Renewing Life of Mask: Boiling Recipe

[Starlette]

Olay everyone *waves*:

I remember way back when, there was a recipe to boil a mask for x amount to minutes to restore life to it. I cannot remember. Does anyone?
My beloved Wisp nasal mask whistles/flaps on the bridge of my nose. Don't want to toss it in the trash just yet.

Thanks,
Starlette

[JDS74]

Hi Starlette:

I did a quick and incomplete scan of the website and didn't find the reference.
However, I did find on the web an article about "boiling" a CPAP mask to keep it clean and sterile.
http://sleepdisorders.dolyan.com/cpap-mask-boiling/ This may not be the actual process you are looking for.

Hope this helps. Note that the article says don't actually boil the mask but use a temperature of 90 deg. C. That is about equal to 194 deg. F. The author makes it clear that a higher temp will damage the mask so use a reasonably accurate thermometer.

[delshadow]

How about this?

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=105224&p=1006576&hi ... g#p1006576

[Starlette]

Thanks guys, this is what I was looking for. Funny thing is that I got a double bonus for asking. Never thought about the sanitizing part, awesome!

Thank you

[chunkyfrog]

Sadly, there are not a lot of pillows/cushions that are made entirely of silicone;
so that makes boiling tricky. The hard plastic is usually much less tolerant to heat than silicone.
--which is probably a big reason for the newer designs.
Of course, I really do NOT miss wrestling the Swift FX pillows back onto the elbow fitting.
Now that was a new kind of fun, wasn't it?

[mariejeanne]

Of course, I really do NOT miss wrestling the Swift FX pillows back onto the elbow fitting.
Now that was a new kind of fun, wasn't it?

That is my life. I like how the mask fits though. I'm stoked to hear that the pillows can be restored by boiling them!

[Pugsy]

Here's a little hint about the boiling with baking soda thing.

I first tried it with regular water and baking soda and was totally disappointed with the results. The nasal pillows looked and felt worse.
Then I got to thinking...I am on well water and where I live there's a lot of mineral content so I decided to use distilled water for both the boiling and the final rinse...huge improvement in the results.
Nice clear silicone nasal pillows and the felt like new. It does NOT seem to remove much of the normal yellowing that we get with aging of silicone that has been left exposed to air (as opposed to sealed in a bag).
But then I experimented with some really old nasal pillows so maybe I was asking more than could be delivered.

[SewTired]

Olay everyone *waves*:

I remember way back when, there was a recipe to boil a mask for x amount to minutes to restore life to it. I cannot remember. Does anyone?
My beloved Wisp nasal mask whistles/flaps on the bridge of my nose. Don't want to toss it in the trash just yet.

Thanks,
Starlette

I did not have to boil water. I just used HOT water and kept replenishing the hot water for about 20 minutes. Let it cool. Then it will either work or not work. Mine is still working after a week of treatment. One nostril kept collapsing. Now it doesn't. Yay!

[archangle]

Don't try any of this unless you already have a replacement part for the one you're boiling, in case you damage it.