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miserkris wrote:Hi

I clean my cpap water container, tube,mask , nose pillow etc...once a week.

i use mild dish / hand soap solution...very light/mild mix with water. I let them sit for few hours in bucket. Then rinse, dry .

I still get a slightly bad smell in the cpap use thru my nose pillows...is this bacteria? If so where is it?
Can I use vinegar solution to clean , disinfect?
Pls advice how often to clean and how else !

thanks,kris

Kris, try changing the location of your cpap machine. Sometimes there is a smell its sucking up at its location and its blowing the smell to you. You would be amazed at what smells it can transport to you. You can have the cleanest machine and mask in the world but if its near something that smells, it will blow that right at you.

I had the hardest time figuring this out a while back. Turns out the varnish on my night stand had a particular smell I didint like. I never put my nose against my night stand so I never noticed it before. I moved the machine to a shelf near the night stand and the smell went away.

Most soap makes me sneeze,so I use Method unscented from Target.

bdp522 wrote:Yes, you can use vinegar to clean your equipment. Just be sure to rinse well. I use vinegar after washing everything with dawn dishwashing liquid, it gets rid of all the soap residue. It also seems to bring life back to my old nasal pillows. I wash everything then use a 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water soak for all but the heated hose. I let it soak for about 5 minutes then rinse really well!

Brenda

Hi

What do u mean by "heated hose"? You mean the one connecting cpap and head gear part?

Will soaking in vinegar/water (1:3) for few hours damage the tubes,nose pillows? Vinegar is slightly acidic and works great in plastic etc...But cpap instructions dont mention vinegar at all , not sure why

thanks
kris

Heated hoses do go between the humidifier and the mask.
Mine (Resmed Climateline) gets its power from a connection on the humidifier;
The Aussie is independently powered, but goes in the same place.
They prevent rainout and cold noses.
Vinegar is better than many commercial products, hence is not something they want us to know about.

I was instructed years ago to never clean any CPAP parts in anything but Johnson's Baby Shampoo. I have never had ANY odors from using Johnson's. Soak all your non-electrical parts in hot water with a good squirt of Johnson's for an hour or so. Make sure to flood your hoses to get the soap into them. Rinse well, dry, and assemble. Smells baby fresh for a few days. Give it a try. And ALWAYS use distilled water. No exceptions. Ever.

Al

No need to soak for afew hours, 15 minutes will do the job. The heated hose has wires, I never soak it...you could just flush it with the vinegar solution.

Brenda

Soaking longer than 5 minutes can allow the water and whatever cleaner you are using start to grow germs or[ pea soup ] too long a soak is not a good thing,

After washing my equipment, I put the hose, mask etc in a large bowl and drop 5 polident tablets in the water and leave for several hours and this has worked for me.