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Cleaning Your Stuff
#21
RE: Cleaning Your Stuff
(04-03-2014, 09:09 AM)herbm Wrote: You do realize that when you evaporated it you are basically getting a distillation, right?

That is how water is distilled: It is evaporated.

The junk -- if any -- left in the reservoir is the stuff that was in the water.

I am still looking for anyone who has an ACTUAL EXPERIENTIAL reason for using distilled water.

Yeah, I don't know... I don't think our cute little humidifiers are actually boiling the water and releasing evaporated water in that sense. Rather they are warming the water to create a nice humid "mist" to our air. Complete with residual chloramines, etc... Not unlike a lovely spring rain that has accumulated all the crap Los Angeles has to provide.
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#22
RE: Cleaning Your Stuff
The very reason that they recommend using distilled water is that when the water in the humidifier tank evaporates it leaves behind the residue which, in areas with hard water, could build up on the tank surfaces (most likely the heating plate) and become hard to remove. Any buildup on the plate also makes the heat transfer less efficient and therefore the humidifier less effective.

We're fortunate to have very soft water here, so I never use distilled water and have never had any buildup at all.
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#23
RE: Cleaning Your Stuff
"Could build up in the tank surface"?

That's my point. I just wash it out when it gets noticeable (not before.)

The tank is replaceable -- I really don't care about it MUCH.

And that "Could"....anybody having ACTUAL significant trouble with this?

The point is that I am not taking preventive action for an unimportant even that probably won't happen and that will cost me almost nothing if it does.

Waiting for someone with an ACTUAL problem due to failure to use distilled water....

(Evidence based.)

Sweet Dreams,

HerbM
Sleep study AHI: 49 RDI: 60 -- APAP 10-11 w/AHI: 1.5 avg for 7-days (up due likely to hip replacement recovery)

"We can all breathe together or we will all suffocate alone."
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#24
RE: Cleaning Your Stuff
(04-02-2014, 09:32 PM)herbm Wrote: Has anyone out there FAILED to use distilled water AND had a problem due to that at some point?

Not me! But I don't use hard water because I have a softener. People have reported a nasty residue of hard water minerals building up on the surface of the heater.
Sleepster

INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#25
RE: Cleaning Your Stuff
I suspect herbm has a home water softener too -- municipal water in the Austin area is really hard. Not everybody has built in water softeners (hence why I use distilled).
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#26
RE: Cleaning Your Stuff
My water softener is off; it's electronics failed and we turned it onto bypass years ago.

North Austin. Significant hard water but no issue so far with the water tank -- I have rinsed it 2-3 times in 60+ days. Emptied it twice more when I had to travel and pack it.

That's it.
Sweet Dreams,

HerbM
Sleep study AHI: 49 RDI: 60 -- APAP 10-11 w/AHI: 1.5 avg for 7-days (up due likely to hip replacement recovery)

"We can all breathe together or we will all suffocate alone."
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#27
RE: Cleaning Your Stuff
I have the same opinion as herbm in that the water doesn't travel through any parts where I presume it to be a problem with the functioning of the machine. I do use distilled at home because we have well water and I just plain don't like to see the white residue build up. I am particular with having things looking clean and the residue doesn't look clean to me. In a resort hotel on an extended stay, I used tap water and after a week there was residue buildup. I couldn't wait to get it home and clean it but that was the same with my mask too. It bugs me if I can't do the weekly cleaning. I don't know if resort hotels' water is hard or soft or in between. I did have residue from it. When we were recently on another extended stay in a hotel, we had a rental car and had the ability to get distilled water so I got some. For a brief stay in a hotel I don't bother with it. I wash my tub regularly and if there is any residue on it from the tap, it comes off easily. The only way I see it might build up and be difficult to clean is if the tub was not cleaned frequently.
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#28
RE: Cleaning Your Stuff
"Resort hotel" is likely to have minerals in the water aka "hard water", but in theory any place could have naturally soft water or be running their own softeners to remove the minerals.

If you are seeing mineral buildup then it's hard water.

I am far more concerned about the machine hose getting mold or some other biological growth if not cleaned often enough. Some of that stuff can be very bad for you.

If we were putting the water THROUGH the machine, such as with a coffee maker, then it would make much more sense to use soft or distilled water. This is especially true if the water were traveling through unreachable parts (i.e., difficult to clean easily).



Sweet Dreams,

HerbM
Sleep study AHI: 49 RDI: 60 -- APAP 10-11 w/AHI: 1.5 avg for 7-days (up due likely to hip replacement recovery)

"We can all breathe together or we will all suffocate alone."
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#29
RE: Cleaning Your Stuff
Here's an interesting read on whether or not you should use distilled water in your humidifier. Again, my belief is it doesn't have anything to do with the machine, and everything to do with what you are sucking into your lungs all night.

So here goes: (I particularly like the implication that our humidifiers "could" act similar to the Louisiana "Neti Pots" and feed us some lovely albeit destructive brain parasites.

Copy into your browser, and add the "http://" thing in front:

sleepdisorders.about.com/od/livingwithsleepdisorders/f/Do-You-Have-To-Use-Distilled-Water-In-The-CPAP-Humidifier.htm
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#30
RE: Cleaning Your Stuff
If you use the Search button at the top of this page, you can locate numerous threads covering the debates about need to use "distilled water".
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. 
ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA.
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