Hi everyone - my husband is in London and cannot find distilled water for his cpap. He’s been to a few stores and they were closed because it’s Sunday .
He’s hoping to find some tomorrow but I was wondering if it’s called something different in London? Anyone know?
(He’s staying near Victoria station)
My husband has just used bottled water in his CPAP on our last 3 trips to Europe and he and the machine did just fine. He couldn't find it either.
We never can get distilled water in the UK unless you go to auto repair shop. But even the tiniest markets in Italy have it.
He can use bottled water instead. Just give it a good cleaning with vinegar and water when he gets home to remove mineral deposits.
You don't absolutely need distilled water - just use bottled water while you're traveling. The only reason people use distilled is because if you don't, a light residue can build up in the reservoir over time (and we are talking weeks to months).
If you're worried about it, just check the reservoir after 4-5 days of bottled water usage and if there's anything in there, just wipe it out with a dry cloth. That's what I do when traveling and I've never had any problems.
Another CPAP user.
As others have said, bottled water is fine for a week or two.
Amazon sell it, just deliver to a local Amazon locker and go get it, lockers all over the place in London.
We were in the UK for 4 weeks this summer and my husband found it at a couple of auto parts stores and stores that had an auto parts section. No one in a grocery story or pharmacy knew what he was taking about. Everyone in the auto parts stores knew it as topping up water. His cpap machine will not work without something in the reservoir but found that he didn’t use as much in the UK (higher humidity) than our usually arid climate. They sold it in about 1 liter quantities. He’d pour some into a smaller, empty plastic water bottle to take along if we were changing locations.
EDIT: The chain where he found distilled water, in their automotive section, twice was Robert Dyas. It was kind of like a hardware/housewares store with an automotive aisle.
My dad just used bottled in Turkey.
You might look at a pharmacy. I know in Spain, the distilled water was with the other health care products.
Try de-mineralized water or de-ionized water as terms. Distilled seems to be a uniquely American term. You know there must be zillions of people in the UK who use a CPAP so it can't be unknown.
You won't find it. It's not a thing in the UK. Tap water is what locals use.
Interestingly, sleep apnea is as common in the UK as it is in the US, but rarely tested for or treated.
I couldn't find a good link to add here.
I don't use the humidifier part on my CPAP when traveling, and only use it at home in the coldest part of winter, but a fellow tour member this past spring looked all over for distilled water. They finally found a large bottle of water used for steam irons. If going that route, be sure to choose plain and not lavender. Their difficulty finding DW led me to talk to our English guide, and search the subject online.
i'm assuming the problem is minerals in the water which can cause 'furring up'. Some parts of the UK have what is called 'hard Water' which contains a lot of calcium salts. These cause kettles and other equipment to 'fur up'. If using bottled water, check the mineral (dissolved particles) content carefully. Some bottled water can be really quite high - higher than tap water.
De ionised water is sold in car accessory places like Halfords for use in car batteries. We also use it in steam irons, steam cleaners etc as it doesn't clog them up.
Distilled seems to be a uniquely American term.
No, distillation is a process used for separating different substances. Like water and minerals. But there are other processes that can be used as well and you might look for deionized water or purified water or something like that. Not the same thing, but unless you are doing chemistry experiments the difference should not matter.
