Qwkynuf

I have recently (last week) started using a CPAP, and it uses distilled water in the humidifier.

My travel patterns are such that I mostly travel weekly in the continental US. I typically fly out Monday, and home either Thursday or Friday evening, so 3 or 4 hotel nights each week. I have this vision of finding a grocery store or pharmacy in every city I travel to, and then abandoning a partly-used gallon of distilled water at every hotel.

Can you get distilled water in smaller-than-gallon containers?

Is it ok to use bottled water? (thinking Aquafina/Dasani/store brand/whatever)

I don't have room in my regular checked bag to pack water (and not sure I would trust it to survive the trip anyway), and the 3.4oz that TSA will let me have doesn't seem like it will get me very far...

What do people do in this situation?

mglvrug

Manufacturers strongly recommend distilled water because impurities and microbes are removed and so they don't enter your lungs or build up in the machine. I can't go without the humidifying feature, so I always try to buy distilled water while traveling. But when I can't get it, I've used bottled water and even tap water and then cleaned my reservoir and tubing when I get back home.

Amazon sells distilled water in smaller bottles. Search for "cpap distilled water for travel." You might feel more comfortable putting sealed bottles in your suitcase (perhaps in a ziploc bag just in case there's a leak).

Glad you raised it on this forum. We hose-heads need to stick together.

Qwkynuf

Thanks!

LarryJ

If you travel that often, buy a travel machine like the ResMed AirMini. It doesn't use water for humidification and you don't have to pack/unpack it each time you leave/get home.

www.lofta.com or www.cpap.com

JY1024

Moving this to the Disability Travel forum where there is existing discussion of CPAPs and travel. /Moderator

Qwkynuf

I'm still pretty new to this, so I am going to need a whole lot more inconvenience to justify $1200.

Thanks for making me aware though. I had no idea that something like that existed.

jrl767

my wife got one of these for our recent 3-week trip through New England and the Maritimes, including four nights on a windjammer cruise … the machine can use either 120VAC from the wall or 12VDC through an adapter plug (which was all that was available on the boat)

previously, when traveling with a conventional CPAP, she would fill a few small bottles at home and put them in her checked bag