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When I started out I cleaned all my equipment daily or weekly. After several weeks I got tired of it and started slacking off. Now I clean it when I feel like it, and I couldn't tell you when I cleaned anything last. I always use distilled water in my humidifier, and usually just top off the tank nightly. I wash my face each night before going to bed. Since starting CPAP I cannot remember having anything more than mild cold symptoms for a day or two at the most. I am into my second allergy season and have only occasional sneezing, runny nose, etc. If something was growing in my tank, hose or mask I would definitely clean it, due the "yuck" factor if nothing else.

Mythbusters says that double dipping chips in dip does not transfer any bugs that can make another person sick, but they also say that the five second rule regarding food that hits the floor does not apply and bugs crawl on it instantly, so I guess everything balances out in the end. My wife says that she read an article saying that because everything is antiseptic now we aren't getting enough bugs so we aren't building up the resistances to the bugs we should, so we all need to eat a cup of dirt a year to keep our resistance up. Is she right or should she stop reading?

IMHO, if you are healthy you don't need to worry about it too much. But its a free country, so everyone is entitled to worry about whatever they want as much as they want, and if you feel better cleaning your tank and gear every night, go ahead, you probably aren't hurting anything. As long as you eat your cup of dirt a year you'll be just fine!

Velbor wrote:I am disturbed by the way in which several of the principles on "both sides" in this conversation, who are clearly highly educated, have used scientific concepts and terminology as blunt weapons with which to cudgel their opponents. Velbor

Well that eliminates me ... so yeah!

All you smart asses stop disturbing our good friend Velbor with your crudgelling!!

rooster wrote:

timbalionguy wrote: ...........(water, even distilled water is more corrosive than most people realize). .........

Lion,

What, besides iron and iron-containing substances, will distilled water corrode?

Regards,

I have seen a lot of damage to copper and brass. Not nearly as bad as rusting iron, though. And the hotter the water, the worse the problem is. Rubber is slowly attacked, as well. Stainless steels hold up pretty well, so does teflon and viton rubber. One copper water line in our transmitter installation in Rochester, NY actually developed pinhole leaks. And this line did not have much flow, or particularly hot water in it.

If I interpret this thread correctly, we would need a microscope to see occurrences of cudgelling.

Nasty and blunt creatures, those droplet-freeloading microbes can be... Howard Hughes hated 'em for darn good reason.

DreamStalker wrote:

rooster wrote:

timbalionguy wrote: ...........(water, even distilled water is more corrosive than most people realize). .........

Lion,

What, besides iron and iron-containing substances, will distilled water corrode?

Regards,

It's true Rooster friend. Water is the universal sovent. It carves mountains and canyons. It is a dipole molecule that reacts pretty much with everything, thus making life possible.

I was thinking more in terms of the context of the discussion, i.e., a CPAP humidifier tank with an expected life of maybe five years. I don't expect to see mountains carved out by humidifier water in my limited lifetime.

Kiralynx wrote: Rooster,

You might find the dihydrogen monoxide research site of interest. Dangerous stuff, it is....

http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html#CONCERN

An even better retort to chemophobia is some of the work Ames has done ranking rodent carcinogens. For example,

HERP Daily human exposure percentage
140 EDB: workers' daily intake, high exposure
5.8 Formaldehyde: workers' average daily intake
6.2 Comfrey-pepsin tablets (9 daily), from comfrey root
2.8 Beer (12 ounces) from ethyl alcohol
0.1 Mushroom, one raw (15 g) from hydrazines
0.1 Basil (1 g of dried leaf) from estragole
0.07 Brown mustard (5 g), from allyl isothiocyanate
0.03 Peanut butter (32 g, one sandwich) from aflatoxin content of 64 mg
0.03 Comfrey herb tea, 1 cup
0.003 Bacon, cooked (100 g)
0.0004 EDB: daily dietary intake, U.S. average
0.0003 DDE/DDT: daily dietary intake, U.S. average
0.0002 PCBs: daily dietary intake, U.S. average
2.1 Mobile home air (14 hours/day)
0.6 Conventional home air (14 hours/day)
http://www.cdc.gov/nasd/docs/d001201-d0 ... 001273.pdf

Velbor wrote:......

I am disturbed by the way in which several of the principles on "both sides" in this conversation, who are clearly highly educated, have used scientific concepts and terminology as blunt weapons with which to cudgel their opponents. Velbor

Now, let's not take the fun out of forums.

ozij wrote:Apples and Oranges -- a Comparison
by Scott A. Sandford, NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California

O.

Just don't get started on damn bananas again.

rooster wrote: Just don't get started on damn bananas again.

As if bananas weren't suspiciously on topic for this thread too:
Humidification Systems Play Crucial Role for Banana Wholesalers



Here's the link to ozij's article: http://improbable.com/airchives/paperai ... pples.html (note the conclusion)

-SWS wrote:

rooster wrote: Just don't get started on damn bananas again.

As if bananas weren't suspiciously on topic for this thread too:
Humidification Systems Play Crucial Role for Banana Wholesalers

Don't wholesalers with the best practices, ripen the bananas under a blanket of nitrogen? Oh scheissen, there I go with the bananas thing again!

Dirty Cpap Equipment is a Dead End Road

And since the cudgels are out, what the hell is wrong with a dead end road? I paid a premium for the lot my house sits on because it was on a dead end road.

OK, now here is a big help for those of you who must clean your humidifier daily. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXqtMkBipIs

rooster wrote:Don't wholesalers with the best practices, ripen the bananas under a blanket of nitrogen? Oh scheissen, there I go with the bananas thing again!

Good point!

And speaking of best practices related to nitrogen... Don't some of the midway workers at carnivals use liquid nitrogen to freeze bananas before dipping them into chocolate? At least at the cutting-edge carnivals?

Ooops! That's not on topic.

...But wait! I'm pretty sure some of those banana-serving carnival workers have apnea! Probably even workers down at the chocolate and wooden-stick factories as well! Cool... Right back on topic!

...especially with bananas

Rooster:
OK, now here is a big help for those of you who must clean your humidifier daily. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXqtMkBipIs

[/b]

Rooster, that's disturbing on so many levels!

I'm not a neat freak, despite my kids calling me a**l retentive - conversely, they're just slacker than I am & in justification mode! Since a previous thread about this, very early on in my therapy, I've always used distilled water, and my tank is crystal clear. I wash my equipment when I remember, when it needs it, or when I'm reminded....whatever suits and works. It's all very clean. I cannot IMAGINE finding slime in the humidifier tank - wouldn't you notice the early signs of that at some stage when refilling?

All goes to prove, diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

DreamStalker wrote:

rooster wrote:

timbalionguy wrote: ...........(water, even distilled water is more corrosive than most people realize). .........

Lion,

What, besides iron and iron-containing substances, will distilled water corrode?

Regards,

It's true Rooster friend. Water is the universal sovent. It carves mountains and canyons. It is a dipole molecule that reacts pretty much with everything, thus making life possible.

If water is the universal solvent,
does that make spit the universal lubricant?

Ganesha wrote:If water is the universal solvent,
does that make spit the universal lubricant?

Supposedly money is the "universal lubricant"...

And I might point out that bananas are suspiciously tied in with that topic too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjxFmkQNbnc

And further proof... Here we have wealthy people singing about bananas at the dinner table, yet not eating that highly precious commodity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrgGuW9 ... re=related

And I won't even go into how this pretty banana earns her money:



PS So how many nano-inches across is a banana molecule anyway?

rooster wrote:

timbalionguy wrote: ...........(water, even distilled water is more corrosive than most people realize). .........

Yep I remember back in the sixties trying to recalibrate Ph meters (and they were huge beasts then) using distilled water which I ignorantly believed to be Ph7 and borrowing identical machines from other labs belonging to competitors, near endless attempts at cleaning our electrodes with chromic acid. Eventually a chemist from a competitor pointed out that distilled water absorbs carbon and is really dilute carbonic acid with a Ph of about 4.5. Of course in those days, we used to distill our own water and keep it for weeks but I notice that my factory boiled distilled water has a label pointing out that it has a Ph of about 6 when bottled.

Thanks for catching my mistake, -SWS.

Here's the link again --
Apples and Oranges -- a Comparison
by Scott A. Sandford, NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California


O.