TO DISTILL OR NOT TO DISTILL

[BlackSpinner]

Drinking and inhaling are two different things. One body system can kill certain organisms, and one cannot.

http://www.clinicaladvisor.com/rare-amo ... le/219925/

And this refers to shooting water up your nose, not inhaling vapour. Every instruction you read refers to distilled water when it comes to a netti pot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionellosis

Most people don't get their drinking water from cooling towers. Every time you take a shower you are exposed to water droplets and far more then from a cpap humidifier,, I haven't heard of many people getting legionaires from taking a shower at home or in a hotel.

Tap water is far from sterile. For goodness sakes, just pay the 80 cents and buy the distilled water.

Which is good.
Oh and distilled water here is $1.99.

You can reuse coffee grounds the next day too but would you really want to?

Sure, it makes great compost.

[Uncle_Bob]

I've been buying the distilled water for about 80cent a gallon since i've been on CPAP.
I've used tap water when travelling on the odd occasion.
I never use the tap water where i live. The mineral content is very high and it varies as the water sources change throughout the year.

Does anyone know if Reverse osmosis water is as good as distilled water? We have a Reverse osmosis drinking water machine at my work.

[newsnore]

If you can drink it, it won't harm you to breathe the vapors from tap water.

Dump the water every morning to help keep minerals from building up.

At worst, you'll have to clean and maybe replace the water tank more often.

Drinking and inhaling are two different things. One body system can kill certain organisms, and one cannot.

http://www.clinicaladvisor.com/rare-amo ... le/219925/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionellosis

Tap water is far from sterile. For goodness sakes, just pay the 80 cents and buy the distilled water.

You can reuse coffee grounds the next day too but would you really want to?

As BlackSpinner has already pointed out, I think there is a lot of fear factor in your reasoning hyperlexis. The link you use to back up your argument has this sentence in the text - “Tap water is safe for drinking, but not for irrigating your nose.” Water for irrigating sinuses is quite a bit different to the water vapor from the humidifier. We breathe steam from the water we wash and shower in and many other sources.

The wikipedia link has this sentence in its text - "It (Legionellosis) is not transmitted from person to person. Instead, it is transmitted by inhalation of aerosolized water and/or soil contaminated with the bacteria." Again aerosolized water is very different to water vapour.

I really think the main reason manufacturers state distilled water is to be on the safe side and protect themselves from any comebacks. Distilled water is as pure as you can get. If my main source of water was heavy in mineral content or out of a drain or polluted supply then yes I would filter it. I like simplicity. CPAP is complicated and costly enough without adding more hassles to it all.

I wish we could buy distilled water for 80c here in NZ - if you can find it. The only bottled water I have seen in shops is filtered and costs $2 and over.

Now you are really talking when you start talking about coffee - you definitely need to get that right - The right beans, fresh roasted beans, freshly ground, freshly brewed, not over brewed, etc, etc, etc, Maybe we could find a way use it in our humidifiers and wake up fully caffeinated

[hyperlexis]

If you can drink it, it won't harm you to breathe the vapors from tap water.

Dump the water every morning to help keep minerals from building up.

At worst, you'll have to clean and maybe replace the water tank more often.

Drinking and inhaling are two different things. One body system can kill certain organisms, and one cannot.

http://www.clinicaladvisor.com/rare-amo ... le/219925/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionellosis

Tap water is far from sterile. For goodness sakes, just pay the 80 cents and buy the distilled water.

You can reuse coffee grounds the next day too but would you really want to?

As BlackSpinner has already pointed out, I think there is a lot of fear factor in your reasoning hyperlexis. The link you use to back up your argument has this sentence in the text - “Tap water is safe for drinking, but not for irrigating your nose.” Water for irrigating sinuses is quite a bit different to the water vapor from the humidifier. We breathe steam from the water we wash and shower in and many other sources.

The wikipedia link has this sentence in its text - "It (Legionellosis) is not transmitted from person to person. Instead, it is transmitted by inhalation of aerosolized water and/or soil contaminated with the bacteria." Again aerosolized water is very different to water vapour.

I really think the main reason manufacturers state distilled water is to be on the safe side and protect themselves from any comebacks. Distilled water is as pure as you can get. If my main source of water was heavy in mineral content or out of a drain or polluted supply then yes I would filter it. I like simplicity. CPAP is complicated and costly enough without adding more hassles to it all.

I wish we could buy distilled water for 80c here in NZ - if you can find it. The only bottled water I have seen in shops is filtered and costs $2 and over.

Now you are really talking when you start talking about coffee - you definitely need to get that right - The right beans, fresh roasted beans, freshly ground, freshly brewed, not over brewed, etc, etc, etc, Maybe we could find a way use it in our humidifiers and wake up fully caffeinated

Listen, I'm not going to split hairs here but the humidifiers in these machines blow a high pressure stream of air over the surface of the water in the humidifier chamber. Some of that water and air turbulence bouncing around in the chamber gets some of the water aerosolized in the process. It's not all evaporated like steam in a teakettle.

There are some people who use tap water to soak their contact lenses. There are also some people who use tap water in their automobile radiators or to top off their car's battery. You can do such things, however that's not what is recommended or ideal.

Why a country like New Zealand doesn't sell distilled water is beyond me, but here fortunately we do have it and it's relatively cheap (cheaper than soda....). If you have an ultrasonic humidifier it is ideal to use because it prevents the minerals from clogging the machine and leaving 'white dust' in the house. Plus I think people use it for making baby formula.

So if its impossible to get distilled water, then, obviously, you cant use it. However if its available why bother second guessing the manufacturer? ResMed says don't use bleach or citrus oil cleaners on the machines. Are they wrong about that too? Just not worth it pushing the envelope on such an expensive piece of equipment.

[archangle]

Legionella is spread by aerosolized droplets from swamp coolers because it grows in that water and people inhale the droplets. If you drank legionella laced water in swamp coolers, you'd probably catch legionellosis, too. Lots of people inhale the spray from swamp coolers. Not many drink swamp cooler water.

There are 2 known cases of Naegleria killing neti users in the US using tap water in the past 30 years or so. Given the number of people doing neti, I'm not that worried. You're probably more likely to die going to the store to buy distilled water or to burn down the house and kill yourself boiling your neti water.

However, if it makes you feel better, go for it.

People also get Naeglaria infections from bathing or swimming in contaminated water. If your tap water is contaminated with Naegleria, I suspect you'll get it from the shower, or from coughing or sneezing after drinking the tap water.

[msla]

I've been buying the distilled water for about 80cent a gallon since i've been on CPAP.
I've used tap water when travelling on the odd occasion.
I never use the tap water where i live. The mineral content is very high and it varies as the water sources change throughout the year.

Does anyone know if Reverse osmosis water is as good as distilled water? We have a Reverse osmosis drinking water machine at my work.

I have been using RO water for 10 years with no problem. I use Walmart at about $0.40 per gallon. I fill a 2 gallon refrigerator jug and the little spigot just fits in the top of the chamber hole. No muss and no fuss and no mess. (ip)

[DreamStalker]

Drinking and inhaling are two different things. One body system can kill certain organisms, and one cannot.

http://www.clinicaladvisor.com/rare-amo ... le/219925/

And this refers to shooting water up your nose, not inhaling vapour. Every instruction you read refers to distilled water when it comes to a netti pot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionellosis

Most people don't get their drinking water from cooling towers. Every time you take a shower you are exposed to water droplets and far more then from a cpap humidifier,, I haven't heard of many people getting legionaires from taking a shower at home or in a hotel.

Tap water is far from sterile. For goodness sakes, just pay the 80 cents and buy the distilled water.

Which is good.
Oh and distilled water here is $1.99.

You can reuse coffee grounds the next day too but would you really want to?

Sure, it makes great compost.

You're a hoot BS.

The germaphobes are going to Darwinize themselves right out of existence. They don't realize that only one tenth of their body cells are human, the other 90% are other bacteria.

[BlackSpinner]

Does anyone know if Reverse osmosis water is as good as distilled water? We have a Reverse osmosis drinking water machine at my work.

If you check your "distilled water" you will find it is reverse osmosis in many cases.

[chunkyfrog]

Lincoln has VERY hard water.
The distiller has to be descaled ever few months.
When we tossed a 10 year old toilet--the tank looked like a sandstone cave.

[zeddic]

I have used bottled or purified water temporarily as well for a few days with no problems. You should be fine.

[Uncle_Bob]

Thanks, I think i may snag some RO water from work then. I see most people fill their bottles with the cold water for the commute home in the hot AZ heat.
I'll just use my share in my CPAP machine. One less heavy item to handle from the store.

[archangle]

Be careful about purified water for industrial purposes if it's not intended for human consumption.

Water that is purified for use in industrial processes may have, for instance, all the salts removed, but might have some chemicals used in the purification process that are harmful to your health. For instance, many industrial processes use "deionized" water, but the process may not remove non-ionic compounds like gasoline. Also, water being stored for industrial use will not have chlorine in it, and stuff harmful to humans may grow in the storage tank.

Even real, pure, distilled water for industrial purposes might be contaminated with bacteria or such depending on how it's stored.