Humidifier Water Question

I was wondering if you could use Reverse osmosis water in the Humidifier? I know that im supposed to use distilled water, and i would not dare use my tap water. I am on a well that has a lot of sulpher and iron in the water. It does go through a water softner. But i dont know how well the RO would get all that out?

Assuming that your RO unit is working OK, then you should have no problems. It's not as good as distilled water, but the differences shouldn't be noticeable.

If the RO is not doing the job, then you will get a carbonate crust forming in the bottom of your humidifier (just like what happens to your kettle). That easily can be cleaned out with vinegar. No permanent harm will be done.

You also can minimize the formation of carbonate crust by not running your humidifier dry, and dumping out unused water every morning. The concentration of salts left in the residual water will increase each morning until you dump it; eventually, the concentration will be high enough to form the crust on the bottom of the humidier. Dumping the residual water before it gets to high will solve the problem.

You can get your RO water quality tested. You also should make sure that you change the sediment and carbon filters for it on a regular basis (frequency depends on your water quality).

I am on a well and I gave up on distilled water. I just keep a bottle of vinegar in the washroom with the rest of my cpap supplies and about every three or four weeks I soak in in a solution of water and vinegar. I have an iron curtain and a water softner inline on my water supply and I still get that iron stain in sinks and what not but I haven't have a problem with the humidifier for the cpap. I do have a RO and maybe I will try that.
Gerry

I was going to try the RO for a week and see what happens, I just dont want so much of a crust that i have to scrape it off or get a new tank. We just had the RO serviced, but we go through filters every 3 months. So its doing its job. I dont want to try the well water because it stinks of sulpher, its just bad.