Weekly Mask Cleaning---OverKill ???

[DannyP]

I know many of you clean your Mask weekly But it might be overkill. I have been on cpap for almost a Year now and in the Beginning I would clean my Mask Daily then it got to be once weekly and for the past few months I haven't cleaned it at all but inspect it Daily when I get up for Crud and Foreign things growing in it. I use the Swift II nasal Pillows and the Swift LT nasal pillows. I would assume though that FF Mask and others that contact the Face more would need more Care and cleaning. This is Just my assumption on the Mask cleaning. I guess to each his own ! Maybe when and if I get a Cold I will clean more often.

[birdshell]

I couldn't live like that, Danny. The nose is a great repository of bacteria, I believe. I have to wash my mask at least 2 times a year.

Seriously, maybe you are so clean that your mask doesn't get cruddy. I have to clean mine at LEAST weekly.

Karen,
Whose saline nasal wash may not wash out EVERY germ

[Wulfman]

I wash mine......maybe 3 - 4 times a year.......UMFF. If I were using nasal pillows or something like that, I'm sure it would be more often, but I can't see overdoing it with a full face mask. I'm getting a lot of mileage out of my mask seals (3 + years so far on the first set). I just wipe my hand across the seals before pulling it on each night. I suspect that (eventually) the headgear may give out before the seals do......but I have lots of spares.

Den

[sleepycarol]

Well I must confess at this point I, too, have gotten lazy about mask cleaning!!

At the very beginning I washed my mask daily (didn't take long for that to become a drag), then went to weekly washing.

Last spring I got lazy and have only washed it a couple of times since. I do inspect it closely to make sure it is "clean" and I am good to go. I have watched my numbers to make sure I am not leaking more and leak rate stayed consistent so don't worry about it. For the summer I have completely removed the humidifer so don't even have to bother with that!!!

The one thing I will not be a slacker on is putting my mask on EVERY night ALL night!!!! I do NOT want to go back to the zombie days!!!!

[wireless]

Cool, I am not the only one who thinks that is overkill. Although I think that I need to wipe around the seal edges every 1-3 days, which just takes 15-30 sec.

[rested gal]

Cool, I am not the only one who thinks that is overkill.

Nope, you're not the only one. LOL!!

For the past four years of the approximately five years I've been using "cpap" religiously, I use this schedule:

Rinse out the air hose once or twice a year.

Rinse out the mask once or twice a year.

Swipe the outside of the nasal pillows or outside of a mask's cushion as needed -- not often.

Dump the unused humidifier water twice a year, rinse the chamber and start over just adding more distilled water each night as needed.

That's it. No problems for me.

Oh, almost forgot... I do wash the foam filter in the machine every couple of months. I'd better go do that now.

For more peoples' thoughts about "cleaning equipment":
Apr 19, 2005 subject: Cleaning CPAP Equipment
viewtopic.php?t=2482

[RafterRattler]

WOW! I must admit, this thread is an eye opener for me. For the last 5+ years, I've been washing my headgear (straps) once per month, my whole mask (disassembled) and hose once per week, and the silicone face and forehead cushions every morning. I do this with warm water and Dawn dish detergent. I've found that if I don't wash the cushion every morning, I end up with acne under the cushion area. What this is telling me is that maybe I don't need to wash the mask and headgear so often!

Mike

[Lee Lee]

I have the Activa and I HAVE to wash it everyday! I don't have oily skin, but the cushion gets slick with facial oil. And my skin is squeaky clean when I put it on. It leaks like crazy if the cushion isn't cleaned everyday.
I don't clean the humidifier unless I have had water in it, but since my bedroom is at 60 pct humidity here in Virginia in the summer, I don't need no stinkin' humidified air !

[DreamDiver]

Cool, I am not the only one who thinks that is overkill. Although I think that I need to wipe around the seal edges every 1-3 days, which just takes 15-30 sec.

I wash the umff main silicone seal every week or so because my skin is oily and I sweat a lot. It feels better and I think I'm getting a better seal. It feels slippery if I'm sleeping with 'last week's oil' on the mask. Gack.

[ww]

I know many of you clean your Mask weekly But it might be overkill. I have been on cpap for almost a Year now and in the Beginning I would clean my Mask Daily then it got to be once weekly and for the past few months I haven't cleaned it at all but inspect it Daily when I get up for Crud and Foreign things growing in it. I use the Swift II nasal Pillows and the Swift LT nasal pillows. I would assume though that FF Mask and others that contact the Face more would need more Care and cleaning. This is Just my assumption on the Mask cleaning. I guess to each his own ! Maybe when and if I get a Cold I will clean more often.

I respectively disagree with you. Anything that is stuck up your nose then used night after night to blow air into your lungs deserves to be cleaned daily. Mucous nasal membranes will certainly spread any germs into your entire body very quickly. Full face masks will not work properly unless your face is cleaned at bedtime and the sealing surfaces of the mask are cleaned daily and a weekly full cleaning certainly is in order.

How you clean your equipment is only up to you, but I certainly don't think it is overkill to clean equipment weekly, especially since it takes only a couple of minutes.

[Snoredog]

maybe you should toss in one of those 3" chlorine pool tabs in your humidifier tank, that should take care of it

[Lee Lee]

Snoredog, you make me laugh!!
Lee Lee

[DreamDiver]

maybe you should toss in one of those 3" chlorine pool tabs in your humidifier tank, that should take care of it

Yeah, and wash your silicone items in gasoline too, maybe?

I have to admit, regardless of how often I wash my mask, I wash my face every night before putting the mask on.

[npap]

As a new Cpap user and an RN, I am shocked at how long some people go without cleaning their supplies! Before I got my cpap, I knew of two people who had to be hospitalized for infections stemming from their cpaps! Also, the respiratory therapist told me that because there are more and more problems with people getting respiratory infections from cpap, that they are now providing new hoses, etc. every six months! Some of you guys are very lucky you haven't gotten a really nasty bug yet. I guess it's like not wearing seat belts or smoking, you might not have a problem for a long time but chances are one day, you will. Right now, I am cleaning my Swift nasal pillows, hoses every day with water and a squirt of Dr. Bronner's Almond Soap and my humidifer almost every day with the same but have left some distilled h20 in it twice now for only 2 days because I hate throwing it out. I know I won't always wash them everyday and might go to weekly at some point but I think cleaning less than that is giving microbes a lovely place to reside!

[Wulfman]

As a new Cpap user and an RN, I am shocked at how long some people go without cleaning their supplies! Before I got my cpap, I knew of two people who had to be hospitalized for infections stemming from their cpaps! Also, the respiratory therapist told me that because there are more and more problems with people getting respiratory infections from cpap, that they are now providing new hoses, etc. every six months! Some of you guys are very lucky you haven't gotten a really nasty bug yet. I guess it's like not wearing seat belts or smoking, you might not have a problem for a long time but chances are one day, you will. Right now, I am cleaning my Swift nasal pillows, hoses every day with water and a squirt of Dr. Bronner's Almond Soap and my humidifer almost every day with the same but have left some distilled h20 in it twice now for only 2 days because I hate throwing it out. I know I won't always wash them everyday and might go to weekly at some point but I think cleaning less than that is giving microbes a lovely place to reside!

From WHAT? Bacteria and viruses are too large to be carried out of the humidifier with water vapor. The air going into the machine is filtered and whatever might be on the mask is from our own bodies.
You can get more germs from door handles and from the kitchen counter. (or anything else that someone has touched)

"That which doesn't kill you will only make you stronger."

Oh, and by the way.......hospitals are an excellent place to get staph infections, too.

Den