(01-21-2020, 01:13 PM)Jeff8356 Wrote: I have only used distilled water in my humidifier. I neglected the chamber at one point and noticed a faint black substance on the tank walls (saw it on the cloth I was using to dry it), presumably mold???
[Bold print in quotes added by me.]
That is the source of the black smear, whether mold or some bacterial action. It was from something left behind when you wiped the interior of the water chamber.
I hope people will try hard to understand and to accept what I offer now:
a. Except when your ability to empty and rinse the water reservoir is hampered, and you can't do it every day, you need not use distilled water. Tap water, if people in the municipality drink it, is perfectly fine and suitable. It's stable, neutralized for common pathogens, and it is filtered. Just empty your container about every second or third day (my low humidity setting gives me at least three days at a time before I have to empty, rinse, and refill), and you do NOT have to wipe out reservoir. Leave it full of water...or partly full. I NEVER wipe out my reservoir, and have yet to see anything glowing or growing inside it. Do NOT wipe the interior of the reservoir. Ever.
b. Cleaning is probably, not certainly, a good idea for any surfaces that make contact with your body, your clothing, the bedding, and so on. So, cushions, hoses, headgear...they should be cleaned every so often. What 'every so often' means is that, when the tension in you rises to the point of pathology, and you simply must clean the items, that's a good time to ease that tension...and do so. But I would only suggest that the cushion needs daily cleaning. I don't do that myself, but you gotta be happy. Daily cleaning of the hoses and reservoir, and all that wiping, just ensures you DO HAVE schmutz left behind by whatever is actually wiping the surfaces, whether your fingers, or your favourite microfiber cloth.
(Have you ever looked in a microscope at the stuff taken from under your fingernails? Maybe our friend Melman can help us out with either a description or an actual image.)
c. And, finally, this brings up 'sanitizing'. There's a difference between cleaning and sanitizing. Even the vaunted SoClean people spell it out clearly in their instructions. The point in cleaning is to remove foreign matter that should not be present. Sanitizing means neutralizing, or 'destroying', pathogens. That's what the SoClean purports to do, and I am not in a position to argue. Cleaning must be done by the user. However, sanitizing must also fall to that person, and it's as easy as swishing a weak bleach solution or a sulphite, or a permanganate, solution through the items that can practically be cleaned. I use a metabisulphite, whether sodium or potassium, because it is both dirt cheap and so effective. Find something you can do easily, cheaply, and do it as often as it takes to reduce that tension in yourself.
What I have hoped to do here is to convince you that some of your tension is probably as pathological as anything you THINK you're ridding yourself of by wiping and 'cleaning'. Relax! It's not rocket science.
