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Is SoClean2 an effective sanitizer ?
#11
RE: Is SoClean2 an effective sanitizer ?
All of this attention to sterility and cleanliness is misplaced.
The chemicals that you're using are almost certainly more harmful than the bugs. And that may be why some people find their masks need to be replaced so often.
My equipment supplier has posters on the walls showing petri dishes with bacterial colonies growing all over them. I suspect most suppliers push the same message.
To a lay person, the images look scary, but I'm a microbiologist by profession, and those bacterial colonies are all normal nasal and oral flora. Your nose has thousands of bacteria in it all the time and your mouth tens of millions. The vast majority of bacteria in your body are either beneficial to you or innocuous.
Note that they may be harmful to another person, but not to you - they are part of you. (I hope nobody is sharing a mask in which case sterility can be important.)
So about cleaning - I rinse any visible discharges on my mask as needed, and I wash in mild soap every 2 weeks. And my mask is showing no sign of deterioration.
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#12
RE: Is SoClean2 an effective sanitizer ?
(01-10-2016, 01:33 PM)douganderson Wrote: My equipment supplier has posters on the walls showing petri dishes with bacterial colonies growing all over them.

Well of course these are specially designed to allow bacteria to grow, and the dish is filled with nutrients that bugs can feed on. If I remember rightly it actually took biologists a fair time to figure out how to make bacteria grow in a culture. And I suspect you can guess the last name of the person that figured that out.

Distilled water, and even most tap water, is a very poor medium for bacteria to grow in. If your tap water is a good culture for bacteria then a lot of people get rather sick rather quickly. And water system managers lose jobs and sometimes their freedom when that happens.

It does occasionally happen. Here in Canada we remember a little place called Waterton.
Ed Seedhouse
VA7SDH

Part cow since February 2018.

Trust your mind less and your brain more.


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#13
RE: Is SoClean2 an effective sanitizer ?
(01-10-2016, 01:33 PM)douganderson Wrote: So about cleaning - I rinse any visible discharges on my mask as needed, and I wash in mild soap every 2 weeks. And my mask is showing no sign of deterioration.

Another consideration, though, is oils on the mask. I wash mine daily to remove the oil so that I get a good seal each night.

I agree that there is far too much hype about cleanliness, but that shouldn't be used as an excuse for poor hygiene. I agree that cleaning once every week or two is sufficient.

I'm not bragging, but I've used the same hose for well over a year now, and the same mask cushion for over six months. I used to buy into the hype and change more often, but not anymore. It's in the best financial interests of the manufacturers and providers that you change your gear as often as possible. They have somehow successfully lobbied for medicare replacement of nasal pillows every 2-3 weeks. Ludicrous.

BTW, one of the things I like about the Simplus FFM is that the cushion is easy to remove and clean. Of course, a good fit is far more important, but this is a nice bonus.


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#14
RE: Is SoClean2 an effective sanitizer ?
I've been a nasal CPAP user for 11+ years. My Current machine is the Respironics System1 with heated humidifier and hose and I was given my SoClean2 three months ago by my mother who didn't like the smell.

My experience with the SoClean is as follows: Used it for about a month with no issues and low smell. before long i noticed no bubbles in the chamber and the smell was nearly nothing. after sending it back under warranty to the company who replace the pump and sent it back, the smell was BIG, really strong. I also started getting sores wherever my mask (Resmed Mirage Activa LT) touched my nose. I started removing the pillow from the mask before putting it in the SoClean and used a freshly washed pillow every night, resolving the sores on my nose. Today I figured out that I was also getting sores on my forehead from the forehead cushion so will have to do the same procedure there. Another thing I noticed about the SoClean is that it WILL turn all silicone parts yellow. This is not from it getting dirty, this is from the ozone in the SoClean! For this reason, I created a system where I cork off the humidifier tank from the actual CPAP to protect it's seals and inner workings from the ozone.

Since I started using it after repair, I have noticed that my sinus infections have gone to zero and I do not clean the humidifier chamber, just refill it. It was hard to try this since I seemed to get them every couple of months before even cleaning it every day.

Would I spent the $300 myself on this thing, probably not. I don't like the issues I had with sores which I never had before the SoClean, but once that was mitigated, the lack of URI's is a plus.
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#15
RE: Is SoClean2 an effective sanitizer ?
I called them and asked if it used ozone. They said "no" so I gave it a try on the free trial. After two days, it was clear that it uses ozone which is highly caustic and will destroy rubber and plastic.

I returned the device and got a full refund less my expense to ship it back.

If you value your cpap, you should worry about ozone destroying the rubber seals inside your machine. Read the reviews on amazon if you want to see what it does to cpap machines.
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#16
RE: Is SoClean2 an effective sanitizer ?
Ozone is +not+ caustic. It does, however have a deleterious effect on some materials like rubber and plastic.

Best Regards,

PaytonA

Admin Note:
PaytonA passed away in September 2017
Click HERE to read his Memorial Thread

~ Rest in Peace ~
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#17
RE: Is SoClean2 an effective sanitizer ?
(01-15-2016, 11:51 AM)PaytonA Wrote: Ozone is +not+ caustic. It does, however have a deleterious effect on some materials like rubber and plastic.

Best Regards,

PaytonA

Well, I don't know how you define "caustic," but ozone is hazardous or lethal to humans, and considered to immediately hazardous to humans at concentrations of 5 ppm. It also is known to damage plastics.

Neither of these mean that SoClean is hazardous to humans or even plastics when used as directed. I believe the SC takes steps to destroy the ozone at the end of the "cleaning" cycle. I don't know if the ozone level is enough to damage plastic.
Get the free OSCAR CPAP software here.
Useful links.
Click here for information on the main alternative to CPAP.
If it's midnight and a DME tells you it's dark outside, go and check it yourself.
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#18
RE: Is SoClean2 an effective sanitizer ?
(01-14-2016, 10:34 PM)AZCraig Wrote: I called them and asked if it used ozone. They said "no" so I gave it a try on the free trial. After two days, it was clear that it uses ozone which is highly caustic and will destroy rubber and plastic.

I returned the device and got a full refund less my expense to ship it back.

If you value your cpap, you should worry about ozone destroying the rubber seals inside your machine. Read the reviews on amazon if you want to see what it does to cpap machines.

GEEZ, their own web site says it uses ozone. Google soclean ozone and look for a result from better rest solutions.
Get the free OSCAR CPAP software here.
Useful links.
Click here for information on the main alternative to CPAP.
If it's midnight and a DME tells you it's dark outside, go and check it yourself.
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#19
RE: Is SoClean2 an effective sanitizer ?
(01-16-2016, 12:13 AM)archangle Wrote:
(01-15-2016, 11:51 AM)PaytonA Wrote: Ozone is +not+ caustic. It does, however have a deleterious effect on some materials like rubber and plastic.

Best Regards,

PaytonA

Well, I don't know how you define "caustic," but ozone is hazardous or lethal to humans, and considered to immediately hazardous to humans at concentrations of 5 ppm. It also is known to damage plastics.

Neither of these mean that SoClean is hazardous to humans or even plastics when used as directed. I believe the SC takes steps to destroy the ozone at the end of the "cleaning" cycle. I don't know if the ozone level is enough to damage plastic.

Sorry, maybe I got carried away. Chemically, caustic is the opposite of acidic. One of the dictionary definitions is "capable of damaging living tissue". It seems like caustic and damaging are words with the same meaning.

Best Regards,

PaytonA

Admin Note:
PaytonA passed away in September 2017
Click HERE to read his Memorial Thread

~ Rest in Peace ~
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#20
RE: Is SoClean2 an effective sanitizer ?
I know that this thread is getting a little old but felt the need to pipe in here.
I worked more than 30 years in the municipal water industry. Ozone is used in many water treatment facilities for the primary treatment of drinking water before it's introduced into the distribution system. It has a very short exsposure life and therefore chlorine is then introduced as the secondary disinfection. Ozone is produced by creating a spark using electrical energy. The ozone is then captured and pumped into the water where it emmediatly kills bacteria but only has an exposure life of like seven minutes before it dissipates.
It would make sense that the SoClean machine produces ozone in the same way on a very small scale. Other than the deteriation of some materials I find no reason to think that it is dangerous in this small quantity. I also think that it would be a good sanitizer used for this purpose. Not a replacement for physical cleaning, but an addition to it.
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