Humidifier Water Poll

Distilled!

A respiratory therapist told me to use distilled water when I added a heated humidifier to the CPAP machine I was using in 1993. I have used distilled water ever since, except occasionally while traveling (although in recent years I always have traveled with one of my old machines, so only distilled water is used in my new equipment).

I don't dump the water remaining each morning. I simply add water as necessary each night to bring the level up to the fill-line. I wash the humidifier tank with dish-washing detergent about once a month. Even with such a long washing cycle I have never seen visible deposits of any kind in my tanks, so the distilled water sold in this area must be relatively clean.

Only distilled water. I wash the tank out with vinegar once a week to avoid the growth of mould or bacteria introduced into the tank through the incoming air flow. The instructions provided by my DME advised to do this. Also recommended washing the hose with soap and warm water once a week as well for the same reason.

SleepyBobR wrote:Only distilled water. I wash the tank out with vinegar once a week to avoid the growth of mould or bacteria introduced into the tank through the incoming air flow. The instructions provided by my DME advised to do this. Also recommended washing the hose with soap and warm water once a week as well for the same reason.

Do you smell a residual vinegar smell? I just use castile soap and hot water but sometimes wonder if I should use something a bit more aggressive.

A poster here said it is cheaper to use Control III from cpap.com than to use vinegar and water to clean the humidifier....so I use Control III now. Kills many viruses, bacteria, etc.

gasp wrote:

SleepyBobR wrote:Only distilled water. I wash the tank out with vinegar once a week to avoid the growth of mould or bacteria introduced into the tank through the incoming air flow. The instructions provided by my DME advised to do this. Also recommended washing the hose with soap and warm water once a week as well for the same reason.

Do you smell a residual vinegar smell? I just use castile soap and hot water but sometimes wonder if I should use something a bit more aggressive.

No, there's no residual vinegar smell. Vinegar is 100% water soluble and rinses away without a trace. Of course, it is important to rinse thoroughly.

[color=#0000FF][/color] I only use distilled water

Distilled water only I have a small and a large travel container for when I travel. The new tanks costs $50.00 and that's the co-pay!

The first tank I received was made of heavy medical Plastic and the air just blow over the water and lasted almost ten years with just plain tap water, lived in a city in Florida so the water was pretty clean and I washed and air dried daily. The 2nd tank I got had a small heat plate and the tank had a heady duty staneless steel bottom and the enter top lifted off so I could easily clean it with Vinegar, so I used filtered tap water. But what I have now sites on a heater plate and has a very thin metal plate there is no way to open it for cleaning, the best I can do is rinse it and air dry, so I only use distilled water as it's too expensive to replace $50.00 co-pay every six months and $250.00 if I have to replace more often.

I've on CPAP for about 9 months. I use distilled water. It's cheap and easy to get. I've seen no build up yet on the heat plate of my humidifier tank. As far as topping off vs. dumping, I fill the tank part way rather then all the way. I fill it so there is a little bit of water left in the morning so I don't dry out. If I have a lot of water left, I use a bit less the next night. I also keep an eye on the humidity and adjust for that. I rarely ever fill it more than half way.

Here's a question: I just got a new water filter pitcher called Zero Water. It claims to be the only filter system to meet industry standard (FDA? USDA? ???) for distilled water. Is it ok to use that water in my CPAP? It come with a meter that measures purity in PPM of Total Dissolved Solids. I used it to test tap, bottled and distilled water. The results were 100-150, 40-60, and 0-5 respectively. I also found heating water to steaming temps in the microwave increased the reading no matter the source. The Zero Water filtered water came in at 0-3. the recommendation is that one replace the filter when the reading gets up to 6. I suspect that the meter is measuring conductivity of the water. I don't know how accurate it is. Thanks!

Home Filtered Water... but

On a well
Water Softener...
Then Reverse Osmosis filtered... ie No mineral deposits on coffee machine, kettle etc. There are simple and inexpensive (free) testers available for minerals left behind by filtering systems.

Nord

After reading the poll I decided to switch to distilled water with my new S8. My older CPAP had a lot of "stuff" in the bottom which I could never get out. The humidifier worked fine, just did not look very nice. So we see how things go with distilled water this time.

Tom..........

I use only distilled water, since that's what the RT at my DME told me to use, although she gave me "permission" to boil water and use it. Who wants to do that when you can get distilled water at .67/pop from Wal-Mart? I used to stock up on it. If I'm traveling a couple of days, I pour a little bit in an empty distilled water jug and have distilled-water-to-go, which is what I'm planning to do now that I'm determined to be compliant again!!

To be honest I always use tap water. I'm in a moderate hard water area but I just make sure I rinse it out and dry it in the morning once it has cooled down.

Well depending on the type of Humidifier you have and the type of water you have will determine weather you can use tap or distilled water.