Humidifier Water Chamber Question

[OpalRose]

I previously had a Respironics REMstar M Series CPAP w/Humidifier (and no heated tubing) and recall that the water chamber for the humidifier would get significantly lower after using it a whole night. Now, I have a newer CPAP (I think it might be the Respironics PR System One REMstar Plus CPAP Machine w/Humidifier or something similar - and it has a heated tubing), and it seems like even after using it a full night there is still a lot more distilled water left in the water chamber in the morning. Could this be because of the heated tubing, or something else? Or is it possible the machine might be broken?

Thanks!

Hi mbressman,
The heated hose only determines the temp of the hose and keeps the air going through the hose a little warmer. It doesn't have anything to do with the water level or the amount of humidity you receive. I believe the settings available for the heated hose on the PR System One is 1 through 5.

The humidifier has its own settings as to how much humidify you want. The settings are 1 through 3.
Note, if you are not using a heated hose, then you can use System One or Classic settings on the PR machine.
OpalRose

[OMyMyOHellYes]

To hijack this thread which has an appropriate title for a follow-on question:

What is the long-term impact of using tap water instead of distilled water? I'm 10 days into this on an S9 Auto and it's not using a heck of lot of water each night in the humidifier. I dump it every day and let it dry out. I guess I'll get mineral deposits in the heated hose eventually.

As the water evaporates and gets pushed into the tube, on the way to your nose, you only get the little water molecules. Water vapor is water vapor. Exactly the same off of distilled water or tap water. That's how they make distilled water to start with. Ya might get a little tiny smidge of chlorine gas but...

So no impact on you.

The real impact is on the water chamber itself. If you use tap water, as it evaporates, it will concentrate all the minerals in the remaining water and those will eventually start to accrete on the inside of the chamber itself. I think for the most part, it will just look ugly. I doubt that a tiny bit of mineral accretion in the chamber will hurt you. Now, if you didn't clean the chamber occasionally, I would assume you could get some slime/biologic growth that would not likely be wholesome, but that is not related to the question you asked - and that would be the same with distilled water too.

I know I used to run tap water in the H3i and H4i humidifiers when I had my S-8. After a few months, you could start to see where the water levels were on the inside of the chambers. It was like a cloudy cast on the plastic. Could not get that out - the chambers were made so that they could not be opened to clean inside. But no ill effect from using the clouded chambers. Since getting my S-9 I have used distilled water exclusively and have not had any mineral accretion in the water chamber.

OMM

[archangle]

The water tank can begin to stink as the gunk concentrates in the tank, especially if it starts to run dry. I get that even with distilled water after several days of topping it off.

Your results in terms of minerals and stench will vary depending on what type of gunk and how much is in your tap water.

Pictures, we got pictures! Filthy pictures!