Am I a hagfish? (Horrible mental pic enclosed)

[martin]

Hi folks, haven't been here for a while so thought i'd pop in. Hope you are all keeping well. Was watching a film of a hagfish sliming (the amount that they can generate is amazing) and suddenly realised that i must have been bitten by one and have developed slime powers. Its the morning ritual of the mucous ejection that led me to this amazing insight. Don't know how common the problem is but i have developed a terrible yuck morning activity, not sure if its the humidifier causing the excess but the day doesnt start without the nefarious cough barf ritual. Cant think what to do with these amazing powers or what the design of the costume would be but if anyone has any suggestions they would be appreciated.....thats suggestions on the mucous control, not the use of the superpowers or costume (though feel free along those lines too). In the meantime remember our motto .. Cpaps Really Are Perfect.

[Sparticus]

Mmmmmmmm

Nice Owl Martin, its getting like a zoo on here oh and I am Perfect!

[Berneta]

Clearing the System

Hi Martiin, I like the Owl too. Yes--in my opinion the body starts cleaning itself once the breathing starts building oxygen in our systems. In the beginning I had some yuk mornings too---that only lasted a few days. It seems natural for the immune system to go into overdrive once we are getting a little sleep. I took to sipping Mint Tea when I woke up at night, and that helped a lot -- I suppose mint candies would work too, or you might try a mint flavored antacid tablet or liquid before you go to bed, Could be you have a mild cold or flu too. That can happen anytime. Anyway--good luck on getting through it. x Berneta

[martin]

Wonder if we have enough owls for a parliament (i think thats the correct word), Sparty, you might want to check the acronym of my motto...lol.

I think its about my first anniversary with Gail (the machine) and its just recently that ive been sliming. Might give the mint a go, if i jam a polo in my mask it might take all night to dissolve, or maybe a mint teabag would work....maybe not. Might give interesting dreams, mint flavoured slime monsters or something. Now im picturing a mint flavoured polo match on lime flavoured horses. Either way its still good.

Gave myself a laugh last november, was listening to the safety instructions on a flight (yes i DO pay attention, and notice where the exit is) and found myself wondering if the oxygen masks come down will i automatically fall asleep? Then had to explain the giggling fit. To each their Pavlovian reflex. Travelling with the machines is fun too, no problem with airports (touch wood) but you get some very strange looks from hotel staff. Maybe its the darth vador costume that came with the mask that worries them.

Methinks 'tis time for a nap...nigh nigh...Martin

[Sparticus]

Extra Strong?

Try an extra strong mint or maybe a drop of mouthwash in the Humi or if that fails how about a spray of breath freshner on the filter pad, nice minty fresh lol well have a good night mate some of us have to go to work shortly so no sleep till morning for me

[silvercarper]

I have been on this forum long enough to know that what im about to say makes no sense.
BUT
Since using bottled water in my humidifier my chest is much clearer.
The water I have been using is soft and PH 6.2, and the first day I used it I noticed the difference.
Perhaps the yanks have got it right about using distilled water.

[Tigers Fan]

So what is the magic brand, silvercarper?

[silvercarper]

http://forums.cpap.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1516&page=4

What I have noticed is that water left in the humidifier is still clear in the morning when bottled water is used.
When I have used filtered tap water the remaining water left in the humidifier is cloudy .
Thats a visible difference

[Tigers Fan]

Tesco's own, then!

Hi silvercarper

I can't find out where you live but I assusme a hard water area. Filtering hard water will remove some calcium and other hard salts - depending on which filters you use - but bu no means all of them. As you evaporate the water in the humidifier, those salts become more and more 'concentrated' untilk saturatiob point is reached and they start to come out of the water and form a suspension - the cloudiness you observe. Next stage is that the salts start to deposit as hard salts on the heating surfaces.

The bottled water with a low dissolved solids factor can be evaporated to a smaller amount before the same thing occurs.

I use Maxtra filters in a hard water area and evaporate away about 75% of the water and never get a salts residue until the third week of the four week filter life. I shall do a cost comparison between Tesco water for all drinking and humidifying purposes and a Maxtra filter - expensive even in a Robert Dyas sale!

TF

[martin]

Hmmmm...i had been using de ionised water but the local supermarket stopped stocking it and i got lazy. Any thoughts on boiling local water and then running it though a Brita type filter jug. Normally i don't use the humidifier bit but the cold weather changed my mind,(actually, it was the icecream stab through the nostril into the eyeball experience but lasting 6 hours that changed my mind.) Warm air is cuddlier to the sinuses than the frozen stuff. Tried the mouthwash wipe in the mask (thank you for the idea), didnt stop the slime attack but it make the experience smell nicer.

I remember a couple of years ago someone came up with a ceramic filter that rendered any water into drinking water (the idea is more to make water safe than for this purpose but i wonder if it might help - twas in new scientist and they wouldn't lie) but i haven't seen any sign of commercial production yet. Mind you bugs are bigger than calcium molecules i suppose.

Time to attach the mask and practice deep breathing once again. Sweet dreams to one and all.

[silvercarper]

I think there is a link between hardness and evaporation rate. If thats so then as the humidifier water becomes more concentrated,harder, then the evaporation rate must reduce.
In a humidifier with a small chamber ,like my Remstar, then the water quality could be more important than on a larger one.
I will be checking out the mineral analysis of other waters and see what the price comparision is between bottled water and filters and cartridges.
I live in a hard water area which suites the African chiclids I keep.

[Tigers Fan]

What do African cichlids and TF have in common?

Hi silvercarper

The answer, of course, is Ashbeck water - bottled in Cumbria.

Anyway, the cheapest Ashbeck in Tesco was 16.9p per litre (six pack of two litre bottles for £2.03) and the cheapest Maxtra filter was £2.75 (six pack on sale at Robert Dyas) so this gives a break-even cross-over at 16.27 litres. Clearly, for all drinking, cooking and humidifiier usage, a filter is way cheaper than the bottled water. Also, there is are further advantages for filters in transport and storage.

However, he wonders, what to do with twelve litres of bottled water? The first sip of the obvious answer changed my living style a little. Compared to filtered Southampton tap water - which, trust me, is way better than unfiltered - the Ashbeck is 'sweet water'! Coffee is uplifted! Darjeeling 1st Flush tea is transformed! I reckon those cichlids know a thing or two about what to drink!

TF

ps Ashbeck is 80mg/l total solids of wich calcium is 10mg. I have no idea what filtered Southampton water is.

[silvercarper]

On the contary my African Chiclids would probably die in Ashbeck as they need hard ,alkaline water with a PH of 8.
But Ashbeck does make a good cup of "Punjana" tea.

[Sparticus]

Pure Water

We dont need bottled water up here in Scotland because what comes out of our taps is probably better than what you can buy, I have lived in most corners of the uk and here has the purest water I have had and that includes bottled. Even drinking from the springs in the mountains is astonishingly good. It could just be that I am now a non smoker and things always taste better lol but if there was a compatition then scotland would win my vote every time

[Fredxx]

I think our Welsh Valleys tap water would give you a run for your money on quality.

The important two aspects for tap water quality, and in particular, water hardness, are where the water comes from and how it is stored.

In Scotland, Wales and many parts of the northern UK, all the tap water comes from surface water run-off; the further south and East you go, the more there is sucked out of the ground When water has sunk into the ground, in most cases the rock it is in is Limestone, which is what makes water hard, so the more that comes out of the ground, the harder (and poorer quality) the water is.

The second part is how it is stored. In areas where the population is denser, water tends to be stored more in compact reservoirs, or even underground. these tend to have large areas of concrete in contact with the water, which again contributes to hardness. IN the wide open spaces of Scotland and Wales, the water is collected in large shallow reservoirs with relatively small areas of concrete, so not much transfer of calcium carbonate to make the water hard.

This of course is a gross over-simplification, but holds up pretty well as a generalisation. There are all sorts of other factors including abstraction from rivers, where the distance travelled and the population and industry along the river matters, levels of industrialisation and air pollution where rain is falling and being collected, and the levels of intensive agriculture along chemicals to enter the rivers before the water is used... For Humidifier use though, the grot that you see is principally from the water hardness though, not the quality