Humidifier water chamber

[Big Guy]

I have very hard water but I use tap water anyway.  I never empty the tank unless I am going to clean it, which I do probably once every two or three weeks.  Then I put in a teaspoon or two of citric acid powder and fill with warm water to soak for a while.  That works nicely for me and cleans out the tank very well. Vinegar also works, but I don't like the smell it leaves behind, thus the citric acid powder - no smell.

That's odd, cause after I rinse the tank, the white vinegar smell is gone. It's kind of nice not being able to smell much of anything anymore. 

[Sleeprider]

I'm just curious because if you're using distilled water nothing goes back into the chamber and the chamber is sealed nothing is getting into it from the air so it seems like it's basically just storing distilled water until you fill it back up again the next night.

What does go into the humidifier chamber is ambient air which carries airborne microscopic spores and bacteria which can and will colonize a humidifier chamber.  Distilled water is simply free of minerals, it is not sterile. It may take longer for bacteria to colonize a chamber with distilled water than tap-water, but since the contaminates are airborne, it isn't much different. With tap-water I dump daily. With distilled, I would not change my habits much because without rinsing, you continually build-up the contaminates that arrive by the airflow from the room, so you are adding your fresh distilled water to increasingly contaminated residual. This ultimately negates the advantages of distilled water. The CPAP filter is transparent to these organisms and contaminates. That said the types of bacteria that like to live in warm wet dark places are not pathogenic.

[David Clark]

What does go into the humidifier chamber is ambient air which carries airborne microscopic spores and bacteria which can and will colonize a humidifier chamber.  Distilled water is simply free of minerals, it is not sterile. It may take longer for bacteria to colonize a chamber with distilled water than tap-water, but since the contaminates are airborne, it isn't much different.  With tap-water I dump daily. With distilled, I would not change my habits much because without rinsing, you continually build-up the contaminates that arrive by the airflow from the room, so you are adding your fresh distilled water to increasingly contaminated residual.  This ultimately negates the advantages of distilled water.  The CPAP filter is transparent to these organisms and contaminates.  That said the types of bacteria that like to live in warm wet dark places are not pathogenic.

See...that is why we need a "like" button.

[RayBee]

Here ya go. Pick one.