Horrible smell traced to empty humidifier

2crystalship wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 30, 2019 9:18 am

Thanks everyone! Actually I just went ahead and turned down the humidifier setting from 5 to 3 and there's water left in the morning. I also read that you're supposed to empty any left over water and air dry the tank every morning so I'm doing that.

If you are using distilled water, there is no need to empty the water tank every morning. If you are using tap water, it will leave mineral deposits in the tank as the eater evaporates. Emptying the water every morning helps reduce this. We use distilled water in our machines, and I only empty them when I clean them on Monday morning. (I clean the CPAP equipment while my wife does the laundry.) I used to clean the tanks once a month, but I noticed we would occasionally get pink slime in the corner of the tank if I did that, so I went back to weekly cleaning.

I use distilled and if I let the tank go a couple weeks without cleaning is gets real stinky. Especially when it's run down to near empty. It smells awful so it's kept me on a regular weekly cleaning schedule using vinegar. I also have had to scrub with a toothbrush at times.

On my first machine the humidifier died about 3 years in. For the next three years, the only humidification I got was passover humidification (when I first joined CPAPtalk.com near the Jewish holiday of Passover, I thought there must be some special setting for the strict rules of this holiday ). So I got out of the habit of filling the humidifier tank, water would last in there two weeks or more.

Now I often forget to fill the tank on my ResMed--true confessions--sometimes for a week or two. No problems. No smell, no burning, no issues. It just doesn't get that hot.