Schedule for cleaning humidifier, hose & mask...

OK, since I've gotten my machine, some two months ago, I have faithfully cleaned the mask daily; the hose & humidifier once a week. I have a friend who has been on CPAP therapy for several years now and he said that he only cleans his stuff once every six months or so and not even then! He claims that with the amount of pressure that is already blowing through, that when he exhales it mostly all goes out the relief openings. So, what are the thoughts here on this site by those reading this?

Your friend falls into the category of the majority of us hoseheads. Although there are a number of folks who (still) feel it necessary to clean more often, most of the rest of us feel that we have other, more important things to spend our time on.

If you do a Search on "cleaning", you'll find lots of threads about it.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Den

I clean my hose weekly as well. Even though my exhaled breath might not be moving back into the hose, the warm, moist air moving through it every night provides a perfect habitat for bacteria growth, and bacteria is not only in our breath, it's in the air as well. I tend to play it safe when it comes to keeping my equipment clean. And, it takes only 2-3 minutes each week, just a little addition to the morning hygiene routine.


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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): hose, clean

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): hose, clean

Dgrendahl wrote:So, what are the thoughts here on this site by those reading this?

It my experience in working with xPAP users through Sleep Diorders Australia, most users get tired of the daily routine after a while, and drop back to something less rigourous. Some have particular reasons for doing daily cleaning, such as adverse skin reactions to masks etc, and stick with it.

Personally, in normal circumstances I now clean my mask once a week and do the hose and humidifier tank once a month. I've been doing that for 3.5+ years (since the attraction of a daily routine finally wore off) and it works fine for me.

YMMV

Cheers,

Bill

I've been cleaning mask (except headgear) and humidifier tank daily and hose, chinstrap and headgear weekly. I'm on a medication that lowers my resistance so I have to be *very* careful.

I do take my hose off machine in the am and hang it up so if there's any pockets of condensation, they will have a chance to dry out. I now have a spare hose so I can alternate (except when I use heated hose!)

I must admit that after 3+ months I'm getting a bit tired of it and now that I'm trying a FFM, I'm groaning at the thought of taking apart and putting back together all of those darned little pieces! I'm seriously thinking of modifying my cleaning routine just a bit to reduce the time spent!

Mindy

I guess we all find our own schedule that fits our needs. I have 2 hoses which I hang to dry and alternate daily. Clean once a month. The mask I do clean daily. Sponge filter I clean weekly and replace the fine filter every 2 weeks. Humidifier chamber I drain and dry daily and wash it monthly. I have been at it almost a year. Does not seem like much time to do the maintence but I will not guarentee I could back off the schedule after another year or so. I have a friend who never cleans his hose, just replaces it once a year and he has been at it longer than me.

Jerry

Your friend's 6 months (if then) routine suits me too.

Wondering if any of those "lab types" have ever checked the inside of one of those rarely cleaned hoses, put a little scrapping into a petri dish, then cover it and watch it for a week. I think that's why the RT's are taught to advise us to clean the hose weekly (pretty sure the bacteria is there). Of course, all have different levels of tolerance to infection, but I still prefer to err of the safe side here. Jerry's hygiene schedule mirrors mine.

May your hoses be clean :<)




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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): hose, clean

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): hose, clean

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): hose, clean

Due to the circumstances that I use pass-over (cool) humidity and that I live in a region with low relative humidity, I have no doubt that there is NO humidity in my hose to grow ANYTHING after I shut off my machine in the morning.

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


Den

mindy wrote:I do take my hose off machine in the am and hang it up so if there's any pockets of condensation, they will have a chance to dry out.

If I remember, I hang up the hose. I do have a spare hose but keep that packed w/spare machine. If you can clean YOUR hose in 2or3 min. then you have time to come clean mine

When I do clean it, I take it into the shower with me, where it won't make such a mess.

A friend told me to use cotton for the fine filter. The foam filter I try to vacuum out maybe once a week or so. Mask I just use hand (face) soap. If it's scented, it makes a nice touch, esp. if you do it just before going to bed.

The humidifier it seems really doesn't need much if you use distilled water. On the Remstar tank, I had it down to a science. I marked a line on the side so I poured just enuff to get me thru the nite. If you over pour, the tank model was real easy to just pour out the remainder into a small bottle, esp. when traveling. Tho I tried not to remove it unneccessarily so as not to wear out that grommet. I found a cap to cover the humidifier port when not in use, keeping the dust & dirt out of it.

Like it said, on the tank it was a breeze. On the M (Oh Respironics what were you thinking?) - well I could fill the humidifier and before morning it will be blowing dry air (ALL thru out the hose), stuffing up my nose & drying out my mouth. Today I looked inside where the humidifier goes and could see a dust build-up (Oh Respironics what were you thinking?). So now might be a good time to go clean that out, but how? (Oh Respironics what were you thinking?).

Oh don't get me going on the short comings of the M series (Oh Respironics what were you thinking?) Noise, humidifier, more noise, power supply, more noise, the blower port coming straight out, more noise, the LCD screen upsidedown, and then more noise. Is this thing for sleeping? And now dirt inside where the humidifier sits. (Oh Respironics what were you thinking?).

Did I mention the humidifier heater does NOT turn on until the blower comes on? (Oh Respironics what were you thinking?). And whether it's morning or half way thru the nite, it just doesn't feel warm. On the tank you could press the "heat" button (a couple times) before going to bed. An auto timer turned it off if the blower didn't come on (in 20 min.?). So they had the circuitry, now all they needed was an on/off switch on the knob to work the heater the VERY same way. But NO. (Oh Respironics what were you thinking?).

Is it Ok to put it into the microwave to heat the water? Well short of modifying it by adding an on/off switch for the heater, what is the other choice? This helps for awhile but then just doesn't seem as warm. (Oh Respironics what were you thinking?)

I'll be waiting for the "N" series, ha.

I would think that the bathroom would be one of the worst places to leave your stuff to dry (as far as bacteria goes).

Pre-heating water in a microwave would be a no-no in my opinion, too.


Den

GumbyCT wrote:Is it OK to put it into the microwave to heat the water?

Like I need something else to do BEFORE I go to bed? But it does help some, well enuff to get you to sleep.

ps. Guess(t) you can't edit as a "Guest". But then if you could, I could put my handle there

Clean my mask about twice a week or so--the hose I only clean once a week and I too hang it in the Shower to drip dry-----I cannot imagine NOT cleaning the mask for 6 months!! EEEEEEWWWWW!! That cannot be very sanitary------if the masks were not so expensive we all would have a couple of our favorites so we would not have to wash them as often. Have not asked for a second hose tho--never crossed my mind. I have BCBS insurance--they have been pretty good with covering everything at 100 % so I might ask for a new hose and see what happens!! HA!! HA!!

Carrie

What were they thinking? If we build the "M"agic, we can make it almost as good as our last XPAP machines, DME's will stock and sell them, we will make gobs of $$$. That leaves us room to come out with the "N"icer, in the future, so we can make it cheaper and make even more $$$. Jim

Because newer is always better to the consumer, even when it isn't, we can't let Jones get ahead of us.

Keeping our equiptment squeaky clean, would make more sense, if we didn't have to hook it up to our dirty bodies. Maybe we need to add "Steam clean our lungs to the nightly task list.