distilled water and humidifiers

[psp1962]

Distilled water and humidifiers

I use water from a kettle after letting it cool down for a while and I don`t have any problems.

[Tigers Fan]

This old chestnut - again?????

Here is the way to James' comments on this topic

http://forums.cpap.co.uk/showthread.php?p=10007#post10007

and hopefully an end to this resurrection of it.

TF

[Barely Awake]

Although I no longer rely on a humidifier when I did a fellow CPAP user put me on to a water supplier that delivered in bulk around the same price that I could get bottled water from supermarkets. The only problem was that you had to find room to store so many months worth of water (3-4 from memory) to make this finanacially equal. The upside was I was using what my clinic told me to use in my humidifier after going through a few because they started to leak (through hard water?).

It would of course be helpful if I could recall the name of the company or even where they were based, but failing memory and OSA is a subject that is surely discussed on here somewhere...

[Barely Awake]

Although I no longer rely on a humidifier when I did a fellow CPAP user put me on to a water supplier that delivered in bulk around the same price that I could get bottled water from supermarkets. The only problem was that you had to find room to store so many months worth of water (3-4 from memory) to make this finanacially equal. The upside was I was using what my clinic told me to use in my humidifier after going through a few because they started to leak (through hard water?).

It would of course be helpful if I could recall the name of the company or even where they were based, but failing memory and OSA is a subject that is surely discussed on here somewhere...

My wife has just reminded me that there was a problem with supply and I had to find another water source, so I was given the name of another company by my local pharmacy. The problem then was that there was a use-by date and it was a little more expensive.

From memory (unreliable as stated) I only stopped using tap water because of leaking humidifiers and that could purely be the water in my locale which is very hard.

[Sleep2Snore]

I am very lucky in that I live in Scotland where scaling is not a problem due to lime scale as there is very little up here, mostly Granite.
When I am in Englandshire or abroad I just buy a bottle of Scottish spring water. You can get it very cheaply and it will last for a few fills.
It is just as good and at a fraction of the cost. Best if it is bottled north of Dundee.
I have had no problems what so ever doing this.

[Sparticus]

Yes S2S I have to agree the water here is 5 star, when I lived in Lincolnshire I hated the water is was rank but now drink it all the time as I think its far healthier than bottled water, I mean where the hell does sugar free and low cal water come from, what are they putting into it, you wont catch me drinking the stuff I'd rather drink from the clyde

[ElleCee]

The water in Crawley is really good, no limescale and no weird taste, I was told that it is passed by the council LOL

Lorraine

[Berneta]

Water Water Everywhere.

I watched a tv show the other night, in which 7 scientist were discussing what was the greatest danger to humans-- things like polar shifts, asteroids, bombs, sunspots, oil depletion, over population causing starvation, etc And the one thing they all agreed was the major threat was the loss of fresh water, It seems that in their estimation --we will be out of fresh water long before we run out of oil. And at this point NOTHING is being done to improvise ways of building water plants to change salt water to fresh. No one is building plants to change snow and ice to fresh water--no one is exporing for underground aquifers--or planning how humanity will deal with major water shortages. I was suprised to know that water is in severe shortage in many places right now. That people walk for miles to fetch water in Africa and Australia. That its against the law in many places to take a shower bath lasting more than 5 min. and there are places where no one waters their lawn or washes their cars. And that right in America deep ancient aquifers in the Midwest are running dry, and cannot be refilled--that Ice burgs and Permafrost are melting around the poles into salt water--that rivers are runnng dry in many states. I learned that human and animal waste plants that dump the waste water that they cleaned back into rivers are removing the waste products-- but not the chemicals we consume. FIsh are being caught with things like caffiene and other chemicals in them. Many creeks and ponds are already contaminated by farm chemicals and the animals that drink from them contain some of those chemicals. There are places on the Mississippi where it is not legal to catch fish or seafood because the food is dangerous to eat. As human population expands it will only get worse. We worry about what kind of water to put in our humidifers--while maybe our great grandchildren will be worried about where to get water to drink. Nothing runs without water. Maybe before its too late--someone will start to think about what humanity can do about it. It was a frightning subject. Made me appriciate what we have. Hope some research is already being done for the sake of our future generations. Just a thought about fresh water. No wonder here in the states the companies say to use distilled water in our CPAP Humidifers. x Berneta

[Tigers Fan]

Impressions

Hi Berneta

Your surprise at what you learned the other night lends weight to the general conception that average Americans are not well informed about world affairs. People are already on the brink of wars about water in several places in the world. You can add USA to the list of places where people have to walk a long way for water - after the water company has shut off supply for non-payment.

The problem with 'making' water from the sea or ice is that it takes energy to do it. At the moment, that energy is mainly fossil fuel - so we make more green house gases to produce water and that just exacerbates the water shortage.

As I see it, the main problem is that we are too numerous. All the rest is just symptomatic of the cause - over population. Our planet cannot sustain a human population as large as it is, let alone larger.

So what to do? How do you control population on a world-wide scale? That is the problem that we need to tackle urgently - because no-one is at the moment!

In the meantime, don't turn down your humidifier, whatever water you put in it!

TF

[ElleCee]

T'is all a bit doom and gloom. On the positive note, something will be done about it eventually as it was with the hole in the ozone layer which has now almost closed again.

Lorraine

[ElleCee]

Oh and....
When I was a child we were told that we were heading towards another ice age and in the south where I live was probably one of the safest place to be because Scotland would go first.
Now we are told it is the opposite!

Lorraine

[Berneta]

Water

Hi TF--I already know about oil shortages, etc. And water shortages in other countries--and that there are some water problems in Vancouver, Nevada, and Colorado, as I have relatives there, But I didn't know it was a world wide disaster about to happen. Maybe other Americans know more about it. Perhaps because I live so close to the Mississippi-- I just took it for granted that we have plenty of fresh water--its hard to look at a river a mile wide and think that we are about to run out of water! I have always known that the water that comes from the MIdwest Aquifer is not good--(we have it here) because they load it down with bleach-- so much so that we can't drink it--tastes terrible. Makes awful coffee and tea. And sometimes it smells like tadpoles for some reason--I guess that could be the result of a broken pipeline somewhere. So we have been buying bottled water for the cooler to drink, and distilled water for my humidifer. Chuck is mad that we buy water that we can't even drink! I sure won't stop using distilled water in my humidifier. We do have a deep well here--and are thinking of having the water tested to see if its fit to drink. I have been afraid its loaded with farm chemicals, since we live in the center of a large valley with some fields that drain into the deep creek right behind our house (Bear Creek). <So far we haven't seen any bears--but they used to be here a hundred years ago, Our biggest predator is Cougers--and we have seen them.> Well-until I saw that show I thought that Oil was the main problem everyone faced. No one on the news ever talks about water shortages. SO while I am not totally dense--I was sure shocked that water was the main danger that they thought we faced. I don't even consider Ice Ages Lorraine- as we are in the warm faze of an Ice Age right now. Now if that suddenly shifts--(and that can happen in less than 10 years) we won't have to worry about fresh water. We will have plenty of that from ice and snow. Most electricity in America comes from the Dams on the Mississippi and other large rivers, and from the Production of Coal and Plants that change it to electricity. Coal is plentiful in America and easily accessable. And many people still use it to heat their homes with coal furnaces and stoves. I am just so amazed that the main danger to humanity wasn't something other than water. We Americans take water and too many other things for granted. We live in a Pollyanna society. They tried building Ethnol Plants-- and found out that wasn't practical. That was no surprise to me, as Ethanol depends on crop production-- and that depends on Mother Nature. I was against burning corn in the plants from the very begining-- when so many people all over the world are starving. Now they know it costs too much to use corn to make oil. No matter how you look at it -it takes energy to make energy. Sad state of affaires, and nothing is being done about it! There is too much trust in the American Government Offficials-- who are more worried about keeping the Fat Cats on Wall Street happy. Obviously they don't give a damn about future generations here, or anywhere else. That Congresswoman who was just shot--had spoken out against the officials voting to give themselves pay raises-- when so many people are out of work and scraping to get by. She was very outspoken about what was going on, that she felt was not acceptable. Like the lack of Control on our southern border. Welfare cuts, and the lack of good health care, It seems like the good ones are always the ones getting shot. Being able to vote people into office is a great thing--as long a people vote for those who have a genuine interest in helping the people, and not just lining their pockets! I remain just shocked! xxBerneta

[Tigers Fan]

The way I see it, you, Berneta, Lorraine, myself and a lot of others that use this forum are way past contributing to the main problem of over population, so our opinions are of little weight.

I well remember my son and I getting the whole pub involved in a fun arguement several years ago. We agreed that over population was the problem but disagreed on the solution. He argued for killing off everyone over a certain age - a year younger than I was at the time - to make room for young people. I argued that was a waste of time because the young 'uns would just carry on breeding and get to be as old as me, anyway - the thing to do was to kill off most of the young ones - stop breeding in its tracks except for a few carefully chosen folk, Noah's Ark style.

The same arguements apply to sterilizing men or sterilizing women.

I like Mr. Smith's analogy in Matrix - humans are like a virus and will reproduce until we self destruct. So make sure to wash out your humidifer chamber regularly, no matter what sort of water you put into it.

TF

[Berneta]

Water and population

Well, have to say that I am not in favor of killing off anyone--nature does a good job of that. With her--one house cleaning wipes out hundreds of thousands of people of all ages. She is the one thing we can't control. And she does everything from natural disasters to plagues. I suppose women my age don't have to be worried about having babies forever--men on the other hand can go right on increasing population as long as they are able, and can find a willing partner. Someday I suppose the answer will be a lottery, to see who has children or not, and how many. OR something like that. At least limiting families to one child is a beginning. As smart as humans are, you'd think we could get birth control right. Don't worry about me washing out my humidifier--I do that and even occasionally give it a good rinse with salt water, or mild bleach solution. Right now I have a mild cold thanks to my hubby--so am being extra careful. Including the sinus flush I said I'd never do. LOL. Still snowing here--going to love that electric blanket tonight. xxBerneta

[daveuk]

Distilled water

I have always used Volvic mineral water in my humidifier. Paradoxically, it has the lowest mineral content of any bottled water available in the UK and lower than the tap water in hard water areas. I only ever get limescale if I oversleep and let it run completely dry.
I also use it in my iron and coffee machine, and for drinking as it tastes much better than London's recycled tap water.
I use diluted kettle/iron descaler to clean the humidifier, e.g. after a holiday somewhere they don't sell Volvic. More effective than vinegar, but you do have to rinse it out very well afterwards.