distilled water

Do you have to use distilled water with the c pap? My husband picked his up today, they dydnt tell him about that. We just don't keep it on hand. Will it hurt to use spring,or boiled water for one night?

While you "can" use any clean water (if you "have to"), distilled is best. It is free of contaminants, minerals, etc. that can foul up your humidifier water chamber. It is very inexpensive and is a cheap way to make sure you get the longest life out of your chamber, along with the cleanest vapors in your lungs. I use nothing but distilled water (adding to it or "topping off" each day) and I never have any slime/algae or buildup of mineral residue (chalky-looking) in my water chambers. What I do like to do occasionally (mostly for the pleasant fresh smell) is to soak my water chamber with a couple of denture tablets in it, rinse, and use.

Tracy

I agree with the previous post but it will not hurt your machine to use regular water one night. The biggest problem with not using distilled water is calcium and other deposits the will happen in your humidifier chamber. I even contacted the Britta company when I first got my cpap and they said that even their water was not as good as the distilled for this use. But for one or two nights you will be fine. At the end of the week just use 1 part white distilled vinegar and one part regular water let it soak in your humidifier chamber for 30 minutes and it will clean it.

Boiled water will actually accelerate the buildup of mineral deposits. The act of boiling the water will drive off some water as steam, but that will simply make the mineral percentage higher in the remaining water.
Distilled water is produced from collecting the mineral-free steam, and condensing it. Boiled water will accomplish exactly the opposite of using distilled water.
For one or two nights tap water will be fine.

I have used tap water for 3 years and there is NO sign of anything bad that were mentioned here...

I wash the chamber once a week at most and use some vinegar.

Last year, I traveled for 4 months in Asia and cannot find any distilled water there, so I used tap water and check daily - no problem at all.

one thing i found interesting travelling between countries. walmart in US sells a gallon of distilled water for $0.88. walmart in canada sells the same thing for $2.07. at the moment the money is worth almost the same. im used to the price differances but this is a little higher than i expected

I tried WalMart distilled water and it left a pinkish residue ( others here reported that also ).
Fry's ( Kroger ) distilled water has NEVER left a residue.
So I use only Fry's distilled water.

As it happens, my wife who opposes any modern technology, was discussing OSA with a Doctor friend by email,

Her appraisal was based upon my experiences (I've been using a Resmed every night for 14 months and swear by it) and another friend who after one night, refused to use a machine.

As far as I can gather, my wife was criticizing the disadvantages of finding a suitable mask, cleaning, having medical machinery about and the difficulty and cost of obtaining distilled water.

Her Dr friend responded with an answer which was forwarded on to me. It listed all the advantages of using
the machines and the consequences of failing to treat OSA.

In the context of this discussion, the Dr did say that in our city (Melbourne Australia), many sleep techies said that our tap water was so good that it was cheaper to use tap water and replace the humidifier chamber every couple of years rather than use distilled water.

I do now recall that my DME did say that our tap water could be used except that they preferred us to use distilled water during rental (and their price of distilled water was exorbitant).

Based upon the quality of our water and the cost of distilled water with the cost of a new chamber, I've decided that I'll rely on tap water in future and save A$100 per annum.

cpapernewbie wrote:I have used tap water for 3 years and there is NO sign of anything bad that were mentioned here...

That tells us your tap water is naturally softer than it is in a lot of places. (Or you have a water softener.) You are lucky!

One point that's usually brought up in these tap vs. distilled discussions is that the vapor you breathe IS "distilled", no matter what water you put in the tank. Vaporization is half of the distillation process. Any dissolved solids in the water will stay in the tank (potentially damaging it if not cleaned out regularly). Distilled water has very few solids to begin with, so the tank stays cleaner. It's only an equipment issue. As far as your lungs are concerned, any water clean enough to drink is fine.

LinkC
you seem to know your water very well. Yes, if I live in Minneapolis, where the water is pretty hard, I might want to buy distilled water. However methink we have spent way too much time and gigabytes of harddisk on water mater while so far nobody bother to question electrical power quality. this is far more important.

In fact, my CPAP;s motherboard was fried (I suspect due to unstable voltage) when travelling last year. The cost of replacing a water chamber is much cheaper than replacing the CPAP

The tap water at my house looks clear but you can taste the chlorine in it. I have a distiller and make my own distilled water. I stop the distiller before it completes so it is easier to clean. The water that remains looks cloudy and smells funky and after seeing it I'm not deciding this one based on costs. I'd just prefer to breath cleaner water given the option.

When I travel for a day I'll just pack a little distilled water with me. I'm traveling over seas in may I won't take any but I'll try to buy some if I can when I get there but if I can't I'll just use tap water.

My take on it is distilled when you can and tap OK when you can't.

My two cents,
Rob

Sorry to hear about your motherboard. Maybe we need a Topic on "dirty" power. We've had plenty of them on power loss and backup sources!

However, aside from a surge protector (which everyone already has--and if they don't they SHOULD!), there isn't much you can do about the power your CPAP gets. It's not like you can run down to Walmart and buy a jug of clean power...

reitzell wrote:The water that remains looks cloudy and smells funky and after seeing it I'm not deciding this one based on costs. I'd just prefer to breath cleaner water given the option.

Ah! But that's the point! The water you are SEEING is what remains. The water vapor (and the distilled water it condenses into) is clean...BECAUSE it left all that crud behind.

That's precisely what happens in your humidifier. CLEAN vapor is produced, leaving any dissolved solids behind. And they are what cruds up your humidifier's tank, just like your distiller's tank is. The vapor you breathe is the same whether you start with tap water or distilled. The only difference is how much crud there is left behind in the tank. We use distilled water ONLY to preserve the tank. It's science...but not rocket science!

I use distilled at home but when I travel it's tough to find at a hotel or convenience store. I tried tap water once at it must have been very hard because I had calcium deposits after only a couple of nights. No big deal, some vinegar took it off very nicely). I started to look for bottled water but most are either spring water (with minerals) or they add minerals back to the water. But I recently discovered that Aquifina is "purified" water without minerals added. It works great in my machine without any residue. Aquifina is much easier to find that distilled water.

LinkC wrote:Sorry to hear about your motherboard. Maybe we need a Topic on "dirty" power. We've had plenty of them on power loss and backup sources!

However, aside from a surge protector (which everyone already has--and if they don't they SHOULD!), there isn't much you can do about the power your CPAP gets. It's not like you can run down to Walmart and buy a jug of clean power...

You can buy a surge protector that also ensures clean power to your cpap. Most people use them to protect their video, stereo and computer equipment. I use mine for my cpap, alarm clock and in proximity to where my brain spends many hours sleeping, or at least trying to. (Just in case there is anything to the rumor that exposure to dirty power causes health problems.)

r