Have you been able to remove smoke odour from a CPAP?

[torontoCPAPguy]

Yes, baking soda and (activated?) charcoal are known to soak up odours and we use them in the fridge and so on and they work wonderfully. Happen to have a wee muffin fan in the basement somewhere that I used to put above the cabinet of my ham radio gear to keep the insides cool and make them last longer. And last but not least, the ionizer and I remember that Ionic Breeze. The Sharper Image may have a shop in Buffalo in Galleria Mall - the ionizer that my friend has is meant to do a hospital room and is not very portable. That Ionic Breeze is probably a good investment for the guest washroom as well wonder what they cost.

Keep the experiences coming! Don't know why I am bothering myself to give this a shot as the smoke odour is gone but the smell of new plastic is certainly there. Strange. I wonder if sammy sprayed some new car smell into the thing. Anyway, it is quite usable and about as new as it comes.

And now for the S9. Sic.

[OceanGoingGal]

I work away from home on the weekends. I sleep over at supported living homes to relieve the live in companions. One house has a smoker for a live in and the staff bedroom stinks. I am there every other weekend. I am there 2 nights, Saturday and Sunday. I get home on that Monday and completely strip down my machine and wash everything. I wash the spongy filter and put in a new hepa filter. Then I turn the machine on for a while to get out any lingering odor. That works well for me.

Laura

[nanwilson]

Hi Murray
My friend received a cpap from an estate and the previous owner smoked.
He washed the entire machine with vinegar and water, including the inside (carefully) then he put in a fresh filter and ran the machine for 4 hours outside in the garage. He repeated the run for 4 days, cleaned it again, put in a fresh filter and used the machine. No smoke odor left at all. Now he has a spare machine he uses in the motorhome and it was free!
Good luck
N

[Ginapatton]

Good idea, I'm all for saving money

[chunkyfrog]

After storing it in a bag for a weekend with several charcoal briquets, I observed no change.
I just put it away and forgot about it. Months later, the smell had left of its own accord.
It also left the hose, which I had washed repeatedly to no apparent effect.
Of course, this equipment was only exposed to tobacco smoke for about 4 days.

[Sloop]

I am not so much chemically sensitive as just plain find the smell of cigarette smoke nauseating ......... We ex=smokers (it's been many years) seem to get more sensitized to smoke odor over the years for some reason. I can sit in a restaurant here in Toronto where smoking in them is illegal and tell you if one single person in that entire room has stepped out and back in after having had a cigarette.

Man, ain't that the truth! Me too. I can smell them many yards away. I quit over 20 years ago (the same day I started CPAP), and within a week I started to detest the smell. After 3 months, I was the worst ex-smoker around. We are MUCH tougher on the smokers than people who have never smoked. Any kind of passive smoke irritates my lungs to the point where I start choking.

LOL -- I just looked at the date for the last time the OP posted. Back in 2010! I wonder if he ever got his machine smoke-free?

[chunkyfrog]

--And leaving many buildings, take a deep breath, open the door, and RUN through the blue cloud of carcinogens.

[torontoCPAPguy]

For the most part it is very difficult to get rid of cigarette smoke smell as it is composed of oily tar and nicotine. The best option is, of course, disassembly and washing the impeller blades, interior housing, hose, mask, whatever, with a detergent that will break down the oils, etc. One may also try using an ozone generator to 'destink'. But all I did was let the unit run for a few days in fresh air and sunshine and the smell diminished to the extent that I could no longer smell it. Ran the machine on the highest setting I could find. Guess I was lucky as I have heard from many that were unable to get rid of the smell.

If disassembling, make sure you know what you are doing and are able to reassemble. DO NOT FORCE and parts apart. Change out anything that is easily changed (filter, plastic impeller if cheap, etc.).

Or just try fresh air and sunshine and pehaps a few shots of the odour killer they use in hospitals and at the beginning of the fresh air and sunshine. Be careful what you get wet!

[MaxDarkside]

For the most part it is very difficult to get rid of cigarette smoke smell as it is composed of oily tar and nicotine.

Very difficult, so I did the easiest thing... started smoking again and now it doesn't bother me. I get my exercise walking down to the convenience store to buy another pack.
(just kidding. Humor, ar ar ar... Oh hey, that laugh is from "Mork & Mindy" (1978) ... I think I just poofed some dust )

[Sir NoddinOff]

I guess it's probably already been said but I recommend time, time and more time. I've had a hose that I use as a backup which a heavy smoker used - now at about month 2.5 I can't detect any smoke.

[torontoCPAPguy]

The "give it time" method, one should note, does NOT get rid of the carcinogens being blown into your lungs. It only gives them a chance to dry out and get crusty so the smell is greatly diminished.

As one who had the T shirt (a terrible T shirt to have) I strongly recommend AGAINST blowing anything into your lungs that is not meant to be there. It can do more harm than good and unless the FDA has approved the product for inhalation, the best thing to be inhaling is mountain fresh air and nothing more.

I would ask, as a matter of interest, if these aroma therapy products are FDA or otherwise tested and approved... or are they like "supplements" and you take your chances. Just curious. I take supplements. They help me greatly. I realize and accept that I am taking a chance when I ingest them and buy only from LARGE and very reputable suppliers. Thanks for that input.

[archangle]

The "give it time" method, one should note, does NOT get rid of the carcinogens being blown into your lungs. It only gives them a chance to dry out and get crusty so the smell is greatly diminished.

If the machine is outgassing carcinogens, the carcinogens inside the machine are being depleted. The concentration of carcinogens will go down over time, along with the smell. You can't contaminate the air through the CPAP machine with chemicals without using up the chemicals stuck to the inside of the machines.

You're also being overly paranoid about carcinogens in these "third hand" cigarette fumes. There are nasty chemicals in what the smoker breathes, but after they've been spread out around the room, diluted, had a small fraction of the chemicals deposit on the CPAP machine, sit for a while, then evaporate back off the machine as you use it, mixed with the 30 liters per minute or so the CPAP blows, the concentration of chemicals is reduced thousands, if not millions, of times from what the smoker gets. If the carcinogens are high enough to harm you at all, the smoker would die within a day or two.

I certainly don't want a smoker's stink on anything I have to live with, but let's be real about the problems it causes, not be paranoid about the black magic and bad karma from smokers.