CPAP Basics - 19 - Cleaning and Disinfecting

At one end of the cleaning spectrum there are people who never wash anything except maybe wipe their cushions with baby wipes (or their shirt tails ). This non-cleaning includes their hose, humidifier chambers, mask etc.

On the other end of the spectrum there are people who clean everything every single day. That being said: I'd love to see a scatter graph of all the different types of CPAP'rs and their cleaning habits - however I'm too lazy to start a statistical study. I will bet anybody that there would be one hell of a Bell Curve as a result. Besides, a study like that would be useless until you had similar data on their long-term health results, including their life duration. or lack of
Reference:
http://www.psychstatistics.com/2011/04/ ... ots-basic/
Hey just do what you think is best for you Whatever helps you get thru the CPAP experience and log some decent sleep.

ProVega wrote:I have been wondering just how important daily cleaning of my VPAP equipment is. How do things like the humidifier tank get dirty? I get cleaning my mask and it's appendid tube but, how do germs travel up a hose which has a positive pressure and flow? How do I know just how clean my mask is after I clean it? Am I really removing germs with warm water and dish soap?

awesome job of not reading the thread you're posting in

palerider - Would you point out where my questions were answered? I have read through this thread and still haven't found any.

Sweetie, since we are all different, the "right" answer is different for all of us.
Note that manufacturers may not have equipment longevity (and our budget) at the top of their lists,
and their recommendations will work, but not without some trade-offs.
We can choose to obey them to the letter, not to, or anything in between.

ProVega wrote:I have been wondering just how important daily cleaning of my VPAP equipment is. How do things like the humidifier tank get dirty? I get cleaning my mask and it's appendid tube but, how do germs travel up a hose which has a positive pressure and flow? How do I know just how clean my mask is after I clean it? Am I really removing germs with warm water and dish soap?

I hope you don't mind if I chime in a little.

This is one of those "your mileage may vary" scenarios. Do what you feel comfortable with.
If you look up the forum member "rested gal", and look in her profile, she has links to virtually all the categories of posts on the forum over the years. "Cleaning" is one of them. You will find the complete spectrum of what people do.

Personally, I'm a "minimalist" and don't worry much about germs or extensive cleaning. I DO clean my (foam) intake filter twice a month to try to keep the possibility of incoming dust to a minimum and out of the blower, but other than that, most everything is "months" between cleaning (mask and headgear). Have never "cleaned" a hose and only actually washed my humidifier tank once in 9+ years.

"Germs" (including bacteria and viruses) can't be carried out of the HH tank with water molecules because they're larger than the water molecules.


Den

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I, too am very curious about the vinegar issue.

i am a 'newbie'-but was told to clean/disenfect w/vinegar for hose and humidifier reservoir, and use palmolive basic dish soap for the mask.


I am concerned because i seemed to have gotten a sinus cold or something-and I don't generally get sick at all-and was wondering if i got it from my machine and/or if i am not cleaning/disinfecting things well enough.

Chim wrote:I, too am very curious about the vinegar issue.

i am a 'newbie'-but was told to clean/disenfect w/vinegar for hose and humidifier reservoir, and use palmolive basic dish soap for the mask.


I am concerned because i seemed to have gotten a sinus cold or something-and I don't generally get sick at all-and was wondering if i got it from my machine and/or if i am not cleaning/disinfecting things well enough.

Virtually impossible. If you're cleaning/replacing the intake air filters in your machine on a somewhat reasonable basis, there should be no way of getting "infected" with something from your machine. After all, it would be your own germs and the likelihood of you infecting yourself is non-existent.
Even if anything got into your machine, it would fall into your humidifier tank (if you use one) and stay there.
More likely that you caught "whatever" from being around other people, breathing non-filtered air, places you shop, and on and on.

By the way, I've never used vinegar in any parts of my equipment and have only used Dawn dishwashing liquid when I do clean my mask. I've never "cleaned" a hose and have only taken apart my HH tank to clean it once and that was at about 7 years of use......three and a half years ago.


Den

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so i am new to cpap. just getting started. glad to hear there is variation to how much cleaning takes place.
i dont notice any scuz or slime on my full face after use.
so i am not cleaning it much. after a 8 days i have cleaned hose, tank, mask once in the dishsoap rinse.
i can see doing the mask every day or so. the hose took a long time to dry and still had droplets in it.
what part of the equipment is most likely to grow bacteria first ?
using distilled water in the tank.
using autoset 10.
thanks

but the last thing i want is a bronchial infection.

Ok, forget the hose forever unless you see anything that looks like it needs cleaning. Really!

But... seriously, do you usually wait til you see scuz on your face before washing it? Well if you don't clean your mask routinely - non-alcoholic baby wipes daily, mild soap and water weekly - you could end up with who knows what where. But that should be enough. What I said.

Julie wrote:Ok, forget the hose forever unless you see anything that looks like it needs cleaning. Really!

But... seriously, do you usually wait til you see scuz on your face before washing it? Well if you don't clean your mask routinely - non-alcoholic baby wipes daily, mild soap and water weekly - you could end up with who knows what where. But that should be enough. What I said.

in all fairness, the vast majority of the scuz on the mask comes FROM the face...

Maybe not having facial hair keeps me from appreciating that .

But... you can't get any more infection from your equipment than you would just sitting around at home without it. There's filtered room air coming from the machine, a little of which goes into your airway and more goes out of the CO2 vent. And that's all. If you get an infection, it won't be from the mask, not unless you do something way out of whack with it.

Growing a culture takes time and a source of contamination. The xPAP machine is basically a closed system but you have an opportunity to expose the humidifier tank to open air every time you disconnect it from the machine.

If you house environment is "sick," and you leave the water in the humidifier for extended periods of time, it may be possible to grow a culture. However, each night the humidifier heats up so the culture may be killed off with heat. On top of that distilled water is acidic and that makes it difficult for bacteria to grow.

If you are concerned with bacteria growth, make a practice of emptying the humidifier tank of water as soon as you get up in the morning. The machine will go through a cool down process and if the tank is empty it will basically dry out. If you feel the need to clean your hose, do it just before bed and don't bother trying to dry it out. A few hours of use with air blowing through it will dry it completely.

If you have access to a laboratory you can fill your humidifier tank to the maximum and as it reaches empty take a sample of the water and have it analyzed. My tank lasts about a week and every time I check it out there is nothing growing in the water.

Your mileage may vary...

As far as your mask goes, a quick wipe down just before use will keep it fresh and eliminate any skin oils from the previous nights use. Different styles of masks may need a more through periodic cleaning but if you replace often you may not need that. If you keep your mask for years I would suggest a detailed cleaning at least once every three months.

With all this said, the key is to clean according to your immune system. If you are constantly sick, clean more often. If you never get sick, adjust your cleaning accordingly.

HoseCrusher wrote:The xPAP machine is basically a closed system but you have an opportunity to expose the humidifier tank to open air every time you disconnect it from the machine.

most closed systems I know of don't have 20-50 liters of air flowing through them every minute.

Senator Ted Cruz also used to say "WE" when he was running for president.