The Importance of Preventative Maintenance

When it comes to the ownership of your autoclave, every step taken is vital to ensuring its longevity. Whether it’s handling it, proper operation during your work days, or maintaining it. Handling and operation come easy, it’s all part of the routine since you’re running it daily. But maintenance is another story entirely. Despite being one of the most important steps in owning an autoclave, it’s put to the wayside more often than not. And that’s something that you can’t just neglect. Otherwise you’ll have a world of issues on your hands that aren’t cheap to fix. Trust us, we know, and we’ve seen it all.

Here at Sterilizer Autoclave Solutions, we pride ourselves on offering many different services to anybody, customer or not. And one of those services is the free information we provide through our various content streams. Whether it’s videos on our YouTube channel or blogs like this one on our website. All of them exist to be a resource at your fingertips to give you the proper information on all things autoclaves. And this post is no different. In this article, we’d like to go over something that we always to our best to enforce the importance of in everything we do; preventative maintenance.

Preventative maintenance is a vital part of autoclave ownership. No matter how well you handle it, no matter how well you operate it, if you do not maintain your autoclave, it is doomed to fail. There are many problems with a lack of maintenance, and we’d like to share all of that and more right now and help you understand the importance of preventative maintenance.

What is Preventative Maintenance?

This is actually a really easy question to answer, it’s in the name. But let’s talk about it a bit more. Preventative maintenance is, as the name implies, maintenance that helps ensure the prevention of a potential problem. When it comes to autoclaves, this maintenance usually falls into periodical maintenance. So there’ll be intervals of time where the manufacturer recommends that you perform specific maintenance that can help prevent future issues. For example, take a look at one of our Preventative Maintenance Checklists below.

This is the checklist for the Tuttnauer T-Top 10 sterilizer. Notice how the maintenance is split into various intervals that span the course of a year. Daily, weekly, monthly, etc. These instructions come directly from the manuals written and printed by the manufacturer that are packaged with each unit. Each step was crafted to help cater to a future potential problem. Look at daily maintenance; replacing the old water and cleaning the chamber. Simple, right? Even though it sounds simple, it’s still vitally important to ensure you get it done.

What would happen if you forgot to change the water after each day? Well for starters, the huge issue of treating your instruments with old, potentially dirty water. Or how about not cleaning out the reservoir and attracting mold into the unit? Despite what you think, moldy autoclaves are not what most health organizations would call “standard.”

Or if you forgot to clean the chamber. “So what, I forgot to wipe it down with a cloth, I’ll get it tomorrow.” Famous last words. How much bacteria do you think a medical or dental sterilizer should have? Short answer: none. If it was supposed to have bacteria, it wouldn’t be called a “sterilizer” now would it? Think about the potential problems we listed here, and what could arise if none of this got done. And that’s just DAILY maintenance. Imagine the trials and tribulations you’d have to go through if there were certain important parts you forgot to replace. Things that needed to be cleaned. Although that’s just scratching the surface. 

The Importance of Preventative Maintenance

Upkeep on your autoclave is so very important. Not only will it keep it working and up to standard, but these aren’t cheap throwaway machines. Autoclaves for any practice, big or small, are an investment. Meaning this isn’t something you window shop for like you’re browsing the Walmart aisle. Your practice has very specific needs that vary down to the most specific of factors. If anything goes wrong, then you’ll have such a headache trying to figure out where you went wrong and you’ll start regretting every buying it. So to save you the headache of a potential problem, let’s go over some of the reasons why preventative maintenance can save you and your practice.

Optimal Performance and Functionality

With any autoclave, maintenance is important to ensure that it’s always performing at peak efficiency. It not only helps maintain the efficacy of sterilization cycles, but also keeps your instruments properly sterilized. If the instruments lack proper sterilization, any loose bacteria left on them can put patients at a higher risk of infection and potentially disease. Single-use instruments and tools are one thing. But you always want to make sure your reusable instruments are always properly sterile.

Extending the Lifespan of Your Autoclave

We mentioned before that autoclaves can be a hefty investment. So it’d be in your best interest to ensure that you make that investment last as long as you can. And preventative maintenance can help you do just that. By properly maintaining your autoclave on time, you ensure that the necessary parts are replaced when they need to be. Reducing wear, tear and risk of breakdowns on the autoclave and expanding its lifespan for a successful future of hard work.

Enhancing Workplace Safety

This one may sound a bit odd at first glance, but hear us out. Not too long ago, we wrote an article on the dangers of autoclaves that you can find here on our site. We found cases of workplace injury and even fatal incidents from all over the world. These incidents, unfortunate as they were, were almost all caused by lack of maintenance and cutting corners. An explosion from a faulty door lock, a near decapitation from a chunk of steel lobbed off from the door at fatal speeds. 

All were preventable by paying attention to the signs of systematic failure, but because the proper time and resources weren’t used, it came to a fatal conclusion. Maintaining your autoclave can not only save headaches, but also lives. 

Meeting the Industry Standards

Sterilization standards are constantly being set and updated by various health organizations based on findings throughout the world. And these standards are in no way lax. These standards are meant to be followed to the letter to prevent those numbers from getting any bigger. If your autoclave isn’t well maintained, the efficacy of your sterilization drops, and your unit will fail to meet these standards. And a unit that can’t meet the standards can bring about problems to your entire practice. 

Giving Peace of Mind

This one is simple, a happy autoclave equates to a happy life. We just went over so many potential issues and cases where a lack of maintenance resulted in much more than you’d bargain for. So save yourself the headache, and open up a new world of peace and mind with preventative maintenance. Keep everything up to date and do it right, and you’ll be stress-free, we guarantee. 

But preventative maintenance… it sounds daunting, all of these parts to keep track of, counting the days or even weeks until the next step, having to remember it all. You may be thinking “is that something I can handle on my own?” Well look no further, because here at Sterilizer Autoclave Solutions, we can do the hard work for you.

Our Free Preventative Maintenance Program

Whether you’re a returning customer or new to our website, our Free Autoclave Technical Support and Free Preventative Maintenance Program is for anyone and everyone. Our job is to make sure that when it comes to buying and subsequently taking care of your new autoclave, you have all the help you need at no extra cost. When you call our support number, we’re ready to help you anywhere and anytime. We can answer any questions you have about your autoclave or any parts you might need. And we can even help you install, troubleshoot and repair your autoclave. And when you sign up for our free maintenance program online or on the phone,  we contact you back within one business day to set up your maintenance schedule.

We start by taking inventory of your autoclaves on the initial call. After that’s determined, we’ll help you set a schedule of your own and figure out when you want to start the program. And then once the schedule has been determined, we’ll call you and remind you what autoclave maintenance and parts are due when they’re due. Even after everything is set up, and your parts have shipped for free, our services don’t end there. Once your new parts or machine arrive, you can call our support number or use one of our many articles and/or videos in our website library. So whether or not you feel like picking up the phone, we’re with you every step of the way.

Final Thoughts

Preventative maintenance on an autoclave is paramount in ensuring its optimal performance and longevity. Routine maintenance not only extends the lifespan of the equipment but also prevents costly breakdowns and potential safety hazards. On the other hand, neglecting to perform proper maintenance can lead to a myriad of problems such as reduced efficiency, increased downtime, and even complete equipment failure. Ultimately, investing time and resources in preventative maintenance for an autoclave is a wise decision that can save owners from disruptive and costly issues down the line.

And while it may seem daunting to remember it all, SAS has your back. With our Free Preventative Maintenance program, we’ll take the hardships and guesswork out of the equation. With our various services and help lines available at the click of a button to anyone at anytime, absolutely free. If you have any questions about preventative maintenance or anything else, give us a call at 704-966-1650 Option 3 for our Free Tech Support line. You can also find our other services using the links below.

As always if you have any questions about this process or anything else please feel free to contact us and take advantage of our “FREE TECH SUPPORT.”

We also offer FREE VIRTUAL TECH SUPPORT to “See and Talk” with a “Real Time Live Technician” for any problems you may be in need of help with.

You can also use our “FREE MAINTENANCE PROGRAM”. Take the guesswork and worrying about what unit is due for maintenance and which maintenance cycle it is time for. We will keep track of all your autoclaves and let you know when it’s time for anything.