Humidifer & cleaning

[BeadyEl]

A single fill-up of my humidifier's reservoir usually lasts me two nights - and there's even a small amount left when I get up on day 2.

The manual would have me dump out the left over water each morning and clean the reservoir - but I tend to think every other day should be adequate. Dumping half a reservoir of water seems excessive; it is, after all, distilled, and the reservoir stays safely locked inside the humidifier, away from any source of contamination. For that matter, when I refill it, my supply is just a plastic jug (of distilled water) on my bathroom floor; it's not like it's refrigerated or anything.

Does anyone think this is a bad idea?

And speaking of cleaning; I'm also supposed to wash the hose weekly. All I can think to do is use soap on the end-connectors and run hot water through the hose - I don't have a long handled brush or anything for scrubbing the interior. Any suggestions?

[robysue]

A single fill-up of my humidifier's reservoir usually lasts me two nights - and there's even a small amount left when I get up on day 2.

The manual would have me dump out the left over water each morning and clean the reservoir - but I tend to think every other day should be adequate. Dumping half a reservoir of water seems excessive; it is, after all, distilled, and the reservoir stays safely locked inside the humidifier, away from any source of contamination. For that matter, when I refill it, my supply is just a plastic jug (of distilled water) on my bathroom floor; it's not like it's refrigerated or anything.

A lot of us don't dump the humidifier every single day. Some of us do. It's really up to you and how paranoid you are about germs/mold/etc.

Me? When I was a newbie I stressed out about the cleaning (which seemed never ending) all the time. And it was an additional source of major stress about therapy. Now? I'll top off my water tank for a week or more at a time before dumping the water and washing the tank with vinegar water. And I'm equally lax about all the other cleaning guidelines.

And speaking of cleaning; I'm also supposed to wash the hose weekly. All I can think to do is use soap on the end-connectors and run hot water through the hose - I don't have a long handled brush or anything for scrubbing the interior. Any suggestions?

The inside of the hose is not going to get filthy dirty with visible dirt. So scrubbing the inside of the hose is not really necessary.

The potential problem is mold or bacteria since the inside of the hose is a "damp" environment. How much people worry about this varies tremendously. There are people here who literally never clean their hoses. There are others who clean them once a week (or even more frequently). Some of it depends on the person's sense of how clean or dirty their bedroom is. Some of it depends on how worried the person is (overall) about germs.

Me? I try to remember to soak my hose in vinegar water for a half hour every week, but in reality? I'll settle for once a month or so if I'm too busy to do it before then. I use the bathroom sink and I am no longer real careful about measuring the vinegar anymore. The guidelines the RT who set me up with my equipment were to use about 1 part vinegar to 10 parts water. I dump about 2 1/2 mugs of vinegar into my bathroom sink while running hot water into the sink. I plop the hose (and nasal pillows) into the water and make sure that I get water inside the tube by using the same mug I that I measured the vinegar with. I find that I have to weigh my hose (a slimline from Resmed) down with a dinner plate to keep it under the water. A half an hour or so later (if I remember) I drain the water, attach the hose coupling to the faucet and run hot water through the hose to rinse the inside. This also allows me to check for small pin sized holes in the hose by putting the water under some pressure by using my thumb to (mostly) close off the hose at the other end. I then hang the hose to dry. It seems to take a long time to dry, so I mostly try to alternate between two hoses--the one I'm using and the one that's clean, but "hanging to dry". Sometimes, however, I get lazy and don't want to wash the used hose when I do the hose swap and I'll have two hoses to clean. It seems fine (now) to use a hose that's still a bit damp inside. When I first started out, however, it bugged me because it seemed to make the air in the tub too damp for some reason.

[Wulfman...]

If you go up to the Search line and put in "cleaning", there will be 557 pages of links to posts to sort through.
I would suggest making up your own mind. The answers you'll get from the forum members will encompass the entire spectrum from excessive/OCD to "Once in awhile" to "Clean......clean WHAT?".


Den

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[HoseCrusher]

Let's look at this from a different perspective...

If you fill your tank up and it lasts 2 nights, you should be able to fill it half way and make it one night. If you feel strongly about cleaning the tank you could do so without wasting a lot of water. You can also swish/clean it daily and leave any heavy cleaning for the weekend.

[sleeplessinaz]

After two days I just add more water and call it a day! Lol! My tank is clean so I leave it alone. I hardly ever clean it, when I was a newbie I did clean it more. Lol!

[watergauge]

I've used a CPAP machine for over 10 years with no mold problems (with distilled water in humidifier, of course). I wash the mask, hose and reservoir weekly in warm soapy water, then rinse it all well. Drain out the hose and mask and dry it off by running it on the machine for a few minutes... actually, as long as you don't not have a slug of water in the hose you can just use the machine normally... presumably it's just a bit humid for a while! When traveling, I use tap water in the humidifier and change it every day to avoid calcium buildup, i.e. empty and refill, no specific extra cleaning done.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
WG

[HerbM]

I don't bother with distilled water -- the reservoir is easy enough to clean.

I never both to dump the water unless traveling (so it won't spill in the bag.)

Every couple of weeks, I open it up and clean it with hot water and maybe liquid soap. (Been meaning to put it in the dishwasher but its just not ever real convenient.)

Obviously I am not a clean freak or OCD. If if smells bad or looks bad, clean it. If it seems like it SHOULD look bad, clean it (e.g., nasal pillows go in nose so rinse in hot water every morning.)

If there is nothing to clean, then I don't waste time on it.

It took about 45 days for the hose air to MAYBE smell 'not fresh' (might have been my imagination). Next day I did the "fill with vinegar" soak (along with lots of hot water flush before and after.) Based on that, I figure the hose needs cleaning about every 30 days.

Hose brush was ALMOST worthless as it will only go into the ClimateLine hose from one end and won't go all the way through with reasonable effort.

My wife uses 1 to 3 vinegar to water so that is what we put into the hose and used to soak the nasal pillows at the same time.

I did buy that hose hanger/plug kit, so the vinegar solution stayed in the hose for a couple of hours before flushing it out (with hot tap water.)

Just hold the connector tight to the faucet while handing the other end in the bathtub.

So I am just shy of "Clean what?" about at "Clean it if it's dirty or not fresh smelling."

There is no convincing reason for distilled water: The tub is all accessible so any hard water build up will be easy to clean; the hose will get replaced if it develops unreachable build up. There are no other mechanical parts from tub to hose to worry about.

YMMV.

[beautifuldreamer]

When I first started, I cleaned everyday. Then I stopped.

But then, recently I found that my clean glass bottles of filtered water, even if I don't open the bottle, after a few days, get this mildewy smell, even though the water looks clean.

And then I noticed in this pot of water, that is boiled for making tea, when leaving the leftover water inside and adding new water to boil - well let's just say I saw some white type of debris floating on the top.

All that to say, I am really trying my best to remember to clean my humidifier every day - because I might not see the organisms that are growing inside, even if it looks clean to my eyes-

A friend of mine who works with pharmaceutical equipment, says that there are organisms that end up growing inside the water (even distilled), . . .

[JDS74]

I was looking for some other F-P information and came across this web page on their site.
It pertains to cleaning F-P masks and head gear to the point of sterilizing them. I presume that similar procedures would apply to masks from other manufacturers.

Don't know how it would apply to the humidifier tank but likely the times would be the same.
As for the hose, I have no clue about that other than what has been posted about rinsing in a vinegar-water mixture.

http://www.fphcare.com/CMSPages/GetFile ... cd9d4fd08f