New autoclave help please!

Re: New autoclave help please!

Janice sealer — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:20:24 GMT

In my short experience, I have only come accross prestige medical machines.

Re: New autoclave help please!

chris beasley — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:08:22 GMT

Sorry for the misunderstanding last time - But for hindsight, If only we had test run it! Never dreamed it would be ness.

Re: New autoclave help please!

Nick Shackleton — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:14:33 GMT

THink we had the same sort of problems as Fi. They ended up changing a circuit board or something. Anyways touch wood it seems to be behaving. And still noisy, but its got a vaccume in it so its gonna be a noisy. but no where near our kennels.........

Re: New autoclave help please!

Fiona Leathers — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 12:11:00 GMT

We had all sorts of problems with our too - mainly vacuum failures, we were changing seals about one a month but since shouting at the Burtons' man it seems to be fixed. They sent out a proper engineer & the head of sales - they gave us a few new seals to keep us happy and we haven't had to change a seal since.

Unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to test drive it before we bought it, otherwise we wouldn't have bought it.

Ask the different companies if you can trial it first......if they are happy with their machines they probably wouldn't have a problem with that

Re: New autoclave help please!

chris beasley — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:06:48 GMT

[quote user="Bouncyfi"]

[quote user="eghamcb"]

Sorry have to diagree with this one- We have this machine. It is so noisy!!! Scares half our inpats to death!

[/quote]

Sorry???? Which part are you disagreeing with??? All I said was that we have a Burtons one, which had problems but is fine now.......didn't say it was quiet..........or are you disagreeing with the the fact you need a vacuum autoclave???

[/quote]

No - I agree we all need vacuum machines. But in a thread I started a while ago, you will see Ive had a lot of problems with this machine.

Re: New autoclave help please!

Fiona Leathers — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 10:35:53 GMT

[quote user="eghamcb"]

Sorry have to diagree with this one- We have this machine. It is so noisy!!! Scares half our inpats to death!

[/quote]

Re: New autoclave help please!

Sally Howe — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:41:49 GMT

Little sister is the best I've used with the least problems over the many moons I've been nursing.

Re: New autoclave help please!

chris beasley — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:21:45 GMT

[quote user="Bouncyfi"]

We have the Burtons Instaclave vacuum autoclave, had a few problems with it, but it seems to be fine now (after shouting at the Burtons man) If you can afford it I would go for vacuum, as it will give you a better choice of autoclaving!

[/quote][quote user="Bouncyfi"]

[/quote]

Sorry have to diagree with this one- We have this machine. It is so noisy!!! Scares half our inpats to death!

Re: New autoclave help please!

Sarah Cahill — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:12:38 GMT

We have this one, really easy to work and has different cycles for different things - it uses a lot of distilled water though so we also bought a water distiller - find it more economical than buying it in - only problem we had with it was that it was on a non-flat surface so kind of blew up once!! But it's all fixed now and is really good!

http://www.prestigemedical.co.uk/?action=products&type=c3advance

Re: New autoclave help please!

Nick Shackleton — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:06:42 GMT

I agree wiv Fi

Re: New autoclave help please!

Fiona Leathers — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:05:56 GMT

Re: New autoclave help please!

Sal the 1st — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:28:07 GMT

can rec other models as well - but have kept mine strictly to bench top. The one you have been looking at does give you the option of a print out and you do have a choice of cycles.

Re: New autoclave help please!

sisterscope1 — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:50:06 GMT

Hi! Just some thoughts on your situation

What do you need to sterilise. Unwrapped instruments, pouches, wrapped sets, containers etc,. You mention pouches - strictly speaking you would need a vacuum cycle with drying, if your pouches come out wet or with condensate inside then they're not sterile and cannot be stored. Do you use re-usable drapes and sterilise packets of swabs? If yes, you need a vacuum cycle or a machine which can have its cycles manipulated to extend the sterilisation hold time.

How many times per day do you need to sterilise and can the instruments be turned around quickly enough? - cycle times can be quite long in bench top machines - you also need to allow time to cool down to room temperature.

Go for a machine which has a seperate clean water reservoir and condensate tank - avoids clean and dirty water mixing.

What 'in cycle' parameters does it monitor? Temp, pressure, times - does it give you a print out to verify and record your cycles?

What's your budget?

What service contracts can you obtain for your machine? In case of breakdown, how long will it take someone to come out to fix it? If you need a spare part, will it take 3 months to arrive from China? These are questions you need to ask - always go for a deal if you can, everyone is very competitive - especially at the moment.

We have a Little Sister as a back up to our large autoclave - we use it very rarely, very slow but it does seem quite reliable, although you can't really fit much in it!

I can highly recommend some autoclaves to look at, but not what you would consider "bench top".

Re: New autoclave help please!

Sal the 1st — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:31:13 GMT

http://melag.de/englisch/autoklaven/melatronic/index.html

have used this one and would say it would probably be adequate for your needs - didnt really encounter too many problems. You do need to keep the filters clear and I used to do ours every 2 weeks.

Make sure you get the right cycle for what you are sterilising as it can 'overcook' some of your delicates.

Dont entertain the earlier non digital model was big trouble and used to overheat also had no interlock and was possible to start undoing the door with pressure still in the chamber - so an obvious H+S concern. Bit industrial looking - but looks aint everything.

Prestige model - came across a few of these when locumming - not something I would choose as there seemed to be quite a few of them either waiting for repair or just been repaired.

If you come across a second hand 'Little Sister 2' - one of the best autoclaves I can think of inspite of their age!