distilled water

[retired_guy]

I jsut want to point out that my local sleep lab, boils the water then sticks it int he fridge

Boiling kills the germs. Refrigeration keeps them from growing back.

Yikes, sorry for my bad typing. So I am thinking of switching to this method instead of buying distilled water. Good idea?

Energy costs to boil the water? Distilled water is pretty darn cheap compared to the other things in our hobby. Such as the machine, hoses, masks, lungs, sinus cavities, etc.

Distilled water should be germ free when you get it, and be mineral free too! Just think: no crappy residues to scrape out of your water tank. Or lungs.

[SnuffySleeper]

Well, it is becoming annoying for me buying the distilled jugs. My local Walmart is out of stock all the time and I end up having to drive halfway across town looking for it.

I would hope our lungs would be porous enough to absorb the minerals, but yeah the machine certainly doesn't absorb anything and it would build up, but the sleep labs machines were old school and worked well.

I figured if the sleep lab does it, good enough for me. But yeah...screw it...I'll just keep buying jugs.

[Sleepster]

It really depends on the hardness of your water. In some locations the tap water is not too hard, and it won't cause a build up in your tank. If you're paranoid about germs then, yeah, go ahead and boil it. But it seems to me that if you're that paranoid you'll also want to refrigerate it afterwards. And therefore you'd want to keep your distilled water refrigerated after opening.

I prefer to dump the tank daily. Otherwise you start the day with a tank of warm water, and that water is stagnate all day until you fire up the CPAP machine that night and heat it up again.

The real reason I started dumping the water, though, was because of the odor. Then I got tired of toting distilled water. Now I use the tap water from the bathroom sink located about two steps away from the bedside table.

The other day the metal plate fell off the bottom of my water tank. I'd been using it for probably over a year and a half. When my wife inquired I told her that they are designed for only six months of service. I got the eye-roll, as usual.