I am supposed to use distilled water in my cpap device, although...

[TreasonousBastard]

I have no idea if other waters would work.

Anyway, I tried five stores this AM to get a gallon of the stuff, and finally found one last lonely gallon at the sixth store.

Plenty of spring water, purified water, and other stuff on the shelves, but no distilled? Why the run on distilled?

[Jarqui]

1. To save me typing

https://www.verywellhealth.com/do-you-need-distilled-water-for-the-cpap-humidifier-3015017

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Thanks--good info there, and how I suspected it to be.

[nolabear]

3. Depends on your water. It's just easier on the machine.

I don’t use it. Our water is very clean and no deposits build up. I also use a SoClean to clean it daily. That way bacteria doesn’t build up. So far (about six years) so good.

[cbdo2007]

4. I use tap water in mine and have for 10+ years...

After about 6 months there is some calcium build up in it so I just switch out the tank but otherwise it works just fine. It should be switched out after about 6 months anyways.

[Lochloosa]

6. Or clean it with vinager. I do this once a month and have always used tap.

Vinager will desolve the calcium.

[Sgent]

5. I've used "baby" water

before (meant for baby formula). It can cause issues with mineral build up but that can be solved with a little vinegar cleaning of the chamber weekly. The other issue is that any water must be absolutely biologically pure -- there are some protozoa that can survive in tap water but can kill you if they get deep into you sinuses. There has been at least one or two cases of this in LA using tap water with netti pots.

[Demsrule86]

7. I wonder if you could use refrigerator water in a pinch...filtered.

[cbdo2007]

8. You can make your own distilled water...look on the google