Smoker? Don't smoke around your CPAP!

I picked up a broken Aircurve 10 VAuto recently, It had a defective blower motor, and had been used by a smoker.

It was brown on the outside, all the plastic was covered in tobacco residue, it stunk.

The plastics weren't hard to clean up, wiping the plastics with alcohol got most of it, but that was a bit tedious, a trip to the kitchen sink and some Dawn took care of the rest, but just for grins I ran all the plastics through the dishwasher, they no longer stink, or have brown stains on them.

However, this is what smoking does to your CPAP, this machine hat 6200 hours on it, or 2.1 years of 8 hour nights, and the blower failed.

Here's why, keep in mind that all these parts are supposed to be *clear*





The last one I went after with a brush and some soap, just so you could see that it really *is* supposed to be a clear part, not a brown part.

I haven't taken care of the stench that's coming off the silicone parts, I'm going to try boiling them in baking soda water, like we've done with mask parts to rejuvenate them... I'll report back when that happens.

Don't smoke around your CPAP, it can kill it.

My parents were 3 pack a day smokers. My dad thankfully quit when I was 10 but my mom persisted much longer, claiming they would pry her last cigarette out of her cold, dead hand. I hated their smoking, and I was always sick. Turns out I have cough variant asthma, and one of my worst triggers--surprise--is cigarette smoke. My exposure to their second-hand smoke was like being a smoker myself--as a child.

All this to say my mom FINALLY quit when 1) The price of cigarettes went through the roof because of anti-smoking taxes, and 2) a handsome young doctor (she was always a doctor-worshipper, but rejected any suggestion smoking was making her only child sick) told her she could not be his patient if she kept smoking. As her sense of smell came back, she began to realize how bad her home reeked of cigarette smoke, and although she was always meticulous about cleaning, she found that her wooden furniture, including a beautiful lacquered screen she bought in Hong Kong and her walls, were weeping brown tobacco juice. So I'm not surprised at all at what you found in that machine. Wonder what that person's lungs look like?

Janknitz wrote: ↑

Mon May 22, 2023 1:24 pm

Wonder what that person's lungs look like?

Probably like that blower motor.

I wish I'd had my phone at the workbench when I was taking the thing apart, (I didn't think to take it with me) and had taken a picture of it before I started tearing it apart.

As a reminder, this is what a turbine *should* look like:
https://imgur.com/a/dxSTP

You can "bake" the stench out of the silicone.

Dog Slobber wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:50 pm

I've learned of a new method that allegedly gets the smell out of silicone, but haven't tried yet.

Bake the smell out. So long as it is silicone it will do well in temperatures well about 250.

1. Wash silicone with dish soap
2. Preheat your oven to 250 (f)
3. Bake on a cookie sheet for 20 minutes
4. Remove and give it the sniff test
5. If it still smells, place back in oven for 10 minutes
6. Repeat, until smell is gone

Let me know how you make out with the Silicone baking (or other methods you try).

Worked for this guy:

mrCanoehead wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 07, 2020 5:03 pm

Has anyone told you that you are a genius? I baked it for an hour at 250 F and the smell is almost undetectable. Thank you so much! I have to clean the oven now because the smell transferred to the oven walls. I'd recommend a cheap toaster oven instead of your wife's oven.

palerider wrote: ↑

Mon May 22, 2023 12:22 pm

Don't smoke around your CPAP, it can kill it.

oh sure, NOW you tell me!

Dog Slobber wrote: ↑

Mon May 22, 2023 2:17 pm

You can "bake" the stench out of the silicone.

I might give that a try, depends on how well what I did tonight did:

What's for dinner?
Stinky CPAP stuff!


Dinner's ready!


Then I got a support call and had to put off giving the pars the sniff test. Pre-boiling, the silicone was stinking up the room.

Some of the silicone is bonded to plastic, I'd have to find out what the melting temps of the plastic is before I put it in an oven.

Like boiling the P10 pillows, the plastic transition temp is higher than boiling water, but the oven's higher than the water temp.

So, I did two boils (mostly it was simmering) because the first one started stinking up the kitchen, so I dumped out the first batch, rinsed out the pot, and did it again. I think the last one was some 30 minutes, because I sorta lost track of time watching a MIT OpenCourseworks class about how nuclear radiation alters the material composition of materials. (did you know that some components inside a reactor actually *grow* in in size (by centimeters!) because the radiation is displacing the atoms that the stuff is made of? wild)

Anyway, after getting back to my pile of stuff, I gave it all the sniff test, and didn't smell anything, (mind you, that stuff was stinking up the whole room before).

However, just for funzies, (and because I could) I put it all in a cookie tin, and dropped in one of those little ozone generators, since a limited exposure shouldn't harm the silicone.

palerider wrote: ↑

Mon May 22, 2023 7:38 pm

However, just for funzies, (and because I could) I put it all in a cookie tin, and dropped in one of those little ozone generators, since a limited exposure shouldn't harm the silicone.

Well now you've gone and done it. Voided your warranty. William Shatner will be pleased

palerider wrote: ↑

Mon May 22, 2023 12:22 pm

Don't smoke around your CPAP, it can kill it.

Don't smoke around your lungs either. It can kill you... slowly.

amenite wrote: ↑

Mon May 22, 2023 8:14 pm

palerider wrote: ↑

Mon May 22, 2023 7:38 pm

However, just for funzies, (and because I could) I put it all in a cookie tin, and dropped in one of those little ozone generators, since a limited exposure shouldn't harm the silicone.

Well now you've gone and done it. Voided your warranty. William Shatner will be pleased

Well, probably so, however, I left the foam out, because a little dawn and hot water, and it didn't smell anymore (which mirrored my experience de-stenching a S9 Adapt (ASV) a few years ago.

I wish I'd known the boiling trick back then, it took *weeks* soaking in oxyclean, multiple trips through the dishwasher, and other things to get that silicone to not stink.

ozij wrote: ↑

Mon May 22, 2023 10:56 pm

palerider wrote: ↑

Mon May 22, 2023 12:22 pm

Don't smoke around your CPAP, it can kill it.

Don't smoke around your lungs either. It can kill you... slowly.

What she said!

Yuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't imagine how the interior of that machine got so gross! The person had to be smoking while the machine was running in order for all that nastiness it get inside and perhaps blowing their smoke right into the intake.

I hope that you didn't pay too much for that thing?

Again, YUCK!

I'd like to be able to forbid smoking entirely, but I am not so empowered!

If you're not going to listen, at least don't smoke in the room where the CPAP is (even when it is powered off). Make sure the door to the room where the CPAP is remains closed at all times (except for entering and leaving). Additionally, you might want to cover it when not in use.

Such a filthy, filthy habit.
If it were not so addictive, more people would quit--for good.
My lovely bullfrog quit on Good Friday, 1972.
It was not the first time he quit--but this was the time that worked.

Conrad wrote: ↑

Tue May 23, 2023 7:16 am

Yuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't imagine how the interior of that machine got so gross! The person had to be smoking while the machine was running in order for all that nastiness it get inside and perhaps blowing their smoke right into the intake.

I hope that you didn't pay too much for that thing?

Again, YUCK!

I didn't, no.

Yeah, it's hard to imagine how it got that way. The outside of it was a light brown, paper towel and a little alcohol, and the color change was unreal, and the paper towel was black.

I had to use gloves while handling it.