Do I have to used distilled water? newbee questions

Bottled water is not necessarily distilled.
Distilled water will say "distilled" on the label. I get mine for less than a dollar per gallon at Walmart. It is so cheap that I see no good reason not to use it.

If you regularly make a trip in your own car to a grocery store here in the US, it's probably worth using distilled water.

If you use tap water, as water evaporates from the tank, whatever minerals and other crud is in the water will be concentrated. Minerals will build up on the tank and the water will tend to smell. Your tank may not last as long.

You can reduce the problem by filling the tank every night and dumping the water every morning. Clean it more often.

There's probably not much risk of disease from the humidifier, even with tap water, but distilled water will grow fewer germs.

Even really good drinking water may have minerals in it that will build up in your humidifier. The minerals actually make the water taste better.

ResMed ships the disposable, hard to clean humidifier tank in the US, which makes distilled water even more necessary. Do yourself a favor and buy the dishwasher safe tank from our sponsor. I'd still use distilled water. Shame on you, ResMed for not providing the good tank on this $1000+ machine.

It's still under development, but the free, open source SleepyHeadprogram already works really well. It would be good to send the author a donation if you use it and like it. (I'm not the author.)

The medical mafia (doctors and DMEs) want to keep you in the dark about software and looking at your own results. They may get ticked off if they find you're looking at your own data.

My hubby is presently in the process of distilling up a fresh batch--we have jugs for 12 gallons, so this lasts a few months.
Our municipal water has 13 grains of hardness, so it's either de-lime the tanks (2) or the distiller vessel.
We've had pink mold before, but never with our home-brew. (knock on wood)
Since we got the machine for a fraction of new price--(2nd hand) it costs us about a third of cheapest local retail price.
At full price we would probably never break even; but, as it is, we already have.
Instructions are available for using a pressure cooker for this--but be very, very careful! VERY, VERY!

ClayL wrote: Bottled water is not necessarily distilled.

Use water that is labeled "distilled" or "drinking" water which is RO (reverse osmosis) just as good and readily available. Sterile with low dissolved solids. Don't use spring water which is usually high dissolved solids.
J

Edit: I thought I'd add a few things. Occasionally reverse osmosis water will be labeled "Purified" water and is also low dissolved solids (under Oh perhaps 25ppm) Tap water varies from maybe 150ppm (parts per million) to upward of 600-700ppm. Read the labels...

It's Winter here,(nearly Christmas),and I can't find (typically plentiful) Distilled water in my area....it's Good to know that My hubby and I can use purified drinking/spring water for awhile..thank you everyone ; )

Tesslpn25+ wrote:It's Winter here,(nearly Christmas),and I can't find (typically plentiful) Distilled water in my area....it's Good to know that My hubby and I can use purified drinking/spring water for awhile..thank you everyone ; )

Do you live in a remote third world country that doesn't know how to distill water? you may have to drive to the river, strain the tadpoles and rocks out and use that, I wouldn't but some probably would. Jim

Tesslpn25+ wrote:It's Winter here,(nearly Christmas),and I can't find (typically plentiful) Distilled water in my area....it's Good to know that My hubby and I can use purified drinking/spring water for awhile..thank you everyone ; )

Where is "here" ? It's "nearly Christmas" all over.

I got a couple gallons of RO water free during the grand opening of the new Fresh Thyme natural grocer.
They said it is "the same as distilled water", so I wonder where the chalky film in my tank came from.
Retail BS is my guess. Back to using my home distiller.

Distilled water - as others have said, it prevents mineral buildup in your humidifier. Too much buildup will reduce your humidity. If you dump it every day, you probably only need to use vinegar to clean it once in awhile. If distilled is easy for you to get and transport, the less than a buck cost is worth it to most people.

I use a Comtec CMS50F recording oximeter. There is no reason to buy one UNLESS your therapy isn't going well, you need gadgets or you have a known oxygen problem. I went 6 months before getting one (I have a slow heart rate) because I was tired (but not sleepy. Yes it confirmed my heart was still slow and that my oxygen level is relatively steady, although lower than normal. Turns out my problem is entirely due to worsening of restless leg syndrome as it is now waking me in my sleep instead of just preventing me from going to sleep. So, that was comforting to rule out worse health issues. If you are buying for a gadget, most people appear to use it for a few nights, it goes into a drawer not to be used again for a couple of years.

Walmart has distilled water for cheap - 88 cents here. Any large supermarket will also have distilled water. But make sure that it says DISTILLED on the label, not spring, purified, mountain, or anything else. Distillation is a process that evaporates and collects the water vapor and leaves all of the minerals behind. Many people do not like the taste of distilled water for drinking as they are used to the taste of non-distilled water. But for a cpap water tank, using distilled water means you won't get a gunky build-up in your water tank that you have to clean out from time to time. And some of the tanks are not very easy to scrub out. It's your choice.

chunkyfrog wrote:My hubby is presently in the process of distilling up a fresh batch--we have jugs for 12 gallons, so this lasts a few months.
Our municipal water has 13 grains of hardness, so it's either de-lime the tanks (2) or the distiller vessel.
We've had pink mold before, but never with our home-brew. (knock on wood)
Since we got the machine for a fraction of new price--(2nd hand) it costs us about a third of cheapest local retail price.
At full price we would probably never break even; but, as it is, we already have.
Instructions are available for using a pressure cooker for this--but be very, very careful! VERY, VERY!

I'd have him make smaller batches, I wouldn"t want to run out of the good stuff. Jim Can't tie up the equiptment, for just water.

You don't have to use water at all.

I never use my humidifier...it's too much of a bother. I prefer the dry air when I sleep.

You should try it- you might like it too. Then there is no clean up and no dealing with water.

dadbar1 wrote:You don't have to use water at all.

I never use my humidifier...it's too much of a bother. I prefer the dry air when I sleep.

You should try it- you might like it too. Then there is no clean up and no dealing with water.

Ditto, at year 8 of treatment I came to the same conclusion. I keep a tumbler of ice water by the bed. Jim

I think your local water supply can be a factor. I use distilled water at home because I can detect an unpleasant mineral order when I tried tap water. But I've been in other locations for a couple of days where the tap water seemed OK.

My home water is pretty hard and I have to inject a soda-ash solution to neutralize the acidity if I don't want my pipes corroding. When I run out of distilled water, just one tank of tap water will leave a scaly mess at the bottom of my tank. Not worth it, especially when I can get a gallon of distilled water at my local pharmacy for $.79.