I have been doing slow nocturnal dialysis at home for a few years. When we 1st started we were told to acid clean and heat disinfect everyday and twice a week do a chemical rinse.
Just this year they have changed the policy to doing a Minn-Care Clean on the dialysis machine once a month. I wonder about this as for the 3 years we didn't have this policy I never had a water culture come back bad. Is it really important to clean the machine with Minn-Care? Or is this just being done to clean the water feed line to the machine. If it's just to clean the water feed line wouldn't it be just as good to change the line.

You did not mention what type of equipment you are using so I can not say one way or the other. However, most places I have serviced use whatever disinfectant they use for the RO and loop (not the hi/low pH cleaner, the actual disinfectant) to also disinfect the inlet water line of the machine. So far I have seen bleach used (not on membranes but for loop and machine inlet line) and the Minncare cold sterilant you mentioned. Some have the luxury of having an RO that heat disinfects the loop everynight and on selected nights the machine will draw up that hot water, therefore eliminating the chemical disinfection. I would consult with your users guide of your book to be sure it's okay to use it on your equipment and if you have any questions contact the manufacturer.

P.S. Not recommended to change your inlet water line. Theoretically you could actually put more bacteria into the machine. Plus, according to most policies, breaking the integrity of the hydraulic circuit is grounds for disinfecting it. So basically you'd be negating your purpose for changing it.

Thanks for your reply. Am useing a Fresenius 2008H dialysis machine and a Marcor Semper Pure RO

No problem.