bactaria in water tank?

[xenablue]

I've been told that antibacterial products aren't good to use to clean our equipment as it leaves a film.

Cheers,
xena

[archangle]

You need a spare tank anyway. Buy the dishwashable tank.

I've been dishwashing Respironics tanks for 7 years now. Legacy, M Series, and PRS1 tanks. The hottest cycle I can get. On my machine, it's "sanitize" and "extra rinse." Normal dishwashing detergent. I don't ever mix food and CPAP. I wash my masks, too.

I wash the tank once a week, and use my spare for the next week, letting my tank dry out for a week.

My oldest tanks are nice and clean looking. Some of the oldest ones have a slightly etched appearance on the aluminum and plastic, but they're all squeaky clean and work well. Some of them have years of use.

Even if it did have some effect on the lifetime of the tanks, the most you're risking is the cost of a new tank.

I do occasionally smell a little bit of dishwashing powder fragrance, but it's very faint. I'm not worried about any residue. I'd be more worried about residue from hand washing with liquid soap.

You could also get some "Everclear" 95% pure drinking alcohol. Clean the parts with the Everclear, then rinse thoroughly. Since you can drink the Everclear, I'm not worried that a very dilute alcohol residue is going to have some bad health effects. Do NOT use "denatured" alcohol. Denatured alcohol is regular alcohol with poison added to it to avoid the US tax on drinking alcohol.

[ameriken]

Vinegar...not bleach, is recommended

I didn't think vinegar killed the cooties, but I just checked and read that vinegar kills bacteria, mold and germs. So I won't be using bleach anymore.
I also like the Listerine idea. It probably smells nice.

Vinegar is awesome, since I bought it for the humidifier, I find myself using it for cleaning many other things...clothing, floor, grease, dishes, etc. It's cheap, non-chemical, and does a great job. I won't use anti-bacterial soaps because many carry 'triclosan' which is believed to cause cancer. I don't think cancer in exchange for a few dead germs is worth it.

[Bright Choice]

I use Control III disinfectant. It is used by hospitals to disinfect equipment. It kills bacteria, viruses, molds, funguses and parasites. It is sold on cpap.com. I used to work as a RN and I have seen fatalities from infections that come from patients who do not properly clean their equipment. I cannot believe how cavalier people are about cleaning. Having read about recent deaths from contaminated water in neti pots, I am glad I am so vigilant, and will now be even more careful with my neti pot.

I buy the large bottles of Control III and have a 1 gallon tub with a cover that I bought at ACE Hardware. Looks like an ice cream container. The solution can be reused. The instructions say to change every 2 weeks but I change it every month. The first Control III that I bought from cpap.com came as a kit. It had some test strips to check to see if the solution is still working. It was always ok after a month. I soak masks, climateline line, humidifier and the seal that fits onto the inside of the door of the humidifier once a week, after a quick sudsing in soap and water. All of the equipment fits into the gallon tub and all it takes is a ten minute soak. I also change the distiller water daily.

On cpap.com it says that the Control III is actually cheaper than using vinegar.

Is my health worth the bother? You bet! I don't really understand why anyone would do less.

[archangle]

I used to work as a RN and I have seen fatalities from infections that come from patients who do not properly clean their equipment.

What kind of unclean equipment? CPAP? If not CPAP, then what kind?

[tomjax]

Just curious.

Why is there such a great concern with bacteria in the water tank?
It would be very rare anyway to have some that would be pathogenic.
Even if there were some present, there is no danger here.
It is well established that bacteria CANNOT get from the tank to the lungs.

They are simply too large to hitch a ride on water vapor.
Just curious

[idamtnboy]

Just curious.

Why is there such a great concern with bacteria in the water tank?
It would be very rare anyway to have some that would be pathogenic.
Even if there were some present, there is no danger here.
It is well established that bacteria CANNOT get from the tank to the lungs.

They are simply too large to hitch a ride on water vapor.
Just curious

Water can start looking ugly and you look at it and say, "I'm breathing that?" If it gets cruddy enough it can cause throat irritation like from a cold. At least it did for me. And it may not be bacteria but some form of moss or algae. It's hard to read the water level gage when the water is cruddy. If the tank runs dry it stinks as bad a burnt feathers as the crud drys and cracks and turns into scale. So in the end it's 80% about aesthetics, and 20% about health.

[HoseCrusher]

Just curious.

Why is there such a great concern with bacteria in the water tank?
It would be very rare anyway to have some that would be pathogenic.
Even if there were some present, there is no danger here.
It is well established that bacteria CANNOT get from the tank to the lungs.

They are simply too large to hitch a ride on water vapor.
Just curious

I actually ran some tests on this, and more than water vapor travels up the hose...

[tomjax]

hosecrusher,
This is interesting.
Would you please describe your setup for testing and those things that you determined came up the hose from the tank.
Pardon me for being a skeptic, but this is my nature.

[HoseCrusher]

I believe this thread goes into the details.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=58490&st=0&sk=t&sd= ... c+solution

[tomjax]

Interesting theoory, but when you add a solute to water and disrill it, only water vapor comes out.

Salt does not attach to the water vapor.

You may be confusing the salt water at the ocean in the air and the smell..
This is apples and oranges.
The salt in the ocean mist is due to water droplets being blown into the air.
The vapor does NOT contain salt.

[HoseCrusher]

That is exactly my point.

I was told that only water vapor is released from my humidifier. When I tested it I found that water droplets (and salt) are also coming out.

When you ran the test that I outlined in that thread what did you find?

After running this test I spend a little more time making sure my humidifier tank is clean.

[kempo]

I only clean my tub twice a year and when I clean it I can tell it doesn't need cleaning. I only use distilled water and I only top it off with distilled water when needed. The 2 times a year I clean it I use distilled water and "Johnsons Head to Toe Baby Wash". I never use "tap" water which is probably where the bactaria is coming from. Bactaria doesn't live in distilled water. Stop cleaning your tub with "tap" water and cut back on the cleaning.

[StevenXXXX]

For a washable tank, our old DME wanted more for the co-pay PLUS the upcharge than the entire cost from our sponsors.
BCBS apparently doesn't think cleaning is necessary. . .

Your note about BCBS is interesting.
And I am sure you are right about your assessment of your BCBS plan.

But my experience has been different.

I just bought a ResMed S9 AutoSet with the H5i humidifier with the cleanable water tub & not the standard one that cannot be opened.

I was just going to order the cleanable water tub & pay its cost to have it in addition to the standard tub. But, my DME said that BCBS would pay for the cleanable tub, but I would not also get the standard tub. Since I had no desire to clean a water tub that does not come apart, I got just the cleanable water tub.

I did not pay anything additional to get the cleanable water tub.
There is a different ResMed Item No. for the H5i with the cleanable water tub than the ResMed Item No. for the H5i with the standard water tub.

[Hose_Head]

Interesting theoory, but when you add a solute to water and disrill it, only water vapor comes out.

Salt does not attach to the water vapor.

You may be confusing the salt water at the ocean in the air and the smell..
This is apples and oranges.
The salt in the ocean mist is due to water droplets being blown into the air.
The vapor does NOT contain salt.

I strongly suspect that what HoseCrusher was measuring in his experiments was cross contamination of his equipment due to inadequate cleaning between experimental runs. IIRC, he failed to run adequate controls to check for and rule-out this source of contamination. As a result, I wouldn't put too much faith in his conclusions.