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Distilled Water Shortage

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JEBar
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Distilled Water Shortage

Post by JEBar » Fri Jan 27, 2023 10:12 am

while I probably should have, I didn't see this one coming .... I have had Sleep Apnea and have used a CPAP machine for 20 some years .... the machine requires the use of distilled water that in recent months it has been difficult to find .... within a 5 mile drive we have a Super Walmart and 5 major grocery stores .... historically, all of them keep a large stock of distilled water .... we've stopped by Walmart 3 times within the last few days and they haven't had a any on their shelves .... yesterday we stopped by Walmart and 4 of the 5 grocery stores and they were all out .... thankfully, we did find some at the 5th grocery store .... the best estimate I've seen is in 2020 there were between 9.33 million and 9.5 million CPAP users and that number is believed to growing .... each machine uses distilled water which creates a very large and growing demand for distilled water .... not long ago we paid 60 +/- cents a gallon, yesterday we paid $1.19 for a gallon .... long term, Amazon offers home units at a wide range of prices .... that is something we would consider if/when local supplies shrink much further
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daytime dave
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Re: Distilled Water Shortage

Post by daytime dave » Fri Jan 27, 2023 10:26 am

Jim, I read somewhere that it's becoming scarce and the price is increasing a lot.
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markiver54
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Re: Distilled Water Shortage

Post by markiver54 » Fri Jan 27, 2023 12:05 pm

You CAN use tap or bottled water in your CPAP. it won't pose a risk to you or hurt the device. It just might end up requiring cleaning more often.
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Mags
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Re: Distilled Water Shortage

Post by Mags » Fri Jan 27, 2023 12:35 pm

My wife uses water from reverse osmosis.
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JEBar
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Re: Distilled Water Shortage

Post by JEBar » Fri Jan 27, 2023 1:42 pm

the info that came with our machine specifically says to use distilled, so that's what we do .... we have a Reverse Osmosis system in our camper .... the water it produces is much purer than tap water but not a pure as distilled .... in a real pinch, I would use it .... when it comes to breathing in whatever may dissolve into the water used in in my CPAP machine, I'm prone to want it to be a pure as is possible
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markiver54
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Re: Distilled Water Shortage

Post by markiver54 » Fri Jan 27, 2023 2:33 pm

JEBar wrote:
Fri Jan 27, 2023 1:42 pm
the info that came with our machine specifically says to use distilled, so that's what we do .... we have a Reverse Osmosis system in our camper .... the water it produces is much purer than tap water but not a pure as distilled .... in a real pinch, I would use it .... when it comes to breathing in whatever may dissolve into the water used in in my CPAP machine, I'm prone to want it to be a pure as is possible
Absolutely. I don't blame you. I was just thinking about a potential emergency.
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RudyN
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Re: Distilled Water Shortage

Post by RudyN » Fri Jan 27, 2023 5:48 pm

My wife and I have to use distilled water in our CPAP machines. We were told that in a pinch you can use bottled water.
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JEBar
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Re: Distilled Water Shortage

Post by JEBar » Fri Jan 27, 2023 6:49 pm

RudyN wrote:
Fri Jan 27, 2023 5:48 pm
We were told that in a pinch you can use bottled water.
absolutely .... I haven't had to do so yet but who knows if/when it may be necessary
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Re: Distilled Water Shortage

Post by Travlin » Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:25 am

Thankfully after losing weight on the paleo diet,my wife has not had to use the C-Pap for two years. There is a class action lawsuit going on because of some brands of the machines have caused very bad lung problems.
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