Hot Water in humidifier tank

tomjax wrote:Sharon 1965, your sarcastic remark was unwarranted and personal.

I made a general reference that all replies are not informed. I fail to understand your attitude to this truism.
In this, as other forums with many participants, there is an enormous variation in being informed and also making an informed reply.

Many newbies come here because they are not informed and are trying to learn.

Many who post replies also vary in the quality of their advice.
Some are clearly more knowledgeable, some from experience and some by a combination of experience and solid technical understanding.
A reasonable understanding of physics and biochemistry and technical proficiency provides a clear advantage.
Critical thinking and basic logic also helps.
High IQ and GPA do not necessarily make a better thinker.
Some will be uninformed, but this will never stop them from giving advice and answering questions that it is clear they do not know what they are talking about.
It is unfortunate that many will follow their black magic vodoo and believe it.
tomjax

Tom,

I guess....."If the shoe fits......"

I've been wondering if I should take your first post on this thread "personally".

You've made two posts on this thread offering only critiicism of those who post and no meaningful information with regard to the subject matter.

Peter had an idea......he tried it and decided he didn't like some of the results. I merely stated that I had heard/read of people doing that. I only wondered about the effects of putting boiling water into a device that only heats the water to the low to mid 100's degrees (F). I'm not sure whether the humidifier would shut itself off if the water temperature was much higher than it was designed to heat the water to.

Den

Hi Tomjax,

Regarding your low opinion of "uninformed" posters, blind Freddie knows that when reading anything on the internet that it is "Caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware) and the onus is on the reader to search out and assess the information they need. That's a given.

With regards the lampooning of uninformed posters, I personally, and I know most posters here, greatly appreciate the willingness of people to share their personal experiences (pain and victories), and I've found great encouragement with these type of posts, even though the post may not be technically correct in every aspect.

I see the value of this forum as two fold, one to provide a resource where information, tips and new ideas can be found regarding a wide range of topics related to cpap, and two, to encourage people struggling with compliance to stick it out and to help them resolve the issues that threaten their compliance.

I think the forum does an admirable job of both and while most posters here including me, have only limited knowledge and certainly no medical qualifications, they offer an invaluable resource, and that is their experience.

When they share their personal stories, they risk embarrassment but they take that risk so that it can help others who are struggling. My wife thinks I'm a bit obsessive about cpap but after having a glimpse of what life can be like again, setbacks can be very discouraging. People who have been through that themselves are the best ones to offer encouragement, whether they have technical qualifications or not.

A friend of mine who is also on cpap but not involved in this or any other forum, was just involved in an auto accident because he fell asleep at the wheel. If he had only a small portion of the knowledge I have gleaned from the posters here he would have suspected that he was mouth breathing straight away and sought out a solution.

I feel a debt of gratitude to the many posters here who have helped me and in turn want to help those who are even less experienced than I am. To that end I try to only post regarding the limited areas where I have experience, but I am going to post emotional encouragement whenever I can.

Peter

Wulfman wrote:

tomjax wrote:Sharon 1965, your sarcastic remark was unwarranted and personal.

I made a general reference that all replies are not informed. I fail to understand your attitude to this truism.
In this, as other forums with many participants, there is an enormous variation in being informed and also making an informed reply.

Many newbies come here because they are not informed and are trying to learn.

Many who post replies also vary in the quality of their advice.
Some are clearly more knowledgeable, some from experience and some by a combination of experience and solid technical understanding.
A reasonable understanding of physics and biochemistry and technical proficiency provides a clear advantage.
Critical thinking and basic logic also helps.
High IQ and GPA do not necessarily make a better thinker.
Some will be uninformed, but this will never stop them from giving advice and answering questions that it is clear they do not know what they are talking about.
It is unfortunate that many will follow their black magic vodoo and believe it.
tomjax

Tom,

I guess....."If the shoe fits......"

I've been wondering if I should take your first post on this thread "personally".

You've made two posts on this thread offering only critiicism of those who post and no meaningful information with regard to the subject matter.

Peter had an idea......he tried it and decided he didn't like some of the results. I merely stated that I had heard/read of people doing that. I only wondered about the effects of putting boiling water into a device that only heats the water to the low to mid 100's degrees (F). I'm not sure whether the humidifier would shut itself off if the water temperature was much higher than it was designed to heat the water to.

Den

Tom -

When I read this thread last night I thought about writing a response but decided to just keep my thoughts to myself. But since I am not the only one who feels the same way I will go ahead and pull one out of the quiver ... as you will likely perceive it.

There are some who post (factual to opinionated) in order to try and help provide information on questions raised on this forum. Then there are a few (very few ... as in one) who criticize every post and yet add no useful information for the questions raised.

I think it is great for everyone to post their difference of opinion/fact ... but for you to always post simply to say that those who post on this forum are uninformed provides no benefit to those you seek to protect from misinformation.

If you believe someone has posted information in error, then by all means post your own opinions/facts but not just say someone is wrong and/or uninformed then not give your version of the correct information ... but then who am I to tell you what to post on this forum. Just thought you might want to know the perspective of someone other than your own or the television programming (non-apnea/xPAP related) you often post about here on the forum.

It doesn't sound like anyone's using filtered water in their humifier tank, but I thought I'd add this in just in case.

I'm not sure how all filters work, but mine uses an ion exchange process that takes out or reduces all the stuff I don't like (like chlorine) but ends up putting in sodium. I mistakenly used that to fill my steam iron once and the next time I used it I got a lot of salt on my clothes and found a lot of salt in my iron's steam holes. I have no idea how that amound of salt would affect the metal bottom of my humidifier tank when I negligently let it dry out.

scotty wrote:It doesn't sound like anyone's using filtered water in their humifier tank, but I thought I'd add this in just in case.

I'm not sure how all filters work, but mine uses an ion exchange process that takes out or reduces all the stuff I don't like (like chlorine) but ends up putting in sodium. I mistakenly used that to fill my steam iron once and the next time I used it I got a lot of salt on my clothes and found a lot of salt in my iron's steam holes. I have no idea how that amound of salt would affect the metal bottom of my humidifier tank when I negligently let it dry out.

Oh yeah.....we're talking about preheating distilled water.....which is what is recommended in the user manuals.

Den

rooster wrote:. . . a friend who keeps his distilled water in the refrigerator. He says the cold air blowing out of his passover humidifier helps him feel refreshed and relaxed and he falls asleep quickly.

Hmmm, that might be a great idea to try when summer temps get here.

As a registered sleep tech. (RPSGT) with over 12 years experience I can honestly tell you ....it doesn't matter if you use hot or cold, tap or distilled.

In the labs we use cold tap water, we NEVER use distilled, we NEVER boil, we NEVER warm it up.

Some machines have a "heat" function that automatically warms the water all night, but without this function all the hot or warm water you put in will cool VERY rapidly.

Also NEVER put BOILING hot water in your machine.....it can possibly burn or irritate your nasal mucous membranes, causing swelling, & difficulty breathing.

This is an informed answer by the way

Anonymous wrote:As a registered sleep tech. (RPSGT) with over 12 years experience I can honestly tell you ....it doesn't matter if you use hot or cold, tap or distilled.

In the labs we use cold tap water, we NEVER use distilled, we NEVER boil, we NEVER warm it up.

Some machines have a "heat" function that automatically warms the water all night, but without this function all the hot or warm water you put in will cool VERY rapidly.

.................................

This is an informed answer by the way

Bovine excrement!

Anonymous wrote:As a registered sleep tech. (RPSGT) with over 12 years experience I can honestly tell you ....it doesn't matter if you use hot or cold, tap or distilled.
. . .
This is an informed answer by the way

We already know that tap water will leave a mineral residue on the water tanks.

That's a fact.

Perhaps this particular sleep lab uses a sterilising machine to remove residue from the water tanks and thus believes it is ok to use inferior quality water. I was quite surprised to read that they use tap water though. I wonder if any other sleep labs do this, or is this an isolated incident?

Peter