Drying my tube

Help.

I tried washing the tube out the other day, and now I can't get it dry. I don't want mold growing in there, so I've got to figure out what I'm supposed to do.

I'm going to rewash it, but what do I do then?

I hung it up for over a week - thinking that it would dry that way (I had a cold/cough, so I wasn't able to successfully use my machine anyway. I figured this was a good time to do some cleaning stuff on it.) It was hanging upside down over something in an out of the way spot in my home.

When I hooked it up, I noticed that water was still collected in the little ribs of the inside. So, I hooked it up to the machine - thinking I could blow the water out. I sat there for over 10 minutes, and there was still drops of water in the middle of the tube.

So, what's the secret?

You know what I do? I spin the tube gently, a la Mick Dundee in Crocodile Dundee II when he was making his aboriginal "phone call" using a bullroarer. That way, the centripetal force pulls the water to the outside of the tube. Seems to work pretty well.

I use a nylon string with a fishing weight tied to it to drop it through the hose. Put a loop on the other end and put a couple of strips of fake chamos I bought to clean my car windshield and pull it through. Gets it almost dry so in a couple of hours it finishes drying. I would thing you could use strips of a paper towel or pieces of a regular towel and it would work as well. One time I did duck tape a hose connector to my wifes old hair dryer and hooked the hose up to the connector and turned the hair dryer on low. It dryed it in no time. The string thing just seems easier but I don't wash it that often.

Jerry

I'm completely new at this, so take this with a grain of salt. Someone may chime in screaming OMG No! Never do that!

That said, my solution was to rinse thoroughly and the give a final rinse with rubbing alcohol. The alcohol mixes with the water, carries most of it off, and what's left evaporates completely in considerably less time than water would. By the time I needed to use it again, not a hint of odor remained. I see no reason why it should have a negative impact on the plastic.

NEVER use paper towels. You want to be careful not to leave lint in the hose. You don't want lint in your lungs, right?

Unless there is lots of water, just leave it alone. You are going to send moist air through the hose anyway.

If you must dry it, use the weight, string and chamois method. You could probably use a lint-free cloth too. Certainly try the Crocodile Dundee method too.

Alternately, get a couple more hoses and allow them to dry for days at a time so you always have a fresh one.

Years ago I worried about this too. Not now.

Catnapper - Joanie

i bought a second hose so i could rotate them each day, doubling my drying time.
at first i just hung it doubled over a door knob, but i noticed it took days to dry. probably because of lack of air flow.
we happen to have central heat/air in our apartment so i now hang the hose from one end directly under then vent. dries in one day.

but i've also noticed that if the overall room humidity is high, it is harder to dry the hose. so now i try to keep the humidity in the room down.

tattooyu wrote:You know what I do? I spin the tube gently, a la Mick Dundee in Crocodile Dundee II when he was making his aboriginal "phone call" using a bullroarer. That way, the centripetal force pulls the water to the outside of the tube. Seems to work pretty well.

I was delighted to see that somebody else does this!

When I can't muster up the energy for the above aerobic exercise I hang the hose over a shower rod all day, then take the smart card out of my machine and blow non-humidified air through the hose for 10-15 minutes. Seems to work.

I do the Crocodile Dundee thing too, before and after I hang it over the shower curtain rod for the day; and then I just use it at night with the few leftover droplets in it. By the end of a night of air blowing through it, it's dry.

Don't use rubbing alcohol unless you're fortunate enough to have an insurance plan that will replace your hose *really* often.

I tried the hanging up for a week thing but then I tried something: I took the card out of my machine, hooked up the hose that needed to be dryed, turned it on and after awhile- viola it is dry.

DJ

Another great one! Added to the Wiki, under CPAP FAQs:
wiki/index.php/CPAP_FAQs#How_Do_I_clean ... P_Hoses.3F

Crocodile Dundee, and also running the autopap for a few minutes to blow air through the hose, and out the end.

The fishing weight with line and attached cloth is actually sold commercially now. Or you can make one yourself.
The tubing I use has the ribs on the outside so are you sure all that moisture was on the inside? I have two hoses and hang one up to dry. I did find that if I have it someplace other than where my wife and I shower it dries out much faster. I just hang it over a towel rack and it is dry in a day or two depending on the humidity.

Gerry

DJ_Boxer wrote:I tried the hanging up for a week thing but then I tried something: I took the card out of my machine, hooked up the hose that needed to be dryed, turned it on and after awhile- viola it is dry.

I do a variant on that. My S8 has a "humidifier warm-up" mode, where it just blows air gently through with the humidifier heater on. Since I generally clean my tank at the same time as my hose, I put them both in empty and run that warm-up cycle with the thermostat set low (it shuts itself off after an hour or so). Works great and doesn't affect my data logging!