Stale/musty smell, ONLY in the middle of the night.

I have had my CPAP for several years, but lately I have been having an issue with a bad smell (stale/musty). This smell only starts after several hours of use. So in the middle of the night. It is bad enough I have to discontinue use of the machine. If I come back to it after several hours of NOT using it, the smell is gone!

I even went to the point of tearing my CPAP apart and cleaning everything I could (though I couldn't get inside the pump).

Ideas?

Might help if you tell us what equipment (machine and humidifier) you are using. I remember reading several years back that some humidifier tanks were prone to leaking and growing mold under them. Maybe others will know if there's any known issues with the one you have. Did you also clean inside the tank? Have you checked your filter? What is your humidifier set on? Wondering if the smell is more prominent if and when it warms.

When is the last time you cleaned your mask and hose? White vinegar and water works well.

Possibly something over heating in the machine? You turn it off for a while to cool down and then when you turn it on again the over heating is gone? How old is your machine?

What I have:
AirSense 10

Things I have done:
Cleaned the tank (often as it gets buildup quickly)
Cleaned the hose/mask, more often as of late attempting to resolve this.
Filter is new, first think I swapped.

Settings:
Tube heater and humidifyer is on.

Some nights are worse than other, last night I turned the humidifier down from 5 to 3 and the seemed to help (maybe, need a few more nights at that setting).
I have tried with the hose heater on and off, I really prefer it off, but..


Overheating could be a thing. Maybe some water got back into the pump area and now only smells after the motor has been working for several hours... That is the one area I wasn't able to get into (didn't want to damage anything).

Have you left the machine on in the daytime? See if the odor occurs then?

I also suspect some sort of burning issue, based on the time of the smell.

If the machine is over five years old, it's time for a new one anyhow!

Note, dump all excess water every morning and leave the machine running for at least half an hours on dry after you get up. You want to dry out any residual water droplets, as that might be your problem.

It's about 2 years old, so it should still have plenty of life, but I do leave the water in it in the morning!

I will try emptying and drying it in the morning and see if that helps!

Thanks! I will report back in a few days...

I was instructed to use ONLY distilled water. Any other water will have minerals and leaves a residue at the bottom of the tank even after dumping it daily.

Where is the power brick, place it on the floor well away from the intake of the machine.

Stormy wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 23, 2018 10:52 pm

I was instructed to use ONLY distilled water. Any other water will have minerals and leaves a residue at the bottom of the tank even after dumping it daily.

Absolutely! I was assuming the use of distilled water, but it that's not the case, make it so! Dump it daily anyhow and dry the works daily, at least for now. If you live in the U.S. or Canada, you can get distilled water quite inexpensively. Otherwise, you'll need to local availability. If you can't get distilled water, you can substitute purified water. Do not get "distilled water" sold at a gas station or labeled unsafe to drink!

Jas_williams wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 24, 2018 7:13 am

Where is the power brick, place it on the floor well away from the intake of the machine.

Good point. Also make sure that the air intake is unobstructed, and not near anything that can cause on odor such as a cell phone, alarm clock. or other electronics. or your laundry (including the clean laundry).