Travel with CPAP and distilled water supply

by Vicki
(Montreal, Quebec)

The following question is often asked by CPAP users who travel abroad, especially on long distances:

What do I do if I am going on a three week China cruise vacation?

My concern is not being able to take a 3-week supply of distilled or demineralized water.

Is there a safe substitute? What do I do if hotels or cruise ships cannot provide this?

Thanks!

Answer


Good question about problems with CPAP traveling. I know that is not easy to find a distilled or demineralized water in airports, or even in your traveling area.

When I travel, I have always used regular bottled drinking water and not worried about using distilled water. I haven't had any problems with this so far, and I know that other sleep apnea patients do the same.

If you use regular bottled water while traveling it is not going to damage your humidifier or CPAP. But if you are concerned, clean it immediately when you come home.

I found when I was new to CPAP that I was diligent to follow every guideline and cleaned everything like a clock. After a while, I became less obsessive about being perfect in maintenance schedule, and have suffered no side effects in not using distilled water at any cost.

Another tip is to take a small 14 oz Nalgene bottle which you can fill it with distilled water, tighten the lid and put it in your checked baggage. It is enough water to last at least two days - depends on the humidity where you are going.

These Nalgene bottles are sturdy and the lids can be cranked on tight. You will never have a problem with leaking or breakage.

With this, you have at least a two day supply which gives you time to see if there is a local place where you can get another distilled or demineralized water for your CPAP machine. I've also found that some hotels will have it or get it for you.

Good luck!

If you have other experiences and opinions regarding this problem, please comment below.

Remy Thierry
Founder of Sleep Apnea Guide

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Jun 22, 2017
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starstarstarstarstar 		Small bottles of distilled water for cpap
by: Elisa

You can now find them on Amazon in small bottles to take with you for planes just go to Amazon an type in aquapap vapor distilled water.

You can buy by the case or like me I bought 7 12 oz bottles for 19.99 which is a week supply. My machine takes 8 0z per night and it comes in 12 oz bottles.

The lady told me from STA just make sure when taking on plane with CPAP put the bottles in zip lock and put your cpap in one bucket and the water in repeat bucket to be scanned and tell them it's for medical use and if they give you problems have them call someone for customer service for special needs.

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