humidifier

I have a Resmed Elite with the H4i humidifier. My problem is how to clean the inside of the humidifier. I do the soapy water and the vinegar but I need to be able to scrub the inside of the humidifier but since it doesn't come apart I'm having trouble. Anyone have any suggestions?

Use distilled water. It prevents mineral and scale build up. Some folks will empty the tank every morning. You could fill the tank with soapy water and swish it around real good. Rinse real well. If this is unacceptable to you, you can replace the tub every so often. Most folks will empty the tub every morning and be done with it.


Sheriff

I use distilled water and top it off every evening. About once a week I empty the tank by watering my carnivorous plants. Then I fill the tank with tap water and a drop of Palmolive dish soap and shake well and then I rinse very well with tap water and air dry. I have not had any problems so far. I have used the same tank for about 10 months.

Designhair wrote:I have a Resmed Elite with the H4i humidifier. My problem is how to clean the inside of the humidifier. I do the soapy water and the vinegar but I need to be able to scrub the inside of the humidifier but since it doesn't come apart I'm having trouble. Anyone have any suggestions?

Do you use distilled water? Do you change/clean your filters? There really shouldn't be anything in the HH tank that requires cleaning. And, water vapor molecules are too small to carry anything out of the tank to you IF there was anything in there.


Den

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I use distilled water and rinse it out every morning. Every couple of months there appears a pinkish cast around the sides. I did figure out that I could probably use a baby bottle cleaning brush. It worked beautifully! I was able to bend it and clean out every corner. It's so clean now!
I read in some of the responses that some just keep the same water in the chamber all the time. Sounds funky to me.

Designhair wrote:I have a Resmed Elite with the H4i humidifier. My problem is how to clean the inside of the humidifier. I do the soapy water and the vinegar but I need to be able to scrub the inside of the humidifier but since it doesn't come apart I'm having trouble. Anyone have any suggestions?

If you can't clean it to your satisfaction, buy a new water chamber and use distilled water...you will never have to clean it.
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/resmed ... amber.html

I use Control III solution sold by CPAP.com, our forum sponsors.

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/Contro ... eaner.html

You don't have to fill up the whole tank with the diluted solution (read the label) - you just have to wet the surfaces and let sit for ten minutes - an ounce or two swished around will do fine. I let mine soak for an hour and do this about every two weeks. There are never any problems with my tank and I've got one of those weird ones that PR makes with all the nooks and crannies. Control III (or some form of its ingredients) is used in hospitals worldwide, also by barbers, food processors and people who do nails and such. It's powerful stuff and kills all the bad stuff; think of it as super soap. Of course, it doesn't stop scale or mineral deposits if you don't keep your tank clean.

There is the 'salt trick' which some forum members like, I've tried it on old tanks and it works fine:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=93975&st=0&sk=t&sd= ... ck#p867966

I noted that the viewtopic link had trouble loading... not sure why... so here is what Ignorant1 wrote in 2013:
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Funny, I was going to post about this issue yesterday, and here's a thread about it:
I also strongly advocate for distilled water, but for certain reasons I was not able to use it recently. My reservoir (for an S9) developed a film on the bottom. I tried vinegar thinking the acidity would dissolve the mineral build up, but it didn't work. Then I realized that it's not just mineral build up - slimy little creatures grow within the mineral substrate and create a "biofilm". I tried alcohol & hydrogen peroxide, then some dish soap and repeated the sequence again. It was cleaner, but not thoroughly clean. Then I remembered an article in one of the science journals about biofilms; they are notoriously difficult to remove unless you can physically disrupt the surface.

So here's the trick. First put a few drops of dish soap in there with some water. The soap is a "wetting agent" and will help break the surface tension of the biofilm. Rinse and drain the reservoir several times; you do not want any bubbles to form when it's agitated. Then drain it and add a several heaping tablespoons of salt. (I used plain old table salt, but kosher or sea salt with big crystals should work too.) Get a lot in there, and then shake it all around to distribute the salt on the interior surfaces. Then add just enough water to make a very wet slurry. You don't want to dissolve the salt, you want to slosh it around and allow the salt crystals to act as an abrasive on the slime film. Let it sit for a minute or two, then shake it vigorously again. When I rinsed it out, it was SERIOUSLY clean - like an absolutely brand new reservoir! And I mean like BRAND NEW - even the plastic was bright & clear!

I'd be curious to see how anyone else fares with this method....