CPAPtalk.com

gorkon wrote:

http://www.nutriteam.com/servlet/the-24 ... ler/Detail

This is a home Water Distiller. It only costs $129 and the also have the filters at a decent price (12.95 for a 12 pack....cheaper then brita).

I personally have that exact Stainless Steel distiller. (There is also another one from the same manufacturer that is White for $100) Both are offered through Amazon also. (same pricing but more secure if your unsure about the company.)

As mentioned by others, If all you are looking to do is use it for a CPAP, it will take a LONG time to re-coup your costs. Walmart sells a gallon of distilled water for $0.65 (which lasts me and my CPAP over a month.) I use distilled water for just about everything. Drinking, cooking, etc. I believe it to be the closest you can get to Two H's and a O (H2O)

I live in a large city and there is who knows what in the water. You don't want to see, and most certainly don't want to smell what is left in the distiller when it is done with a gallon.

As for the distiller you linked to, it is a decent machine, however, the charcoal filters they use don't work well. It's a small packet similar to a tea bag that you put into a white filter cap. The way it is made, not all of the water flows through the filter and depending on your source water, it may or may not make good tasting water. I personally now place a large brita pitcher under the output of the distiller. The Brita filters work significantly better than the cheap filters you get with the distiller.

Also, another tip if you decide to go with the distiller, The way it works, it shuts off when the chamber boils dry. (Some more expensive distillers probably shut off better). Which unfortunately means that the sludge left in the bottom is cooked. I plug my distiller into a wall timer that I have set to shutoff just before the end. This leaves a bit of water mixed in with the sludge which makes daily cleaning MUCH easier (simply rinse it out), and it makes the thorough cleaning much less frequent.

-craig

I just buy the jugs of distilled water...cheap and easily found here ( 79 cents at the Dollar Store); but my RT told me that I could boil regular tap water for 5 minutes, let it cool, then it will be usable in the CPAP and not cause any problems. Was anyone else told this and is it true?

Fortunately in Virginia Beach our water is purer than most bottled waters.

We installed a reverse osmosis system under our kitchen sink, and I use that for my CPAP every night. We love it for drinking water. The system costs $350, and you get two years of filters. After the first two years it's only $40 per year for filters. I got mine at http://www.freedrinkingwater.com
Our city water contains about 240 ppm, and the purified water contains 12 ppm.

JennyLouWho wrote: I just buy the jugs of distilled water...cheap and easily found here ( 79 cents at the Dollar Store); but my RT told me that I could boil regular tap water for 5 minutes, let it cool, then it will be usable in the CPAP and not cause any problems. Was anyone else told this and is it true?

This doesn't sound correct. Boiling the water will kill anything harmful that is living in the water. However, it will NOT remove any Mineral content. Chances are that anything living in the water was killed long ago by the Chlorine content of the water anyway.

Distilled water is used in CPAP machines primarily because the mineral content will be left in the water chamber as the water evaporates. This creates a bit of hassel cleaning the water chamber.

Many people here just use straight tap water and clean their water chamber (or replace it) periodically.

I do wonder about breathing the chlorine fumes.

JennyLouWho wrote: I just buy the jugs of distilled water...cheap and easily found here ( 79 cents at the Dollar Store); but my RT told me that I could boil regular tap water for 5 minutes, let it cool, then it will be usable in the CPAP and not cause any problems. Was anyone else told this and is it true?

As Craig-Tx pointed out ... this is untrue. Minerals will be left in the water ... in fact, in a higher concentration since you will have boiled some of the H2O out during the 5 minutes. So it is actually worse than using the tap by itself.

That RT just wants to sell you a new humidifier reservoir to up their profit margin or is completely ignorant about what they tell their patients.

Anonymous wrote:Fortunately in Virginia Beach our water is purer than most bottled waters.

I don't know what part of Virginia Beach you live in, but the part that I live in has residential water that no one in my family will drink without filtering, as it tastes very much bad without it.

It also cause red scale to form on shower heads, and inside the toilet. No way I'd put that crap in my CPAP

I would go with a RO unit. I have one and its great didn't get it just for CPAP though, our water quality isn't the best to start with. I've tested the RO water and it is only like 3 ppm so its pretty clean as far as minerals go. But even using regular tap water if you get deposits nothing a quick vinegar/water soak won't remedy. RO filter for me is worth its weight in gold though as thats all we drink and it was fairly inexpensive about 150 with a 5 gallon tank.

JennyLouWho

the others are right.. boiling water will only make it worst then using it right from tap. Does nothing to take the minerals out of the water..
Buy the distilled water cheap and exactly what is needed..

A new product from Niche Products, Inc.:

Artisanal Distilled Water It's hand made by genuine Kentucky backwoods craftmen!

Well, that last was me... I often see people mentioning that they KNOW they logged in, yet they have been 'guested' anyway. First time it's happened to me, but there's always a first time, eh?

(BTW, I did have log me in on each visit set, so what gives?)

This is very timely for me, as I just got back from a trip and had a distilled water search. I was lucky to find a drugstore within walking distance of the hotel.

So if you can't take distilled water with you (I flew), you can't use tap water, and you can't find distilled, can you use demineralized water? I would have just gone without but it was so dry where I was that my nose was bleeding with the humidifier on high.

According to one study I posted here a while back, this is not a question of microbes in the water. The likelihood of becoming sick is very low.

I see this primarily as a question of minerals in the water (and chlorine, if you're sensitive to the smell). As the water evaporates, the minerals are left behind (like salt in the sea). Boiling water will not remove minerals. Most spring waters have minerals. However, minerals are generally not harmful (in my opinion) except that they will probably discolor your equipment over time.

I had been using tap water for a long time until the other day when the minerals literally ate a hole through the aluminum bottom of my brand new F&P water chamber. That was that. I'm back to using R/O water. R/O water works very well because the R/O process removes minerals.

I'd much rather invest in an R/O unit that would give you very good, drinkable water without much additional work as compared to a distillation unit. That sounds like a lot of money for very little benefit, not to mention the time and effort involved in distilling water . . . .

As for short business trips, I don't worry about the water. I use hotel tap water or bottled water and haven't ever had any problems. A midnight trip to walmart on a business trip is just not worth it to me. Of course, I don't change my oil every 3,000 miles either--I go 5,000 miles (which is still under what my owner's manual recommends--7,500 miles).

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So if you can't take distilled water with you (I flew), you can't use tap water, and you can't find distilled, can you use demineralized water?...........