viewtopic.php?p=567264#p567264

[Hawthorne]

Like others here, I used to clean my hose every week!

Now, I can't remember the last time I cleaned it. I actually have been healthier - as far as colds and flu go - since I stopped cleaning it!!

I do have 2 of them but the second is for when the one in use gives up. I don't know if or when that will happen!!

[Wulfman...]

I've been using the very same hose since I started therapy in mid-May of 2005.......and have never "cleaned" it. I put hot water in it a couple of times to check for leaks (there were none) and kept using it. I have a spare hose on one of my backup machines and a number of others still in sealed packages for future use, but decided long ago to see just how long one of these would last with almost continuous use.
I do live in a dry mountainous area and use cool, "passover" (no heat) humidification year-round, so there is virtually no residual vapor left in the hose after I shut off the machine.

You're more likely to be exposed to germs during the other 16 hours of the day when you're not hooked up to your machine.
Bacteria and viruses can't be carried out of a humidifier tank because they're much larger than water vapor molecules.
Keep your filters clean and use distilled water and you should be fine. But, do what YOU feel comfortable with.


Den

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[Todzo]

We have over two pounds of material in and on our bodies, which outnumber our cells ten to one, which probably help us much much more than harm us -- all alive and kicking.

I think it all depends upon what grows in there and how compatible it is with us and with what is growing in and on us.

[Janknitz]

3 years and counting and I haven't cleaned it once. I haven't died yet, and I haven't had an upper respiratory infection in about 2 years.

I don't get condensation in the hose or perhaps I'd be more vigilant. I washed my hose religiously for the first month or so, and all I found is that it was almost impossible to dry out, even though I had two hoses and switched them out. I figure there's more danger from the moisture trapped in the tube growing mold than my own respiratory flora.

[chunkyfrog]

I immediately remembered the "earwig" image.
The big, gross insect inside a tube; no, I don't want to look for it--or see it again, either.

[inkdesigner]

I've recently been converted to a more frequent cleaner. I have been on the hose for 3 years, and hadn't once cleaned my long hose or the short hose on my Swift FX. Then, about 3 months ago, I came down with a bad case of strep throat that survived 2 round of azithromycin before I was given a stronger antibiotic (which was a 10 day course this time rather than the 5 day course for z-pack), which took care of things. The doc who gave me the stronger antibiotic asked me if I regularly cleaned my cpap stuff, as he has seen less than well cleaned cpap supplies be the cause of issues for folks.

I'm now strep free, and my stubs are getting washed in a water/vinegar mix on a weekly basis.

[archangle]

If nothing else, buy a couple of spare hoses. They're fairly cheap as long as they're not heated. Even if they're heated, get at least one spare.

Then swap the hoses every so often, clean the dirty one and let it sit dry for a week or two.

Clean on whatever schedule you come up with. I clean and swap mine weekly when I clean everything else, but sometimes cleaning is just hooking it up to the kitchen faucet and running the hottest water I can through the hose for a while. I also dry mine on by hooking it to my old CPAP machine and blowing air through it for a while.