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tomjax wrote:The only thing that will happen when salt is added to HH is that it will remain behind when the water evaporates.
None will enter the lungs the way saline nasal sparay will.

You willl inhale water vaper ONLY.

The pinch of salt in a steam vaporizer is necessary to conduct electricity and thereby heat the water.

Distilled water will not conduct electricity.

Lots of innacurate and misleading postings here.

tomjax,

Thanks for bringing some sense to this thread. Gosh I haven't been around a steam vaporizer in 50 years. I thought they had a heating element to vaporize the water. Are you sure they run a current through the water?

Oregon

There are 2 electrodes that contact the water. The salt acts as a conductor and this current heats the water and turns it to steam.

Scaling will happen as in industrial power plants and unless it is scraped off from time to time, it will conduct less electricity and not produce steam.
If there was a heating element directly. it would burn out when the water was empty, hence the need for the salt in the water to conduct the current.

The pharmacist gave you misleading advice. His proper answer should have been that it will not harm your machine, but it will serve no purpose and is a waste of salt.,

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The salt will remain behind, eating any metal it can get too.

Any imputities in the salt may gass out into the air, you can smell salt, so it does gas out, if you don't believe it enter a sealed area it's stored in.

I'll use Distilled water up my nose, thank you.

I'll leave the salt, to the others, and Mose's after all he parted the Red Sea, probably got a pretty good buzz on from that. Jim

Saline in the lungs is not a problem (as long as you don't get too much of it at any given moment). (Check Wikipedia® under "Drowning"). This thread has become unnecessarily tangled due to a misunderstanding of the subtle differences between a HUMIDIFIER and a NEBULIZER. A NEBULIZER will create tiny droplets of a given solution, and deliver them "as is" in a mist form. Saline liquid will become saline droplets. There's a BIG DIFFERENCE in delivering molecules of water (or anything else that can evaporate) using a HUMIDIFIER, and delivering droplets of a solution using a NEBULIZER. Salt doesn't evaporate, to speak of, at standard temperature and pressure. In a HUMIDIFIER, saline liquid becomes water vapor, completely devoid of salt. The NaCl remains in the tank. The heated HUMIDIFIER makes for a lousy NEBULIZER. It simply refuses to nebulize, because it CAN'T. I couldn't argue that an occasional ion of sodium or chloride will not reach your lungs via the HH. But it is of no clinical significance, either harmful or beneficial and it would be completely undetectable. It certainly won't improve your life, except possibly in your imagination. Until someone can figure out how to attach a NEBULIZER to the xPAP machine, any talk of adding saline to the HUMIDIFIER tank is pure silliness. In fact, inadvisable.

The HUMIDIFIER is a very good device for concentrating saline. In fact keep replenishing the saline with more saline without emptying or rinsing, and sooner or later you will witness salt crystals forming on various parts of the chamber. In fact maybe use actual sea water, and make SEA SALT. (woooohooo!)

ooops, that was me, pontificating.

-Ric

tomjax wrote:The only thing that will happen when salt is added to HH is that it will remain behind when the water evaporates.
None will enter the lungs the way saline nasal sparay will.

You willl inhale water vaper ONLY.

The pinch of salt in a steam vaporizer is necessary to conduct electricity and thereby heat the water.

Distilled water will not conduct electricity.

Lots of innacurate and misleading postings here.

...also a lot of assumptions. I wouldn't think of using anything except distilled water (vs tap as mentioned). I was hoping for relief from leather-like mucus membrane in nostrils, and lots of pain. Will slab on the AYR prior 'hooking up'
Thank you for your facts.

Anonymous wrote:Will slab on the AYR prior 'hooking up'
Thank you for your facts.

Also, you might try a little Vaseline around the nares, that always seems to help. That stuff is WONDERFUL ! . Has anybody tried that?

The tap water eating through the bottom plate of a humidifier isn't impossible. I noticed tiny beads of water on my just wiped kitchen sink faucet one day-on closer examination I found tiny holes in the metal of our faucet that the water has created-it is a lot thicker than the humidifier bottom-we no longer drink the water. I use distilled water in my humidifier.

The holes in your pipe is likely due to electrolysis.
This would not be a problem in a humidifier.

I do not have a HH, so I am not sure what you mean by the bottom of the HH.

is it a metal base with a flass top??

The only problem with using tap water is the accumulation of minerals which can easily be cleaned with clr or vinegar.

Maybe you could use vaseline - seems to work for everything else.

Yeah, I think you are correct. Certainly it is not due to water corrosion.

SB

Tom, the HH is clear molded plastic, with an aluminum bottom, probably for better heat transfer. sometimes the two parts become detached (probably have a different thermal coefficient of expansion?) Also limits the choice of cleaning chemicals that can be applied to the HH chamber. (Don't use con. nitric acid, boiling chromic acid, sodium hydroxide, Drano, Aqua Regia, Oven Cleaner, etc.)

Interesting tidbit: the EPA requires water supplies to be tested frequently. Corrosive inhibitors are actually added to our tap water to prevent the corrosion which would otherwise occur. The treatment options for corrosion control consist of pH and alkalinity adjustment, calcium adjustment and silica or phosphate-based corrosion inhibition.

Anonymous wrote: Also, you might try a little Vaseline around the nares, that always seems to help. That stuff is WONDERFUL ! . Has anybody tried that?

Actually I prefer Carmex in the morning... that little bit of Menthol and Camphor did the trick for me.

[quote="tomjax"]The holes in your pipe is likely due to electrolysis.

I thought about galvanic corrosion but don't think there are dissimilar metals in our plumbing. But haven't checked behind the walls to make sure. We are on well water which is only tested yearly so I wouldn't say that its impossible for something in the water to have caused it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will slab on the AYR prior 'hooking up'
Thank you for your facts.

Also, you might try a little Vaseline around the nares, that always seems to help. That stuff is WONDERFUL ! . Has anybody tried that?

I don't recommend using vaseline with CPAP. First, it can damage or the nasal pillow materials. So while it helps at first to get a good seal, it will deteriorate the seal long-term. Second, vaseline can create upper respiratory problems should it get into your bronchial tract or lungs. Ayr is probably the safer option.