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We all live with millions of bacteria every day, inside and out, and what goes into your machine is the room air you breathe all day long when awake, but filtered, often x twice depending on your set-up, so I really wouldn't get too excited unless you personally are having repeated infections, etc., in which case I'd get onto my doctor to find out why I was so susceptible. Trying to de-bacteriorize (? ) our lives is crazy, impossible and usually has the opposite effect of what we're trying to achieve. Only in literally sterile labs such as Atlanta's CDC will you find anything approaching clean in the sense we think of it, and the reason most of us aren't sick all the time is that we're protected from viruses. etc. BY the bacteria around and inside of us... so stop trying to get rid of it... it's counterproductive!

Just a guy wrote:Inside temp vs outside temp causes the apparatus to condensate and whenever moisture is present bacteria can grow. Its a Pipleline to your lungs that you use for 5-8 hours every night so it doesn't take much to see where problems can occur. is it different based on environment and individual patient circumstances? Absolutely. There is a study from a Harvard university professor and it states they (Harvard University) cannot keep the supplies free from bacteria with their best efforts. Also the more efforts you make the more you compromise the effectiveness of the therapy due to leakage and airflow. If the doctors recommend to change more frequently and the insurance providers see enough in the research to change them more often you know the doctor bills alternatively must be compelling

Feel free to disregard all the info posted in this thread for two years. Fearing your own germs isn't much of a plan, don't take your cpap machine to a tb ward or homeless area and let the population play with your cpap. With normal care it will be fine. But feel free to disreguard this too. Jim

I did get an infection from it... had the back of my mouth clagging up... if you keep your gear clean then it shouldn't be a big hassle though.

Sonic wrote:I did get an infection from it... had the back of my mouth clagging up... if you keep your gear clean then it shouldn't be a big hassle though.

I had a fever yesterday! it was caused by cpap!

All CPAP gear should be kept clean — we should be diligent about this... without getting paranoid.

There are some salient points which need to understood:

1. Bacteria, viruses, whatever on the whole do not have your best interests at heart. They 'want' (so to speak) what will give them, not you, a biological advantage. Unfortunately that fight for dominance at a cellular level may result in the organism (you) getting sick [your cells lose the fight], or even dying.
2. We have bacteria all over us, and all around us. The question is not where bacteria are, but are they where they should not be. Point in case (and I have personal experience of this) there are bacteria living on the surface of your skin — which do you no harm on your skin. But if introduced into your bones, for example via surgery — where they most definitely should not be — then you most definitely will have a problem Having bacteria/viruses which normally are not present in your lungs being introduced (pushed!) into your lungs is, as they say, 'not a good idea'.
3. The problem with CPAP equipment is that it has moist, warm surfaces. It has standing water — humidity water reservoirs. All places that bacteria love to call home.
4. You have bacteria/viruses in your mouth, your nose. You breath out through your equipment, those breaths (potentially containing bacteria & viruses) go into your device. They may not be causing you too much trouble in your mouth/nose because you body may be constantly fighting them. Then they get to go into a reservoir of nice warm water with no-one to fight them — what are they going to do? Let's just say the result will be more bacteria. You then use your CPAP machine again and, potentially, it will push a much higher percentage of bacteria/viruses back into you.

So it comes down to common sense.

• Should you clean all your equipment in a 100% strength solution of nuclear level antiseptic every day — No.
• Should you use your CPAP machine if you look at your water reservoir and see a bubbling pool of green slime — No.
• Should you 'share' CPAP equipment between one person and another — No thank you!
  I had one DME try to push a rental CPAP machine onto me that they said was 'new' and when I used it I could smell a rank stale cigarette smell. The whole machine stank of it. Apart from the fact that I am a non-smoker it was obvious that the machine had come from some who was a smoker — with god knows what diseases — and there was no way I was going to use it!

Be aware of your environment, follow the guidelines of the manufacturers and keep things clean, and don't have standing water in your reservoir and you should be fine.

Having studied microbiology to some degree, I treat my machine and masks with the same respect as the rest of my body. If you have mould growing in you room, it is well known that fungus is harmful and the spores may get into your hose and cause lung infections. I don't have that problem but some do. You clean your teeth because bacteria builds up and you'll have bad breath if you don't. Some people don't bother and don't care. Your mask will probably become quite smelly if you don't clean it and the headgear will get greasy like the hair of people who don't wash there's enough. Some people don't care about any part of their hygiene and others do. I guess you should now know where you fit. I don't want fungal problems so I regularly soak my hose and mask in vinegar after I've cleaned it. Bacteria will build up like anything coming in contact with your mouth. You wouldn't not wash your knife and fork after use because they seem clean. Or would you? It's your decision.

It's a matter of degree... there's extreme vs reasonable vs grungy, and I believe reasonable is what you should strive for.

Duplicate post.

Hang fire; +100
I have little doubt that more people have died from the results of their worry than from the causes.

Well today's fun CPAP video from Lanky Lefty discusses just this very topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPT_wvP ... OX6MMq08gQ

It takes three minutes to clean things. Don't be lazy and gross and don't be cheap. Just clean it and replace things regularly.

If three minutes is too much for you then you have way bigger problems than just cpap.

hyperlexis wrote:Well today's fun CPAP video from Lanky Lefty discusses just this very topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPT_wvP ... OX6MMq08gQ

It takes three minutes to clean things. Don't be lazy and gross and don't be cheap. Just clean it and replace things regularly.

If three minutes is too much for you then you have way bigger problems than just cpap.

three minutes *rofl*

hyperlexis wrote:Well today's fun CPAP video from Lanky Lefty discusses just this very topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPT_wvP ... OX6MMq08gQ

It takes three minutes to clean things. Don't be lazy and gross and don't be cheap. Just clean it and replace things regularly.

If three minutes is too much for you then you have way bigger problems than just cpap.

Interesting that he says wash your mask every 21 days.

hyperlexis wrote:Well today's fun CPAP video from Lanky Lefty discusses just this very topic.

I like how a video from someone in the medical community parroting the 'don't sue us' line is 'news'....