humidifier chamber issues

[kennyr121]

I keep getting dark deposits in my chamber. I always clean it once a week and always use distilled water. Now I have been seeing a pinkish film which wipes off with a towel when I clean it by hand. Usually I get a new one every 6 months, this one I had for 7. Am I breathing in this trash or what? Should I install an inline filter outside the chamber to my tubeing?

[Islandwoman]

I understand "pink slime" grows in dark moist places. I am a newbie to CPap but have seen pink slime under flower pots. Dark and moist. I am a Newbie but would wash it well and soak in a 10% bleach solution for an hour or so right after ordering a new one. I remove may chamber every morning rinse or wash with soap and let air-dry till bed and refill then.
I worked as a research technician in a tissue culture lab and am obsessed with any contamination. Your question brings up something I have wondered about. If something weird shows up anywhere in the system is there a way to disinfect the whole setup or is that even an issue? I do occasional use essential oils for congestion (eucalyptus outside the machine neat the air intake filter. I feel that helps discourage invisible invaders.

[Wulfman...]

I keep getting dark deposits in my chamber. I always clean it once a week and always use distilled water. Now I have been seeing a pinkish film which wipes off with a towel when I clean it by hand. Usually I get a new one every 6 months, this one I had for 7. Am I breathing in this trash or what? Should I install an inline filter outside the chamber to my tubeing?

Some thoughts.......
I'd be checking the label on the distilled water jug to see if it's actually "DISTILLED" water.
Are you cleaning/changing the air intake filter?
What level of humidifier setting are you using?
What in your environment may be getting sucked through the filter into the humidifier tank. I suspect that this is where it's coming from.......and may be more problematic than what's IN the HH tank. The HH tank acts like a "water bath air filter".......what comes in is left behind in the HH water. You're breathing the room air in your dwelling much more than you're breathing the air from the XPAP.

Water molecules are too small to carry any of that stuff out of the tank to you, so I wouldn't worry about THAT.
Over the years, numerous people have commented on seeing a "pinkish slime" floating around in their HH tanks.

I wouldn't even think about the filter outside the chamber. What's in the HH chamber is going to stay there.


Den

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[kenny121]

Thank you! Makes sense.

[JDS74]

As mentioned earlier, the first thing to check is the water. Just because it uses the word distilled doesn't make it so.
Check to see if there are other words like purified or filtered. If you see those, it's not distilled.

Are you using a white fine filter on the intake? The grey filter only stops quite coarse particles and lets really small stuff through.

I use another inline filter because some things get through anyway.

Clean the tank thoroughly, rinse with vinegar, and a final rinse with real distilled water and you should be good to go.

[Guest]

me thinks you are introducing bacteria with the tap water you are using. which is why I don't think it is a good idea to clean everything esp. with tap water. it is the people who clean the most who normally have this problem. slow down.
look in your sink for the pink. check up under the rim and the overflow hole and around the handles.

then follow this advice

Clean the tank thoroughly, rinse with vinegar, and a final rinse with real distilled water and you should be good to go.