Technical question re:Vaporisers

[Smurfette]

Hi ya, my poor little girl is sick and all snotty and can 't sleep:crying: . I waved my magic wand but that didn't work, so I went out and bought a vaporiser. I have a couple of questions regarding the use of this, oh it is the vicks one.

1) it says to clean out after every use. Well, sometimes its only on for an hour while she sleeps (if I'm lucky) so doesn't use up much water. Do I really need to empty each time?

2)I bought the vicks liquid to go in, which you can get 10 goes at as it takes 10ml and there is 100ml in the bottle. I there something else I can use as an alternative? If I am changing the liquid every time this can get quite expensive.

[Chickadee]

I would probably aim to give it a good clean at least once a day and avoid leaving water standing in it (say overnight) just in case nasties start growing. You don't want those spread with the vapour next time you turn it on. But if you use it for an hour, turn it off, then back on an hour or two later it should be ok.

I didnt have a Vicks one and never used any of the additives in the water. I either put a dab of Vick on her chest/shirt or used one of the medicated room sprays a few minutes before I put her down.

[Issey]

I bought a vaporiser too. My bubs is only 3 1/2 months and the pharmasist said not to put in any vicks etc as it is too strong for under 2years, it is the steam that does the trick anyhow. You can use baby vicks on their clothes, chest though from 3 months. I put my vaporiser on all night from about 8pm to 7am then empty it and change the water and it says you have to use cleaning tablets so I put one in also for each use. Supposed to clean it with vinegar and water once a week. I only used mine for about 5 days then wiped out the inside to dry it. I have not done the vinegar and water thing as think it is just for corosion anyway. Will do it probably before I use it again. Hope this helps. If you still aren't sure ask the chemist where you bought it as mine is a different brand but expect the same thing.

[Faithcomesinnumbers]

liviamorris I have another vaporizer. But I have heard that you can use any vaorizing liquid in them. It's just the advertising guru's saying you can use one brand with their brand of vaporizer. At the moment we are using Vicks as it was on special but if you talk to your pharmasist there is other brands that could be cheaper. I clean my everytime only because the aim of using them is so that it gets rid of the bugs. I leave mine on all night and when she was little all day up high with the cord hidden so she couldn't pull it down on herself. But we also tried to store it in the lounge room when we are all sick. I use TAAV vaporizer cleaning tablets that are also available from the chemist. I hope this helps.

[nkenward]

I think there is a product called EukyBear. I use that in our vaporiser - ours is about 25 years old. Still works wonders.

Um....I don't think my Mum was that concerned about cleaning it out all the time - I was constantly using it. I think if you aim to empty the water out and air dry and fill with fresh water - I think that will be fine.

[akiposh]

I'm going to buy a vaporizer for my kids, as my 2.5 yo son always gets nose bleeding & nasal congestion. GP suggested that Vaporizer will be good for him etc ...I found that its not easy to find many brands in one chemist, but I do search from the internet and got few brands....... TAAV, Vicks, ??Bears...
I'd like to ask if anyone can give us suggestions which brand is good from your experience....?

[PhAnToM]

I'm going to buy a vaporizer for my kids, as my 2.5 yo son always gets nose bleeding & nasal congestion. GP suggested that Vaporizer will be good for him etc ...I found that its not easy to find many brands in one chemist, but I do search from the internet and got few brands....... TAAV, Vicks, ??Bears...
I'd like to ask if anyone can give us suggestions which brand is good from your experience....?

Hi.
I used to have TAAV for DDm but they seem to have a problem with their aut switch off mechanism. I had returned the 1st cos it never turned itself off when the water was finished. They gave me another and the same problem. It actually started to melt. A friend bought it as well and had the same prob. :thumbsdown:
No safety switch, no use! :no:

I then bought the Vicks vapouriser and loved it. It's much more effective, goes longer and the safety on them is great. Switches off when water level gets to a certain level. :thumbsup:

I went and bought a second one when I had DS. Now they have one each in their rooms and I only put in a little vicks into it and smell it throughout the house!

I recommend the Vicks!
Never heard about the bear.

[Oscar's mum]

I know this isn't completely relevent to the topic but I thought I would share this anyway.....

Last night Ozzy was getting rather sniffly so I put the vaporiser on the lounge room floor and was keeping an eye on him so he would stay away from it.

I then turned around to look for the remote control and when I turned back Ozzy had lifted up one side of the vaporiser unit up, I raced across the floor and scared the hell out of him so in the commotion he accidently tipped the whole vaporiser upside down. The unit hadn't even been on for 5 minutes so luckily the water wasn't hot yet, but what happened was the vaporiser eucalyptus has spilt on his hands which I didn't know so about 10 minutes after that Ozzy rubbed his eyes with his hands then started screaming hysterically.

His eyes went bright bright red and he refused to open them. We rung the Poison's Hotline and they told us to keep him under the shower for no less than 10 minutes and make the water run into his eyes then check on him in the middle of the night and if his eyes were still really red to go straight to the hospital.

Fortunately his eyes were good again, but that was really scary.

[PhAnToM]

Oh NO! :eek:

Oscar's mum.. I'm so sorry to hear about that.
You must have gone through hell! :(

That's kids.. what can you do? They manage to do all sorts of things in the blink of an eye.
I'm glad he recovered ok from it though.

[Smurfette]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

Oscars Mum - That is really awful. Fortunately the lid doesn't come up on ours, but it wouldn't matter anyway because if it was on long enough the steam could do some real damage. Off again on another topic. I was doing some cleaning at mils place the other day and Liv was on the floor in the bathroom with me playing with some toys, I looked away for a split second and she had tipped a glass vase over smashing it, lucky Iwas right there and could get her away from it. Could have been nasty.

[RaryGirl]

I had to purchase a new vapouriser a few weeks ago (cat ate through the cord of the old one) and I bought the Vicks one. It's fantastic - goes all night, the vapour fluid is inide with the water, so there is no chance of children sticking fingers in it (or me doing it for that matter) and the steam isn't pumped from it too strong - more of a vapour rather than the steam pouring out (IYKWIM).

The other positives are the night light - so no accidently knocking it over in the dark and it is also quiet - my old one sounded like I was boiling eggs all night!

I run it all night and empty it of a morning - rince it out and dry it. Every few uses I'll run the cleaning tablet through it.

[sugar n spice]

I bought a secondhand vicks one off ebay that had only been used a few times. Ibought it because my kids get croupe and i find it works, helped a bit last night with my oldest being sick with croupe. I didnt know you could get cleaning tablets for them i will have to look at them. I usually just rinse it after use and then rinse it before. I guess i should be doing more to it. I put abit of vicks into it and then turn it on. The vicks vapoursier would be reccomended by me i find it good , theres not hot steam coming out either. I do worry about leaving it on in the kids room all night, do you think its safe last night i came in later and turned it off and then turned it back on when he seemed to be coughing more. Only because im home alone without dh that im stressing more.

[Wivi]

I love my vicks vaporiser! My little one has a tendency to get nasty cold and chesty, we bought one and it made a world of difference. When I use it though, I do try to only use it at night because of the condensation. I didn't know about the cleaning tablets - will have to look into that!

I clean it out after each nightly use and do the vinegar thing once a week. The vinegar removes scum from the heating element.

Hope you find what you need and that it helps!