Ozone smell & mask yellowing with SoClean2

[Big Guy]

Any idea as to how the oil accumulated inside your machine? I'm not big on the idea of taking mine apart.

I took the predecessor to your machine, the ResMed S9, and found nothing in need of cleaning.

The PRS1 BiPAP I had I saw the DME remove from the new packaging. I figure it must have had some oil left from the manufacturing process. Then very tiny particles got trapped by the oil and turned rancid. This was 6 years ago or so!

Interesting! I was just curious as to the origination of the oil.

[Marko2019]

Unless you're going to use it outside, I would be cautious with any device that generates an "unstable toxic gas" (FDA 2018) in an enclosed interior space. See FDA Requirement 21CFR801.415.

"Activated oxygen" (AKA ozone) is poisonous to humans. Period.

SoClean is currently the defendant in two separate lawsuits, the most important of which is for false advertising and not being in compliance with FDA directives on protecting consumers from ozone poisoning. See complaint District Court, S.D. New York Docket Number 1:19-cv-03545.  https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/149...clean-inc/

I am not a lawyer, but it looks pretty cut and dry to me. CPAP devices clearly need to be cleaned regularly, and if you're not going to follow the manufacturers recommendations for hand-cleaning then my advice would be to use a UV device. At least you won't be pumping poisonous gas into your home.

[Dchawes2]

I used a SoClean device to clean my Resmed CPAP. When it stopped working, I brought it in for warranty repairs. The technician said the SoClean destroys the internal parts of the ResMed, and that Resmed's warranty does not cover any damage related to use of a SoClean device. When I asked why Resmed did not warn its users, he told me SoClean had sued Resmed and that somehow prevents Resmed from giving specific warnings about the dangers of using SoClean.

Does anyone know if there is a class action lawsuit filed by CPAP users against SoClean for fraudulent advertising?

P.S. I stopped using my SoClean device.

[Big Guy]

I had considered purchasing a SoClean unit until I asked about it on this forum. Looking back, I'm very glad that I did.

[gregger]

I don't believe that a product like SoClean is necessary, but neither do I believe that it is harmful to users. It is also very unlikely to be harmful to equipment.

I agree with the earlier statement that the product should properly be called SoSanitize! Chemical sanitizers don't clean, they sanitize. As Melman (the real expert in this thread) has pointed out, any sanitizer is most effective on surfaces that have already been cleaned, and that's the job of a surfactant (any common soap or detergent). If dirt is left in their way, they uselessly expend their power oxidizing the dirt instead of killing bacteria on surfaces.

I don't know what the SoClean unit's ozone production is, but it's likely to be very low and to come nowhere near to creating concentrations at OSHA limits of .1 ppm (8 hours), which were established with truly industrial ozone sanitation systems in mind. 

Someone said ozone gas was "instable" as if that was a negative. But it's a positive: Ozone's instable nature is both what makes it an effective sanitizer as well as a relatively safe one. To put it simply, "O3 just wants to be O2" by shedding its third oxygen atom (oxidizing everything in its path) and thus has a short half-life. To use it as a sanitizer requires catching lightning in a bottle. That is, producing enough ozone--continuously or on demand--to be effective. By contrast, a bottle of bleach (chlorine) simply sits on a shelf with all its sanitizing power intact for years.

Please don't inhale from that bottle, spill from it or get any of it on your skin! In the same way that you're more likely to be killed crossing the street than flying in a jet, statistically you're more likely to harm yourself misusing or spilling that bottle of bleach than by misusing your home ozone generator. Just like the caution statements on those old aerosol cans, you'd have to "intentionally concentrate and inhale" ozone gas somehow--and good luck doing that--to create lasting harm. (Maybe run the machine in an airtight enclosure, and then attach a special breathing tube??) All of this said, it's true that some people have a higher sensitivity to certain airborne chemicals including ozone so they may not be suitable for everyone.

I find it sufficient to clean my CPAP tank and mask in soap and water. After all, I don't have any way to introduce pathogens into my machine, so why should I think I need to get them out? But I do sanitize my tubing by spraying a mist of aqueous ozone into it, from an electrolytic ozone spray bottle. (Aqueous ozone has a half-life much shorter than airborne, so there is no risk of hurting the tubing plastic.)

Ozone smells a bit like chlorine (I don't find it particularly unpleasant) but because it reverts to simple diatomic oxygen, IT HAS NO TRACE ODOR. There is no such thing as 'residual ozone odor' on a surface. I'm not sure what kind of odors people are smelling on their gear hours or days after using ozone on it -- but it's certainly not ozone, which has long reverted to plain oxygen. You're also unlikely to be smelling some sort of burned or decomposed plastic or silicone. CPAP machines and gear are made of materials designed to withstand sanitation. Ozone is no harder on most materials than other strong sanitizers. Ozone is most damaging to rubber, especially latex or butyl rubber, but hard plastics and silicone (as used in most soft mask materials) are resistant to it. If ozone was damaging to Resmed's selection of materials, Resmed would have made that very clear to users by now.

I'm not a scientist but I have worked with both aqueous and gaseous ozone sanitizing solutions in my work and thought I'd add my perspective. If you are scared of ozone, you may want to take a look into how it has been used to bring you many of things you consume--your water and food chief among them. The fact that such ozone was both effective and then entirely GONE long gone before either reached you should help you understand its nature. Read Melman's posts more carefully; again, he's the real expert!

[Dchawes2]

Here's what the U.S. EPA says about the health hazards of ozone:

"The same chemical properties that allow high concentrations of ozone to react with organic material outside the body give it the ability to react with similar organic material that makes up the body, and potentially cause harmful health consequences. When inhaled, ozone can damage the lungs. Relatively low amounts can cause chest pain, coughing, shortness of breath and throat irritation. Ozone may also worsen chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and compromise the ability of the body to fight respiratory infections. People vary widely in their susceptibility to ozone. Healthy people, as well as those with respiratory difficulty, can experience breathing problems when exposed to ozone. Exercise during exposure to ozone causes a greater amount of ozone to be inhaled, and increases the risk of harmful respiratory effects. Recovery from the harmful effects can occur following short-term exposure to low levels of ozone, but health effects may become more damaging and recovery less certain at higher levels or from longer exposures..."

https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/ozone-generators-are-sold-air-cleaners

[Zorki1c]

Ignore Captain Kirk’s sales pitch. Soap and water is all you need.

[SarcasticDave94]

The cleaning instructions from ResMed are good enough for me. It does not mention SoClean. The toupee Captain James T. Kirk used to wear possibly let a bit too much sunlight shine off the scalp. Or Willie Shatner is broke and needs SoClean to clean your pockets to put latinum (Star Trek money) in his bank account.

OK on to boldly go...wherever that is.

[gregger]

Here's what the U.S. EPA says about the health hazards of ozone:

ozone-generators-are-sold-air-cleaners

I agree with this document, which is focused on generators which are sold to "clean" entire living areas.

Emitting ozone into a living space is an inherently bad idea and also misleading because, again, ozone doesn't "clean" anything. 

The best-applied ozone generators create ozone on demand, apply it to the object or surface to be decontaminated, and in the exact concentration determined to be most effective for that object or surface without tripping the Permissible Exposure Limits.

I don't know if the SoClean fits that bill, but I agree that soap and water are fine for most of us.

[Osiris357]

Everything that I’ve read about the SoClean that was written by actual scientists not Billy a paid reviewer says, it does not generate enough ozone to effectively sanitize in the short cycle it has. I paraphrased that but that’s the gist of the articles. If I can find the articles I’ll update this post with a link to them.