How compliant are you with cleaning the machine?

[mindy60]

You know they give all these instructions on what to do, how to do it, and how often. Be honest, how well do you clean the machine and how often? Do you clean the hose every day? Every week?

What do you think of cottonelle wipes for the mask? It's safe on the skin. What about the mask? http://bitly.com/OvNiE8

Mindy

[Jesse1952]

Frankly, I only clean mine every couple of weeks.

[2 B Sleeping Soundly]

I clean the mask with a CPAP wipe most every morning. I clean everything thoroughly (mask, hose, humidifier chamber) every two weeks. I also change out the fine white filter and put a clean foam filter in the machine every 2 - 3 weeks. I do my chin strap and mask head gear every couple of months.

John

[ems]

Mindy... use baby wipes (no alcohol) for those nightly wipes.

When I first started I was nuts about keeping everything sterile. Now not so much. I wash the mask with a soft soap once a week, and I've never washed the hose - altho I replace it every six months.

Only use distilled water in your humidifier - I think that's important.

Also, there must be a zillion threads on this very subject. Do a search.

[LSAT]

Why would you clean the machine? Dust it when it's dirty? I change the filter every 3 months per mfg instructions. I wipe my mask with CPAP wipes every day and wash it every month. I never clean the hose.

[Slartybartfast]

2 years and counting, here, and all I've ever done is rinse out the filter twice. Never cleaned the machine, nor the hose. Wiped the accumulated K-Y from the nasal pillows with a Kleenex maybe once a week. There's really not much to clean. And unless you have a chronic illness or are immune-compromised somehow, it's much ado about nothing.

[Madalot]

I wipe masks (mine & hubby's) DAILY with a baby wipe (and mine gets sprayed with a cpap mask cleaner as well).

Every Sunday morning, both masks are taken apart and given a good soaking in Baby Shampoo, along with filters & hoses. I have two sets of hoses & filters so I alternate, giving them a week to dry before they are put into use again.

During the "bath" this past Sunday, my husband's mask valve appeared to have a small amount of mildew or something in it (little black lines). They were still there AFTER the bath so it got trashed and a new valve put into service.

My oxygen concentrator (Invacare Perfecto2) has a foam-type filter and that gets a weekly bath with everything else.

As someone else said, DISTILLED water only in humidifiers.

While I know my situation is a little different than most here and I HAVE to be a little more diligent, I think it's smart to keep everything clean. We've gotten into the routine that we have to allow time on Sunday mornings to complete the cleanings.

[chunkyfrog]

I wash the cushion to my élan every day.
The rest--generally, when I see a film or floaters in the tank, or the headgear looks icky.

[teachcsg]

I will sometimes ask pts that are getting a replacement cpap from us (they have had cpap for over 5 years) when they clean their filters, mask etc..most say once a month...some just giggle and say "what filters?"
I have had one occasion when I saw a pt that was complaining his machine was not working properly. It was an older machine...when I checked the pressure it was reading 2-3 cwp lower than what it was set. I first thought it was just due to it being an older machine.
I then asked him about his changing filters, cleaning etc.. and he looked at me and said "what filters?"
I showed him where they where and he had never cleaned them. (You can imagine how the filters looked!)
So we exchanged the filters and his pressure reading increased to his set pressure!
Problem solved and happy pt.

[Denial Dave]

I started this CPAP journey about 45 days ago.

Every 3-4 days, I dissassemble my Quattro mask and wash the liner, head cushion and flaps with soapy water. My pad a cheek liner gets washed at the same frequency. I haven't washed the straps yet at all.

I wash the hose twice a month by squirting some dishwashing liquid inside of it and swishing it around. It gets rinsed and hung dry until needed.

My humidifier tank was washed prior to using it and haven't washed it since.

It gets only distilled water. Any remaining water from overnight gets dumped every morning. The tank is left to dry out for the day.

Dave

[xenablue]

My machine gets wiped over with a damp cloth once a week, just as I dust the rest of my house.

My tubing and mask/s get washed regularly, with nasal pillows being cleaned after each use. Humidifier tank gets washed and completely dried once a week as does tubing as I have concerns about Legionnaires wherever warm, damp conditions occur where I'm breathing. During summer when I don't use the humidifier, I was the tubing about once a month.

IMHO, how often your XPAP equipment is cleaned depends on your own personal idea of how clean it should be, how clean the rest of your house is kept and whether you have pets.

I'm a clean freak, but I'm not obsessive about my CPAP, just conscious of making sure I'm breathing the cleanest air possible and not creating breeding places for organisms.

Cheers,
xena

[ChrisD]

As others have said, we all have our own cleaniness routines. There are quite a few threads here on how to clean, when to clean, what to use when you clean, etc. Just do a search for them it you want more info.

My routine is:
Daily: wipe mask and forehead gel pad with a baby wipe.

Weekly: wash humidifer tank, hose, mask, headgear, and foam air filter in hot water with Palmolive Pure & Clear.
http://www.colgate.com/app/Palmolive/US ... #PureClear

Monthly: same as weekly but with an extra step. Once I wash everything, I then soak it in hot water and Control III Disinfectant CPAP Cleaning Solution.
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/Control ... eaner.html

Chris

[RWinkelman]

I wash my Nasal Pillow every night and Humidifier tank every 4 days.

One thing I done see anywhere on these threads is the fact there are additives in the detergents people are washing their equip with. Johnson's baby shampoo has softeners in them - regular hand soap will often put softeners in the soap even with antibacterial soaps.

I recommend the cheapest hand sanitizing soap liquid anti bacterial - without any extras in it - clear soaps only. Even soaps with color to them add this ingredient into the soaps.

I am new here but joined because of this topic - I just boiled water with my tubes with vinegar and they melted even when the medical supply place recommended I do this to disinfect. The Humidifier tub, yes - but everything else - DO NOT.

I have found that I suffer from allergens from the ingredients from those soaps - and only in my CPAP - makes sense - I am injecting forced air in my Ear Nose and throat region all night every night... I don't have a reaction severe - I do get complication like stuffy nose, runny nose >cold like symptoms almost that is thick in the back of my nasal passage that is constant until I replace my gear. I replace ASAP and its will be instantly better in one day and no more symptoms in two.

I recommend to all to not use anything but "soft soap" anti bacterial without any other additives - places like Wall mart carry this for .80cents a dispenser and lasts a month! Works better and is clean and allergen saving!

[archangle]

It's a good idea to realize that many soaps have additives, and experiment with different soaps if you have problems that might be related to allergies.

However, we need to realize that just because some people have adverse reactions to certain additives, doesn't mean that products without those additives are bad for people in general.

Some people are allergic to nuts. Allergic to the point of dying in a few minutes if they eat them and don't get treatment. However, for the rest of us, nuts are a reasonably healthy food choice. The same can be said for shellfish, milk, wheat, rice, etc.

A "hypoallergenic" laundry wash, for instance, is only healthier for a small percent of people.

[JeffL]

I wash the nasal pillows every morning. It takes about 10 seconds.
Clean the hoses, head gear and humidifier tank once a week.
Lately, I've started washing the filter once a week too. I don't know if that's a good idea, but it always looks very white afterwards. To be honest, I really haven't been good about replacing the filter, because it looks so clean. That's something I probably should reconsider.