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2022

Autoclave Maintenance and Accessory Products: What Are They For?

Autoclave Maintenance and Accessory Products: What Are They For?

Autoclaves are sophisticated pieces of equipment, and how they work is reasonably straightforward. They seal and use heat, water, and steam for a prescribed period of time to sterilize the instruments or materials that you place inside them. 

Maintenance on autoclaves is necessary, but much of it has to be left to professionals. There are a few tasks that owners can do themselves, and a few items that the autoclave owner might order and use him or herself. 

Doing: 

You should probably run a weekly biological indicator test to make sure sterilization is working. 

You should clean your chamber weekly with something nonabrasive. 

Run some distilled water through the mechanism, so there is never standing water for long. 

Check the locking mechanism by attempting to start a cycle with the door open. Nothing should happen except an alarm. The autoclave should not start unless the door is closed and locked. 

Ordering: 

Chamber Brite is a product that cleans and descales the interior of the autoclave. Even though the temperature and pressure and steam sterilize the materials inside an autoclave, there is still sometimes some organic residue left inside the autoclave after a cycle. Chamber Brite keeps the interior sparkling clean. 

There is the Steam Plus Integrator Pack which is something that is placed inside the autoclave and tests that all the sterilization conditions have been met during a cycle. 

Printer paper needs to be refilled and replaced regularly. Some autoclave models print out the cycles that are running to give you a paper record of the sterilization performed. This is important for record-keeping purposes. 

Autoclaves always run on distilled water. So, a distiller is usually installed inline between the water source and the autoclave. Sometimes distillers need to be replaced or serviced. 

Sterilization monitoring is always important, and there are several ways to do this including using integrated devices mentioned above. There are also various other indicators available to make sure that your autoclave is working the way it is intended.

Maintenance on a autoclave is best left to professionals because the job that autoclaves do is critical, and working with heat and steam is not a DIY job. If you need help with autoclave maintenance, this is our business and area of expertise. Give us a call in western Canada at (888) 818-4847.

Alpha Scientific supplies, installs, and services medical equipment in western Canada. If you have any questions about this article or would like to talk to us about medical equipment, please call our toll-free number, (888) 818-4847, or email us at sales@alphascientific.ca.