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cpapdude1 wrote:distilled is the best. always use distilled

the hospital told me always use distilled.

do you have any concept at all as to "why"?

instead of parroting, try learning.

cpapdude1 wrote:distilled is the best. always use distilled

the hospital told me always use distilled.

Doctors, hospitals, DME, Resmed all say to use distilled. It's so inexpensive and to waste time thinking about it is a waste of energy. We usually buy 12 gallons at a time at around 89 cents a gallon every two months. We use distilled in our Keurig anyway so it's always here.

Lucyhere wrote:

cpapdude1 wrote:distilled is the best. always use distilled

the hospital told me always use distilled.

Doctors, hospitals, DME, Resmed all say to use distilled. It's so inexpensive and to waste time thinking about it is a waste of energy. We usually buy 12 gallons at a time at around 89 cents a gallon every two months. We use distilled in our Keurig anyway so it's always here.

They are probably getting a kick back or are assuming you are too lazy clean or to stupid to understand elementary school science facts.

BlackSpinner wrote:

Lucyhere wrote:

cpapdude1 wrote:distilled is the best. always use distilled

the hospital told me always use distilled.

Doctors, hospitals, DME, Resmed all say to use distilled. It's so inexpensive and to waste time thinking about it is a waste of energy. We usually buy 12 gallons at a time at around 89 cents a gallon every two months. We use distilled in our Keurig anyway so it's always here.

They are probably getting a kick back or are assuming you are too lazy clean or to stupid to understand elementary school science facts.

It's - too stupid

Distilled water is preferred, but tap water is ok.

There...

Dang....

Sheriff

Goofproof wrote:There are rules for a reason, many people ignore them, some can't even read, feel free to do what you want. We won't be paying the price, you are a Big Boy! Jim

Jim, many rules made by companies are nothing but "cover your ass" rules. Do you follow all rules imposed on you by a company you purchase something from? I have a popcorn popper that states clearly, hand clean only, do not clean in dishwasher. I have been washing it in the dishwasher for 8 years now and I can tell my 25.00 device will need to be replaced in the next few years. (it did discolor the anodizing but works like the day I got it)

Back to distilled water, most here feel it is only the mineral deposits to worry about; sounds like you think there might be something more sinister behind it and I am curious, what are your concerns besides having to clean out mineral deposits.

For what it is worth, I sell a piece of medical equipment used to clean and disinfect (not sterilize) surgical instruments after surgery. We "require" purified water for the final rinse. We have some customers who do not feel this expense is worth it and they use their softened water for the final rinse. This has backfired on some and they needed to add a pure water system, others it works just fine and at the worst they need to run a descale cycle every few months which costs them about 4.00 and 25 minutes.

Lime deposits (scale) are the main reason to use distilled water only, chemicals added to the city water also, but not so much, by using fresh distilled water both problems are moot. Jim

I'm going to try with no humidifier at all tonight.

Jack Burton wrote:I'm going to try with no humidifier at all tonight.

Good Luck. My nasal passages swell shut w/o humidity. But then there are those who say its the same air you breath all day. But hey its not under pressure and when you are at a high pressure it seems to wick any moisture right away from my nasal passages.

Lucyhere wrote:

cpapdude1 wrote:distilled is the best. always use distilled

the hospital told me always use distilled.

Doctors, hospitals, DME, Resmed all say to use distilled. It's so inexpensive and to waste time thinking about it is a waste of energy. We usually buy 12 gallons at a time at around 89 cents a gallon every two months. We use distilled in our Keurig anyway so it's always here.

Nice to see Jim and Lucy in agreement for a change.

When I started I used Tap water in my humidifier tank. I use to empty and wash and dry each day but then i became lax and the tank became slimy inside.
I started washing again but only once a week. No more slime but i did get white hard deposits on the surfaces from Hard water.
New Machine and I now only use distilled water (minerals removed) and have no slime or hard water deposits.
I just top the tank off each day and have had no slime for the last 6 months plus. no washing or emptying.
Distilled water cost me $1 a gallon or less at my local grocery and lasts about 3.5 weeks.
I'm sticking with distilled water based on my results.
Water in your area may be better or worse and you need to decide what works best for your own situation.

A gallon of water weighs about 8 lbs. I don't have a problem lugging around a couple of bottles, but maybe the OP does.

I've used tap water during travel in a few cites and didn't have a problem. I can't use tap water at home because I detect a dusty, mineral component in it when using the machine. So I guess it depends on your local water.

I haven't tried filtered drinking water. It wouldn't hurt to try it.

flightco wrote:

Lucyhere wrote:

cpapdude1 wrote:distilled is the best. always use distilled

the hospital told me always use distilled.

Doctors, hospitals, DME, Resmed all say to use distilled. It's so inexpensive and to waste time thinking about it is a waste of energy. We usually buy 12 gallons at a time at around 89 cents a gallon every two months. We use distilled in our Keurig anyway so it's always here.

Nice to see Jim and Lucy in agreement for a change.

Even a blind squirrel will find a nut once in a while! Jim

I broke even on the home distiller long ago.
I plugged it into the Kill-a-Watt, and the energy cost is around 12 cents a gallon.
I try to keep at least 4 jugs filled to give me time to handle equipment breakdown.
Distilled water jugs are not sturdy enough to refill indefinitely, so now I use clean jugs from Arizona tea.
Love the green tea Zero with ginseng! The scent lingers for a while, which is kind of nice.

Guest wrote:At $0.88 a gallon I find it cheap insurance that I won't trash the machine. A gallon every 2 weeks isn't bad, even if it was $1.00 a gal..

If it DOES trash the machine, it would only trash the humidifier tub, which is easily replaceable for around $40. There's a very small chance it would affect the hose and mask.

linuxman wrote:

chunkyfrog wrote:I have had a chalky deposit from reverse osmosis water.
They were giving it away, and the stupid manager of the Fresh Thyme store
claimed it was the "same thing" as distilled. I didn't really believe him, but
the price was right for an experiment.

Yeah, filtering can't remove dissolved metals. That has to be done with ion exchange (water softener). Still, hard water deposit should be mostly harmless. The tub can be cleaned with vinegar and the same with the tubing and mask if need be. Generally speaking the dissolved solids would only be in the tub, as it's hard for those to aerosol into the airflow (and for some metals it may not even be possible).

Reverse osmosis will remove dissolved minerals. RO is used to desalinate seawater, for instance.

I know you said dissolved "metals," not minerals, but RO can remove metals as well. Minerals is what we are usually worried about in CPAP water.