cpap cleaning

[Sleepster]

And while I regularly cleaned my hose once a week, after nearly two years or more, crap started growing in there.

When you cleaned the hose did you use a brush, or just swish a cleaning solution through it?

[Sleepster]

Distilled does not equal sterile.

I've been using tap water. I empty and rinse the tank every morning, let it dry and fill it in the evening.

For a while I was using distilled water and could go weeks with no odor developing. Then the odor started developing again within two or three days of cleaning the hose, so I switched to tap water.

I still can't figure out why I had those few odor-free weeks.

[Sleepster]

I am curious too. Why change the hose, if it is cleaned regularly with approved methods and cleaners, and has no flaws, cracks or other physical issues?

My insurance pays for (most of) a new hose every three months. It's overkill but I think the practice is there as a safety measure, partly for patients who aren't conscientious about cleaning.

New nasal pillows every three weeks, new mask every three months, and a new water tank after six months. And then there's the filter changing schedule.

I have a huge stock pile of stuff and could go for a long time with no new supplies.

[PaulaO2]

I soaked it in a vinegar and water solution then rinsed well and let air dry. I never had much luck with using the CPAP to blow the hose dry.

I had a long dowel that I would push a rag through sometimes but I was always afraid it would get stuck. If I were paying out of pocket, I'd make a hose brush. Duct tape a wad of cloth to the end of a dowel. Or drop a heavy string through them pull a well tied cloth through it.

[Shastzi]

Otis Technology makes a plastic coated cable for cleaning long barrel rifles. It is too short for a 6' to 9' long hose but
you just get an extension for the cable and thread the two pieces together to get sufficient length.
[link removed]

At the tip you have a standard plastic gun patch pulling loop. I just get one of the Citrus II CPAP wipes (or whatever your favorite is) , thead it through the loop and pull that through the hose just like it was a long barrel rifle.

A paper towel strip can also be used to mop out moisture the same way.
When done the whole thing coils up in a small plastic storage box from Sterilite or whatever your favorite is.

After the quick cleaning job the hose goes on the electric blower to dry for 30 mins.

Total time spent by me: 5 minutes.

The cable costs about $40 but well worth it.

Easy as Cake!



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[archangle]

The best way to avoid weekly cleaning of the hose is to take tank out and hook the hose directly to the CPAP after use, and run it one for a while - it dries out the hose nicely. Otherwise, what I suggested in an earlier post. And if you do use distilled water, there is a way lower chance of infection building in the hose that you think, simply because although it is moist, there is no growth medium.

I have to disagree. Distilled does not equal sterile. Even if it is, as soon as you open that lid, it is no longer sterile. Neither is the tank nor the hose.

The point is not that it's sterile. The point is that there is nothing but water there. Germs need certain chemicals to reproduce. They also need an energy source to feed on. Even algae that get their energy from light and can make food from nothing but water, CO2, and light, need nitrogen to reproduce and can't pull it directly from the air.

If you drop bacteria into absolutely pure H2O, it can't reproduce at all.

Even with pure H2O in the tank, you do still collect some crud from dust, and there is even some small amount of gases that will dissolve and allow some germ growth. Plus you probably exhale various kinds of germ food. Some germs may still be able to grow, but the cleaner you keep it, the lower the rate of growth, the lower the concentration, and the fewer different types of germs there will be.

I think swapping hoses and letting them sit dry for long periods of time after cleaning probably helps a lot.