When is your cleaning day?

[zonk]

cleaning the equipment thoroughly on a regular basis is important to ensure proper hygiene and not to become a breading grounds for bacteria.
Your immune system might not be in a good shape as it was in yesteryear

[Kadenz]

I rinse my hose daily and wash it in soapy water once a week. Once you get into the routine of doing it, it's relatively little bother. And anyway I figure it's worth it as the hose is conveying air into my one and only set of lungs.

[mjbearit]

Do you have a special day of the week where you wash the equipment (mask, hose, humidifier water tub) or you wash on need basis or might be a shift worker just wash when got spare time.
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I wash the mask daily and the rest on Sundays

See now I'm glad you added in there that you meant equipment. You said cleaning day and I thought "Well, whenever my wife gets around to it!" LOL!

Seriously I chose no specific time because it is generally on the weekend, but it could be either weekend day or a Friday or Monday depending on when I darned well get around to it!

I use a vinegar/water solution on the humidifier, and just a sink full of hot soapy water on the rest. Let it soak for...awhile....scrub if necessary, rinse well in hot water, open cupboard and flip hose over it to drip dry! So basically I take over the kitchen for quite awhile!

[trish6hundred]

I soak my CPAP parts in hot water and a bit of mild dishsoap most every Sunday. To get water all the way through my hose, I connect it to the faucet till it comes out the other end. Since I have the tub that doesn't open without a GREAT deal of difficulty, I make sure I submerge it down into the soapy water so that it gets clean as well. I change my filters every 6 months or so, I don't need to change then any more often than that because we have an air cleaner on our furnace and that helps.

[TorontoCPAPguy]

I wash the mask daily and rinse the humidifier daily. I didn't know we were supposed to wash the hose. How does one wash the hose?

Easiest way I found to clean the hose is as follows: Partially fill hose with soapy water (I use warm water and a little Dawn), raise and lower an end so that the water travels fully throughout the hose. Shake, etc.. Empty, rinse and repeat (if so inclined). There are less water issues if done in a shower. Does a good job, although you can also buy brushes (see Supplier #1), but only in standard diameter. I have not found any in 15mm.

Brush in 15mm; you might want to try a shotgun cleaning rod... don't know for sure. I just swish the detergent around after letting them soak for an hour.

I have FIVE masks and rotate through them; one per week.. I wipe down with disinfectant wipe daily on awakening.

Once a month I put all five hoses, all five masks, the humidifier tank, into warm soapy water that has a bunch of odorless soap/detergent in it (there are plenty), let it soak for an hour and then use a very soft paintbrush to get into the crevices (the masks are disassembled). I then rinse them all and let them soak in Control III disinfectant for a half hour, give or take (a case for $118 will last you for years), rinse and let air dry or use compressed air from an oil-less compressor to blow dry. I bag them in zippered baggies, leaving a slight opening and rotate through them again.

[SleepyGreg]

Wow. Some very good stuff here for a newbie. Some scary stuff too Paula!

I was only washing on a Saturday or Sunday, now I am off to the supermarket for disinfectant wipes.

Thanks all.

[trish6hundred]

Hi SleepyGreg, First, Welcome! to the forum.! For me, it's just easier if get into a schedule as far as cleaning my CPAP parts goes, so, as I said earlier on this post, I wash them on most Sundays. If the schedule gets bungled up for some reason, I usually try to wash them On Monday.

[archangle]

Wow. Some very good stuff here for a newbie. Some scary stuff too Paula!

I was only washing on a Saturday or Sunday, now I am off to the supermarket for disinfectant wipes.

Thanks all.

Be careful. Some of the disinfectant wipes have strong chemicals in them. They may not be intended to clean something that sits in contact with wet skin all night long.

[archangle]

I do advocate a clean CPAP just due to the "yuck" factor, but I've never seen any indication that dirty CPAP equipment used by a single person actually affects your health, nor any study of infection from dirty CPAP.

Yes, it is medical equipment, but it's not being implanted under your skin or moved from patient to patient. How often do you sterilize your sheets, pillow, clothing, eyeglasses, etc.? Do you sterilize your toothbrush every night?

This would be especially true for the parts that don't touch your face. Even if germs are growing on the surface of something, they don't usually jump up into the air and attack people.

I still want my equipment to be clean, though. The manufacturers DO recommend cleaning the mask at least.

[F4tC4t]

I have only been at it for 4 weeks. Was advised to daily rinse the humidifier tub and let it dry, then dismantle it and wash it once a week along with the air hose and the mask in warm water in a light detergent.

So I have done that every Saturday so far, it is an easy routine to get into