distilled water vs filtered water

Tonight is my first night - an "auto-titration" machine for a week. The RN said only "distilled" water in the humidifier. I'm OK with that. I have a filter (PuR Brand) on my faucet. Is that water OK? What about "bottled" water from the supermarket as opposed to "distilled"? Comments? Thoughts?

Good luck with your titration! If it isn't your personally-owned machine, I'd go with the distilled water as recommended by the machine's owner. A few nights with tap water probably won't hurt the machine, but it might have already had it's "few nights," you don't have any way to know, and you don't want to have to pay for damaging their machine. I'm just sayin'.

doug83843 wrote:Tonight is my first night - an "auto-titration" machine for a week. The RN said only "distilled" water in the humidifier. I'm OK with that. I have a filter (PuR Brand) on my faucet. Is that water OK? What about "bottled" water from the supermarket as opposed to "distilled"? Comments? Thoughts?

i tried filtered water...but it seems like it caused more nasal congestion. i think the trick is to keep mineral build up out of your humidifier. not sure bottled or filtered water qualifies.

I've seen other threads on here with the same concerns. All saying something about chemicals to convenience, cost, etc. After reading most of them I came to this conclusion. It costs me about 88 cents for a gallon of distilled water at WalMart. For that price, enough said.

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The reason for using distilled water is that it doesn't contain any minerals that will be deposited in the water chamber. Purified water will also work because the minerals have been removed from it.

Water filters remove some impurities from water but they do not remove minerals. Bottled drinking water contains minerals, and some drinking water has had minerals added to it. Bottled spring water also contains minerals.

I have a pur filter I love it! But its not good for your c-pap machine. Why? because of the "stage 3 step" in the filter where after its cleaned your water, it runs it over minerals to improve the taste of the water. Those minerals are what we are wanting to avoid in our water. When the humidifier evaporates the water, you will be left with mineral deposits on your heat plate. Distilled water is the best way to avoid that.




3 Stage Water Filter


Stage 1:
Added layer to trap sediment

Stage 2:
Activated carbon microfilter for contaminant reduction also removes 99.9% of the microbial cysts, CRYPTOSPORIDIUM and GIARDIA***

Stage 3:
Filtered over natural minerals for a crisp, refreshing taste

I thought the question of distilled v. filtered was for the health of the user, not the health of the machine! That said, I was looking into a home distiller machine because most distilled waters are also run through a carbon filter and the "burnt wood" smell in the distilled water bothers my sense of smell when breathing through the machine. Any thoughts on the health benefits of using filtered v. distilled water?

Nothing like resurrecting a 4 year old thread.

ratfancy wrote:I thought the question of distilled v. filtered was for the health of the user, not the health of the machine!

you'd be wrong. tap water is fine in the humidifer, you just have to clean out the crusty bits that form during use.

AND, you won't win friends by needlessly resurrecting old threads.

ratfancy wrote:I thought the question of distilled v. filtered was for the health of the user, not the health of the machine! That said, I was looking into a home distiller machine because most distilled waters are also run through a carbon filter and the "burnt wood" smell in the distilled water bothers my sense of smell when breathing through the machine. Any thoughts on the health benefits of using filtered v. distilled water?

Since this thread has already been resurrected, I'll say it:

Nope, it is simply to keep scale from building up in the humidifier chamber. Also, I personally cannot smell burnt wood in my distilled water.

OK - so let me get this straight: Apparently what we should do is shut down the site and archive it. If you are attacked for asking a question - what's the point of a forum?

ratfancy wrote:OK - so let me get this straight: Apparently what we should do is shut down the site and archive it. If you are attacked for asking a question - what's the point of a forum?

you started off not asking a question, but arguing with a four year old thread, as if the people that you were responding to were still around... could be, but probably not.

and even so, you got an answer.

and now you're bitching about it.

welcome to you too.

This thread restart helps me understand why PR is sometimes grumpy! Grrrrr....

Nick Danger wrote:This thread restart helps me understand why PR is sometimes grumpy! Grrrrr....