[CPAP] Water and the different type of water

[Newbee2016]

You may wish to look up wiki on Serratia Marcescens, an airborne bacteria. It’s probably the same thing if your bathroom has it too. The section on pathogenicity is particularly worrying.

Please note, the WIKI describesSerratia Marcescens as an opportunistic pathogen. Many normally non-pathogenic environmental bacteria are opportunistic pathogens and we encounter them frequently. Opportunistic  pathogens rarely cause disease in individuals with healthy immune systems and are no cause for worry for most of us. As noted in the quote below from the Journal of Medical Microbiology, it is also a growing cause of hospital acquired infection. 

"S. marcescens is rarely associated with primary invasive infection. It operates as a true opportunist producing infection whenever it gains access to a suitably compromised host. Patients most at risk include those with debilitating or immunocompromising disorders, those treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics and patients in ICU who are subjected to invasive instrumentation."

Serratia is not the only pink pigmented bacterium. A more likely cause of pink slime in humidifiers is Methylobacterium, and environmental organism which is encountered frequently in industrial purified water systems. It is rarely found in clinical specimens, but like most bacteria, is probably an opportunistic pathogen. It is probably what Sleeprider has seen and others have seen. Although there may be no bacterial species that is 100% harmless it's about as close to harmless as any.

Thanks Melman, that’s really comforting to know. While I haven’t gotten it on my humidifier, I do get pink gel in my air conditioner when it hasn’t been maintained in a while and it clogs up the drain pipe causing back up. I just take it as a reminder that timely maintenance is always needed. 

[Newbee2016]

I am very lucky here, I can use water straight out of the tap/faucet.
There is few minerals or anything to leave a film/scum in the humidifier chamber.
A wash is all it needs and a scrub with a light brush every year.
I use them for a year with a light wash and there is hardly a mark inside the humidifier chamber.
Maybe just the slightest hint of a stain on the bottom, which comes off with a scrub.

Only thing that I am bothered with is a pink slime which I am lead to believe is a air-born, but it is not easy to get rid of.  So I have to clean it every week just to keep it at bay!  It gets into every crevice it can.  I just scrub it with soap and a brush, but I wish there was anther way to get rid of it without stinking the chamber up with vinegar or other strong smell.
I have no idea if this slime is harmful or not, any ideas?
If it was I think the years I have been exposed to it I would have come down with something bad!

Once you are north of the Central Belt there is no real need for distilled water, it is pure enugh, just like me, never kissed or cuddled!  

Back from Glasgow. The water tastes good straight from the tap and drank quite a bit of it even in the cafes. Used it every night in the  humidifier for 2 weeks. Just as you shared, hardly any buildup at all in the chamber, even when dried up the next morning. Just light finger rub under running water and good for the next night again. Saved me having to buy a carton of bottled water.  

[steve823]

I use tap water since I have my own spring. It does build up a white mineral deposit but a good soak in vinegar and water will remove most, if not all of it. I just chuck the tub every 6 months to be safe.

When I travel, because I am not used to the chlorinated water of hotels and cities, I tend to use bottled water. I can smell the chlorine and it drives me nuts.

The key is, no matter what type of water you use, that you do regular cleaning. How "regular" depends on how germ phobic / OCD you are. Some folks clean every day. Some once a week. Some whenever we get around to it.

The last one would be me. Or when the wife complains it stinks. Which I cannot smell. But I do use distilled water.

[CB91710]

Dear all, I am new to this site and have just been diagnosed with sever OSA. my numbers are 49 and in the process of getting my machine.  The question I have and have been reading up about is this:

1) What type of water do you use?
2) Can I use bottle alkaline water in cpap machines
3) is  bottle spring water ok
4) Does it have to be distill water

thanking everyone in advance for their response.

Personally, I use distilled water that I buy by the gallon.  I take bottled drinking water with me on vacation.  Some areas, tap water is fine, but I've been to hotels where the tap water is so brown that I would not want to drink it, much less put it in my machine.

Alkaline water is the exact opposite of what you want.  The salts added to it make it no better than tap water.  For the humidifier, it is a waste of money.  Honestly, it is a scam and a waste of money for drinking and cooking as well... it is not going to change the pH of your body.

Bottled drinking water is OK.  It is generally well filtered, however may have added minerals.  As long as the reservoir is emptied and wiped clean, without being allowed to run dry, it's fine... but again, it really is a waste of money as there is no benefit to using bottled spring water over distilled water.
A gallon of distilled water is only a buck at Walmart.

It doesn't HAVE to be distilled water.  Manufacturers recommend distilled because it is free of minerals that will leave deposits in the reservoir and tubing.  Many, many people on this forum use tap water without problems.  My tap water is as hard as a rock...  I have to clean my faucet screens every 6 months, and my toilet tanks get sand that collect in the bottom.  That reflects on only the undissolved minerals in my water.... the dissolved minerals are also extremely high and would leave major stains in my humidifier tank in only a couple of days.

[CB91710]

The key is, no matter what type of water you use, that you do regular cleaning. How "regular" depends on how germ phobic / OCD you are. Some folks clean every day. Some once a week. Some whenever we get around to it.

The last one would be me. Or when the wife complains it stinks. Which I cannot smell. But I do use distilled water.

Haha...  Ya, about once a month (or two) we'll give ours a good cleaning with baby shampoo, then a rinse with straight peroxide to kill off any biofilm that may have escaped the soap.
I'll replace the tubs once a year.
Using distilled water really does stretch their life... they'd last forever if we cleaned weekly.
ResMed does make a "dishwasher safe" version of the A10 tub.

[CarolinaJay]

In the US, it's very easy to buy distilled water in the grocery store, about $1 per gallon (4 liters).  So there's no reason not to use it. 

But traveling to Europe it's a different matter.  Apparently the health regulators over there have determined that if people were to drink only distilled water, they would end up deprived of necessary minerals.  It's so tightly regulated that it's almost a "controlled substance" and costs close to $30 a gallon if you can find it in a pharmacy.  This has made for some difficult conversations with tour guides, because I tended to believe the precaution in the ResMed instructions to use distilled water, and the tour guides can't find it.

So given the extreme difficulty and expense of finding distilled water, in several trips, I've used bottled water to avoid the chlorine smell of tap water.  But the available bottled water in Europe tends to be rather high in mineral content, and I'm afraid not very close to 7.0 pH.  After only one night of using a typical bottled water, the bottom of the ResMed reservoir looked all grainy and awful, and there were white deposits on the plastic sides of the reservoir.

At the end of my most recent trip (in Ireland) I found a bottled water that did not corrode my reservoir or leave deposits.  It's called "Purified Water" instead of "Distilled Water" and in Dublin the brand name was "Defiant".  I hope this information helps someone else.