CPAPtalk.com

Just to update this, i got a ultra sonic cleaner on amazon for sale $14.99 from $99 a nice sized one with a stainless steel tank.

As dreamer described I was amazed to see the dirt float off my nasal pillows and my glasses and jewelery too. After i cleaned them i was back to zero leak rate after 5 nights of leaks, the pillows seem to have there grip back and do not slide out of my nose anymore.

Another cpap high five

Gee, the way I clean my mask is by taking it apart, lathering up my hands with ivory, rubbing them thoroughly and then rinsing the parts and my hands in warm water. Isn't that enough?

I'm new to CPAPs (just got my first machine 2 weeks ago). I'm in the musical instrument repair business, and we use an ultra-sonic cleaner (a big one) to clean just about anything from trumpets and trombones to saxophone bodies to clarinet bodies (plastic ones - no wood) and any kind of mouthpiece. I'm going to try taking my stuff (mask, hose, and all) in once a week and running it through on a 3.5 minute cycle (it's pretty intense) to see wht it does. I'll let you all know what kind of results I get. This kind of intense cleaning probably doesn't need to happen any more than that since it also etches away slowly at whatever is in there. It will eventually eat away at brass and laquer if you aren't careful with it. Overkill will make things fall apart. It will even undo solder joints if the intensity is too high.

I used a cleaner like that for cleaning the wires after a study. It would heat up and vibrate. Worked great on our wires. Not sureit would do much for a mask though???

TheDreamer wrote: I wish I hadn't bought such a big ultrasonic cleaner. Its a pain to fill and a pain to empty, and is more than I need to do nasal pillows. Though I had envisioned that I'd be using a nasal mask, so was worried that I wasn't getting a big enough one to drop a whole nasal mask into.

The Dreamer.

Here's a tip. Put some plain old tap water in the cleaner tank. you can leave it there for as long as you wish, but just top it up as necessary. Put the small parts you want to clean in a glass, with water and whatever else you use as a cleansing agent. Just stand the glass in the water tank of the cleaner. Works a treat, and now you only have to empty/fill a glass. And you can whack it in the dishwasher when you've finished

K

I put a mixture of distilled white vinegar and water into my ultrasonic cleaner then put my head piece in there as disassembled as it can be. Next I do the main hose and then the water chamber. I run each 2-3 times at the highest time it will let me do which is 4 minutes and 80 seconds. I hang the head gear and hose up to dry and wipe the water reservoir dry and leave it disassembled to finish air drying. Oh yeah, I rinse all the parts with clean water after they come out of the ultrasonic as well. You must clean every part as bacteria builds up inside the hoses and water reservoir as well. I too am lazy and don't do this nearly as much as I should. I'm thinking of purchasing the SoClean which cleans your whole system by putting your head gear into the unit while it is attached to your CPAP and it uses enriched oxygen to clean it.

While cleanliness is good, don't get paranoid.

1) Your CPAP equipment isn't made out of meat that spoils. It's made out of plastic that germs can't feed on. There's very little for bacteria to eat and grow on. Germs in the air or the local environment can land on the equipment and then get onto you, but you're exposed to those germs all the time, even without CPAP.

2) CPAP equipment isn't like surgical equipment. You're not going to be using it to cut into your body or on open wounds. It doesn't need to be sterile. Even if you did make it sterile, it wouldn't be sterile once you've set it up, put it on, and turned it on.

3) You probably don't share your CPAP equipment with anyone else. The germs on your CPAP equipment probably came from you to begin with. It's not like a public building doorknob or bathroom where hundreds of people are exchanging germs every day. It's also not like sharing a water glass or toothbrush among members of your household.

As for SoClean, many of us are skeptical about that. It can't magically disintegrate dirt, so it doesn't clean. It might kill germs, but many of us are skeptical that it does that effectively.

Guest wrote:I'm new to CPAPs (just got my first machine 2 weeks ago). I'm in the musical instrument repair business, and we use an ultra-sonic cleaner (a big one) to clean just about anything from trumpets and trombones to saxophone bodies to clarinet bodies (plastic ones - no wood) and any kind of mouthpiece. I'm going to try taking my stuff (mask, hose, and all) in once a week and running it through on a 3.5 minute cycle (it's pretty intense) to see wht it does. I'll let you all know what kind of results I get. This kind of intense cleaning probably doesn't need to happen any more than that since it also etches away slowly at whatever is in there. It will eventually eat away at brass and laquer if you aren't careful with it. Overkill will make things fall apart. It will even undo solder joints if the intensity is too high.

I got a kick out of this one. I have never been in any kind of musical anything and I never posted this.

Stormynights wrote:I got a kick out of this one. I have never been in any kind of musical anything and I never posted this.

no, but at some point, you and the musician used the same IP, and that's all that the forum software knows. it's something that's going to happen more and more as they're reused.

I used dial up before I got Hughesnet. At that time I only had dialup.

Stormynights wrote:I used dial up before I got Hughesnet. At that time I only had dialup.

and one of the IPs you had from back then may have been reassigned, OR it's been posted from someone else on hughesnet, and they, like so many other services these days, don't assign IPs permanently, they shuffle them around on an as-needed basis..

I really look to the day when a creative manufacturer will come up with a simple and affordable cpap mask cleaner. Based on available stuff, I do not think that day has yet came.

mcpascalns wrote:I really look to the day when a creative manufacturer will come up with a simple and affordable cpap mask cleaner. Based on available stuff, I do not think that day has yet came.

How about soap and water

LSAT wrote:

mcpascalns wrote:I really look to the day when a creative manufacturer will come up with a simple and affordable cpap mask cleaner. Based on available stuff, I do not think that day has yet came.

How about soap and water

LSAT hits one outta the park!

An old thread but I'd like to get one to clean bike parts (like my local bikeshop does). My CPAP stuff is fine with soap and water, so it doesn't need this device. Anyone tried this Branson B200 Ultrasonic

http://www.sonicsonline.com/b200.html