Ozone CPAP Cleaner Vs. UV CPAP Cleaner

First things first - CPAP equipment must be clean!

No matter what kind of cleaning/sanitizing you decide to do, you must do it properly and regularly, your CPAP equipment must be clean and sanitized at any moment you use it. Keep in mind that the air you breathe in through your CPAP device is clean and safe only if the device is kept clean and maintained correctly. You use your CPAP for eight hours per night, air goes in and out of it with every breath…the inside of your CPAP equipment turns into the perfect breeding ground for mold, bacteria, and any germs. This may raise the possibility of nasty colds, sinus infections, and even pneumonia. And also, not only does regular cleaning of your CPAP device keeps you healthy, but it also helps keep your equipment clean which helps it last longer (according to Harvard Medical School Health Publishing the mask, water chamber, and tubing should be cleaned every morning).

How to keep your CPAP safe to use?  Just follow 3 simple rules:

1)  Clean and sanitize your CPAP regularly (preferably, every morning after use)

2)  Maintain your CPAP as recommended by the manufacturer, replace filters and other expendable parts as suggested by the manufacturer

3)  Your CPAP should be exclusively yours (avoid lending your CPAP equipment to anyone).

How to clean your CPAP? There are two ways how to clean and sanitize your CPAP device:

1) Manually - Disassemble your CPAP machine (unplug the machine from the power socket and detach the hose and the mask); also disassemble the headgear and all smaller components. The machine itself (air compressor/motor) shouldn’t be washed! Only handle the filters if needed and wipe the machine to remove the dust. Soak remaining, previously disassembled parts (face mask, hose, tubing parts, humidifier) in the solution of warm water, soap, and vinegar. Let them soak there for 30-40 minutes, and after done rinse them with cold water. The final step is to dry all parts (need to make sure there is no debris and that parts are perfectly dry before you put them away. 

2)  Automatically – Using Ozone or UV sanitizer.

Ozone Vs. UV

We wrote in detail about sanitizing properties of ozone. For some time now, ozone (O3), also known as “Trioxygen”, or “Activated Oxygen”, is one of the most effective sterilizers used in medicine, in hospitals, and recently very much in use in a household (as Air Purifier, Ozone Sanitizer, Ozone CPAP Cleaner…). Unlike basic oxygen, which has 2 oxygen atoms, ozone is a molecule composed of three atoms of oxygen; this difference is what makes ozone act like sanitizer…that third oxygen atom tends to detach from the ozone molecule and re-attach to other substances molecules, thereby altering their chemical composition, and with that kill germs, bacteria, mold…with super-high efficiency (theoretically 99.99%)!

UV stands for ultraviolet, which is a form of electromagnetic radiation. Ultraviolet is a form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength from 10nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. Short-wave ultraviolet light (UVC) radiation sterilizes surfaces with which it comes into contact, but it also damages DNA. UV sanitizers destroy viruses and kill bacteria by using their lights to emit UV rays, targeting proteins and genetic material (DNA and RNA). "They speed up cross-linking of this genetic material, which reduces the ability of the genetic material to participate in healthy replication," Karen Dobos, Ph.D., professor in the department of microbiology, immunology, and pathology at Colorado State University, tells Health.

Ozone CPAP Sanitizer Vs. UV CPAP Sanitizer

We can see that both ozone and UV light (radiation) have sanitizing and germicidal effects, and both of them have super-high (theoretical) efficiency in them (over 99%). So straight-up efficiency is not the point of decision for one or the other. But then what might be?

Although both Ozone and UV have sanitizing effect and are simple to use, Ozone sanitizers seem to have better, or maybe more precisely said more consistent results. Producing ozone in ozone sanitizers is a very simple procedure; the materials and technology behind it are fairly cheap and simplified, so it is low-cost and easy to produce. Ozone producing devices will provide enough ozone regardless of the "quality" of the materials used (as it uses simple materials/components). Ozone sanitizers have a generator that breaks down oxygen (O2) and recreate it by combining another O atom making O3, or an activated oxygen molecule. Ozone generators apply an electrical charge to the air that passes through. This splits apart some normal oxygen atoms into unstable single atoms, which bond with other O2 molecules to form O3.

Thanks to its simple technology and design, Ozone CPAP Cleaners/Sanitizers can be very small, portable, and easy to carry when traveling, without compromising on their efficiency. New PrimeClean CPAP Cleaner is only 4.6”x2.4” and weighs only 0.5lbs!

On the other hand, UV sanitizers use UV lamps, also called "germicidal lamps"; So the efficiency of UV sanitizers is the same as the efficiency of the UV lamps used, so these can be less effective if UV lamps used are not strong enough, and since they are simple to produce with cheap UV lamps, they often prove to be not enough effective (they don’t have the same energy as the ones used in the industry). Another point to consider when it comes to personal UV sanitizers is that the energy their lights emit wanes over time. "As it decays, it becomes even less effective for its target, and I don't know how a person could tell how these bulbs are decaying," professor Dobos says. "I'm sure there's a 'replace by' date, but most of us only replace a light bulb when it goes completely out. This is well beyond the effective time for a UV source.

All that aside, UV CPAP sanitizers are not very practical cause they are large and bulky. In order to radiate all CPAP device parts, without compromising a person's health, UV light must radiate in the closed box, which has to be big enough for all the parts to fit in.

If O3 and UV kill germs, can they harm humans (when used in CPAP sanitizers)?

The short answer is – Yes and No. The correct answer is NO! 

Both Ozone and UV radiation can cause harm to people (UV radiation is very dangerous to the skin!). But, when used in CPAP sanitizers (and used as it is intended to be used), they are used in such a way so that it is minimal or no risk to users’ health. 

Ozone from PrimeClean CPAP Cleaner is concentrated and safely contained within the PrimeClean bag, and in such an environment it works as a sanitizing agent to kill live bacteria and any living particles things in CPAP equipment stored in sanitizing bag. Since it is contained in sanitizing bag, it is not directly dispersed in the room where sanitation is being done. Besides, thanks to an Ozone Filter used in the PrimeClean Sanitizing Bag over 99% of ozone is turned directly into oxygen before it leaves the Sanitizing bag. And the ozone that comes in contact with the air quickly dissipates, thus keeping the room concentration safely well under the recommended limit.

Final verdict

PrimeClean is successfully producing and selling ozone sanitizers for quite a few years now. When we decided to produce a CPAP cleaning solution, we did extensive research, did a lot of tests, and researched what users think, feel, and need, from CPAP cleaner…pre-production process was a project that lasted for almost a year! And this is why we can be 100% confident when we say that ozone CPAP cleaner/sanitizer is by far the best sanitizing solution for CPAP users. And not only that we say that we have over 45 thousand satisfied users to confirm this. We invite you to try, and we strongly believe you will be thinking the same!