[CPAP] cleaning an old Respironics REMStarPlus with mildew in it

[cstrouss]

My Air Sense 10 Autosense became extremely noisy after about 60 days of use... Another user on this forum suggested it sounds like blown blower bearings, which sounds exactly right to me.  The rental company NORCO-INC has been totally unhelpful, and say the only way they can help me is if I spend half a day driving to their nearest location with the machine.  I'm thinking maybe I will just ship it back to them, and tell them I will notify my insurance company that their machine failed and they refused to fix it if I don't have a working machine back within a week.

In the meantime, I have an old machine, a Respironics REMStarPlus M series, which works, and seems like a respectable machine, but it was stored poorly, and smells to be infested with mildew.  I'm soaking the tubing, filter, and water tank in a bleach solution right now, which are the places I could smell mildew.

But there must be mildew inside the machine itself as well, and I won't know for sure how bad it is until the other parts are rinsed and dried.  Does anyone have any idea what I might do about that?  I think I can take it off auto-mode so it will just keep blowing even if I'm not inhaling, so I could put a bleach solution inside the water tank to see if that helps????

[cstrouss]

no that won't work, the water tank is between the blower unit at the hose, it wouldn't help with inside the blower unit.  Would it be worth taking it apart?

[SuperSleeper]

Not sure if it will help, but we do have some pictures of someone taking apart an M-series machine. 

The links and pictures are private, so make sure you're logged into your forum account, then go here:

http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-...Only-FILES

Then click on the link for the Members Only Files page.  From there, click on the Sleep Apnea & CPAP Information Page link at the top of that page.

On that page, on the left side, click on the link that says "Look inside CPAPs".

Then, on the numbered list, #1, which is "Respironics M-Series Auto Disassembled" - click on where it says "Pictures" after that.

The pictures will load at the bottom of the page.  You can click on each picture to get an expanded view of the machine pictures.

[Mosquitobait]

It's pretty hard to get mildew outside of the humidifier chamber or hoses. Take another smell test now that you've had the other parts away from it for awhile. Chances are, you don't have to do anything. I would focus only on cleaning the humidifier unit before putting the chamber back in.

[cstrouss]

Yes, thanks for the help you guys, once I soaked the hose, water tank, and intake filter in a bleach/detergent solution, and then scrubbed it and rinsed it like crazy, the whole system smells just fine. I still can't get the pressure on the old Respironics up past 9cm yet, because the menus don't look like what I found on this board, but it is good enough to get me through.

I cannot imagine how other apneatics get by without a resource like this community, because customer service from the equipment providers totally sucks.