Humidifier: Distilled Water...How often do you change?

Hello--well as you can see everyone does different things. I just top off the humidifier every night with more distilled water. I Never clean it or rinse it and I am never sick. I don't rinse or clean my hoses either--LOL! Insurance gives me new ones every three months on both items. I do wash the nasal pillow every other morning --with Dr. Bonners Liquid Castile Soap in Peppermint--:)

Carrie

I top my humidifier to the max full every night but then I have my humidifier on 5 every night. Most nights there's only about 10% (sometimes even less) of the water left although some nights there's about half left.

To wash my hose I put it in the sink and submerge it in hot soapy water and leave it there for about a half hour and then I rinse it with hot water until I see no more soap suds and then to dry it, I take my old borrowed cpap and just hook the hose on to it and turn the air on and dry it that way. That machine didn't keep track of blower hours and sleep hours or whatever so I can run it as long as I need to. Same when I clean my mask - hook my mask to the hose and run that machine.

But it appears like my insurance does replacement gear every 3 months so I'm good to go.

But I ALWAYS use distilled water. It's only 78 cents a gallon and it lasts quite a while.

When I need to use the humidifier, I use distilled water and just add to it. I travel often enough that I dump it before I pack up. Sometimes (especially on the road) I will use bottled drinking water. When it starts to look a bit cloudy, I'll dump it. Since most humidifiers add water vapor, there's next to no possibility of carrying bacteria from the water into the steam. The biggest problem would be scale or corrosion from impurities in the water damaging the heated surfaces of the humidifier. I've had problems in the past using tap water. If you know you have very good tap water as we do in most locations in the Seattle area, you could get away with using it as long as you don't allow the humidifier to go dry. But distilled water is pretty cheap in the grocery store, so I go that route. Usually only use the humidifier in dry climates or during cold weather.

At first, I dumped and rinsed with distilled water every night before bed. I do it three times with a small volume, habit from being a chemist.

But now I do that every 2-3 days. Every week or two, I rinse the hose with hot tap water in the morning and ditto with the mask.

Be sure and do used distilled. Mineral deposits from evaporating tap water or mineral water are difficult to remove and might host bacteria.

I use filtered water from the kitchen. I top up every two days and wash out every week.I still havnt washed my hose yet. Must do it someday.

I wash hoses, mask, and plastic chamber once a week. I start with fresh distilled water at the beginning of the week, which will last me three nights, and add more as needed till the next weekend.

I use reverse osmosis (RO) water. It is super filtered to remove almost everything from the water. The total dissolved solids test less than 50ppm (parts per million) and I have no troubles. I have done this for over 9 years. If you travel, look for bottled water that is treated by RO, it will say on the label in small print.

Boiling tap water will concentrate the solids like lime and iron, and actually be worse for mineral deposits on your water chamber. Deionized water is normally more pure than distilled, distilled is more pure than RO, RO is way more pure than tap or spring water. chlorine or bleach in your water will dissipate as gas and be blown into your lungs.

All water can harbor microbiological contaminates, so the main thing is to keep your chamber, hose, and mask clean.

Note about using RO water: RO removes somewhere between 98% and 80% of the total dissolved solids depending on a few variables. If you have a RO in your home, the water should be softened and iron removed from the water before the RO unit or it will not work very well after a short period of time, and the percentage of reduction will drop quickly. The carbon filters should be changed every 6 months to 1 year, or the water coming out could be worse than the water before the RO.

SleepOly wrote:Boiling tap water will concentrate the solids like lime and iron, and actually be worse for mineral deposits on your water chamber.

Boiling tap water will only concentrate solids if you evaporate a significant percentage of the water. If you boil a gallon of water, let it cool and then have 0.95 gallons of water, you have increased the concentration of minerals by about 5%.

It takes a LOT of energy to evaporate water, so it's hard to boil off much of your water unless you let it boil for a long time. Bring the water to boiling, then turn the heat down and let it simmer for however long you want to keep it at boiling. Even if it's only boiling a little, the water is still at 100C.

By the way, boiling will not kill all microorganisms, but it will probably kill the bugs you're worried about for CPAP.

Artcarved wrote:I use distilled water in my humidifier each day and put in just a little more then 1/2 tank. I don't like the idea of the used distilled water sitting in the tank until the next time. As for the hose I run hot water through the hose for about a minute each day and hang it over the towel bar to dry. The tank is rinsed out with hot water each day. My mask is cleaned every other day with Cpap disinfectant wipers. I was told if no distilled water is available, boil tap water, let cool to use. When I traveled a few weeks ago I boiled water in the microwave that was in the room.

Artcarved
Yewwww you hang your hose over the towel bar......not in the bathroom I hope......do you know what kinds of air floaties and contaminates are in the bathroom yyyyeeewwww yyuuccckk

HoseCrusher wrote:Distilled water has less residual bacteria than tap water, but tap water may have disinfectants in it that keep any left over bacteria from growing out of control. When distilled water is sealed in the bottle, there is not bacteria present. Since your house is not "sterile," it may pick up something after you open it. Tap water with residual disinfectants will loose those disinfectants when the water is heated up. If you don't add tap water daily, you are simply breeding whatever is there.

Bacteria cannot grow in pure water. There is no food for it to live on. (By "pure," I mean theoretical 100% H2O.)

If bacteria from the air falls into pure water in your humidifier, it may be able to live for a long time, but it can't reproduce because it doesn't have the raw materials to build new bacteria from. You might breathe in this bacteria later, but there won't be any more of it than there was in the air to start with. One bacterium falls into the water from the air, at most one bacterium will come out later and end up being breathed by you. Big deal. If that bacterium had not gotten stuck in the water, you would have breathed it earlier.

If the water is not 100% pure, the bacteria can only grow until it uses up the available nutrients in the contamination in the water. Bacteria concentration is limited by the purity of the water.

As water evaporates from the tank, whatever contaminants were in the water get concentrated. Every time you add water, you dump in a new load of contaminants that can be bacteria food. That's why it's a good idea to dump all the water every so often. The more impure the water, the more often you should dump it.

As air flows through the humidifier, dust and other contaminants can end up in the water and become bacteria food. Yet another reason to dump the tank every so often, even if you use the mythical 100% pure water. That's also a reason you want good, clean filters on your blower unit.

The purer the water, the better your filters, the longer it will take to get a certain amount of bacteria food and bacteria in the water.

Mold growth will be limited like bacteria. Algae doesn't need "food" per se, since it can get energy from light, but it does need some raw materials to grow. These materials aren't there in pure water, so algae has to have contaminants, too.

nanwilson wrote:Artcarved
Yewwww you hang your hose over the towel bar......not in the bathroom I hope......do you know what kinds of air floaties and contaminates are in the bathroom yyyyeeewwww yyuuccckk

Strangely enough, there's usually more bacteria in the air in the kitchen than in the bathroom.

After the first night when I realized I used less than 1/4 tank of water, I now only put in the approx. amt. i'll use, dump the remaining 2 tblsp. on my plants the next day, wipe out with a dedicated non-lint cloth, and air dry. I mentioned that to my DME, who is sensible and friendly, and he agreed "why do people throw out good water or let water sit in there for days to breed?" I'll only use distilled water (unless traveling and have little choice but bottled water). We're on a well and my pet's water dishes and the shower get a pink scum. I decided not to rinse my hose daily because I'd be introducing contaminants, so hose just airs dry. About weekly I do the vinegar thing. However, the long hose is barely dry before bedtime. I hang it over a towel rack that has a vent under it, but I put a heavy duty filter on that vent to not introduce contaminants. Pillows/mask usually get washed with a tiny drop of Ivory soap in the a.m. However, last night I used a liner on my mask, with no evidence of drool, etc., so I didn't wash it today. So, am I a bit paranoid? I am allergic to molds and mildew and dust. Makes sense to keep the airways as clean as possible. I do use a neti pot if I've been outside digging in the dirt or during pollen season.

BleepingBeauty wrote:I just top off the humidifier every night with more distilled water. Can't say what's "best" for anyone, but I've been doing this for 3.5 years, with no ill effects and less money down the drain (literally).

Same here, except I've been doing it that way for 7 years. About once a year, sometimes twice a year, I'll dump the water out, give the water chamber a quick slosh with hot soapy water, rinse well, and it's good to go again for many more months of topping it off with distilled water.

People do whatever routine they think best -- runs the gamut from elaborate every day cleaning of everything to "just add more."
Links to Cleaning mask, hose, humidifier
viewtopic.php?p=567264#p567264

archangle wrote: By the way, boiling will not kill all microorganisms, but it will probably kill the bugs you're worried about for CPAP.

If the water you use in your humidifier has harmful microorganisms you have bigger problems. I would assume it is tap water, and unless you have a private well, it needs to be sanitized to be potable. You would be drinking the organisms, and more relevant, be breathing them in while showering.

I'm a bit of a germophobe/clean freak, but I don't change the water every day - in fact because I have the humidity turned down very low, my tank only needs filling once a week. Every month or so, I clean it out thoroughly with a vinegar rinse, then Ivory soap. I then use my 'other' tank and let the clean one dry out thoroughly.

We don't have any pets, but I would think if you share your home with pets, cleaning more often might be necessary.

I've tried the whole range of cleaning everything on a daily basis to where I am now and can't see one bit of difference in my quality of sleep/life etc. The only thing I clean every day is my nasal pillows with a sanitising wipe.

From all I've read here, it's a matter of personal choice and/or necessity.

Cheers,
xena