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sterilizing with flow hood

Raped Ape

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Get Shredded!
Is it possible to sterilize your stoppers and vials in your flow hood with the correct uv light? I would do this after an alcohol bath
 
The answer is a firm “maybe”. You need to ensure that your UV bulb is producing sufficient output at the correct wavelength, and like fluorescent bulbs, they get weaker with age. The UV won’t pass through objects to sterilize anything in shadow, so you need to make sure you expose each surface for long enough (at least 10 minutes). It won’t be able to get into cuts, cracks, or pinholes in your stoppers. It also won’t necessarily pass through glass vials without losing some intensity. Additionally, if your hood glass isn’t UV coated, you’ll get a sunburn if you’re standing in front of it.

In general, I don’t recommend this approach. In the lab, we treat UV as an insurance policy, not a primary sterilization method.
 
This question got me thinking about ozone. The smell of ozone from my UV bulbs makes me wonder if you had a small enclosure or even a jar in which you plumbed the output of a small ozone generator into, could you "sterilize" stuff that way?

Of course, just buying one of those All American sterilizers for $500 or so would eliminate the need for any of these work around methods for getting stuff clean.
 
Don’t be giving these guys ideas, Cabo. Next thing you know they’ll be asking if they can spray their shit with Febreeze to sterilize it ;)
 
Honestly, I still don't understand not just buying a quality pressure cooker to sterilize stuff? If it works for agar it sure as hell would be good enough for gear making.
Trying everything BUT using proven methods seems the norm around here.
 
I think if I was going to get into this shit (which I ain’t), my home setup would be a pressure cooker and a homemade BSC. I think it would be pretty easy to put together a nice BSC with acrylic sheets, a vacuum, and a HEPA filter. Probably cost less than $100 to build it.
 
Don’t be giving these guys ideas, Cabo. Next thing you know they’ll be asking if they can spray their shit with Febreeze to sterilize it ;)

Wait a second here.... So you are telling me I can't use febreeze or lysol to sterilize my vials?? :thinking:


And just to clarify. I don't make gear and would never do that. I have worked in labs for years for other purposes. I could totally see someone asking if that would be acceptable though :)
 
To help the OP:

You can buy depyrogenated vial off the Internet. I started buying them and sold my larger autoclave. They cost more and come in reams of 179 but you can't beat a double bagged, presterilized product.
I recently ordered pre-washed RFS vials from the same place and they came in the double bagged autoclaveable tray. Now I'm kicking myself in the ass for selling my big autoclave. The vials are half the price of the depyrogenated ones.

For the stoppers, I would suggest after washing and thoroughly drying the stoppers, you just put them in a jar of BA until they get put in the vials after filling.
I still do this to my autoclaved stoppers because they slip into the vials easier. If a drop or two of BA is stuck to the stopper it might throw off your BA content a bit.
Last lab that tested my stuff said the alcohol was "too high". But they don't like 2% anyway (and I do.)
 
To help the OP:

You can buy depyrogenated vial off the Internet. I started buying them and sold my larger autoclave. They cost more and come in reams of 179 but you can't beat a double bagged, presterilized product.
I recently ordered pre-washed RFS vials from the same place and they came in the double bagged autoclaveable tray. Now I'm kicking myself in the ass for selling my big autoclave. The vials are half the price of the depyrogenated ones.

For the stoppers, I would suggest after washing and thoroughly drying the stoppers, you just put them in a jar of BA until they get put in the vials after filling.
I still do this to my autoclaved stoppers because they slip into the vials easier. If a drop or two of BA is stuck to the stopper it might throw off your BA content a bit.
Last lab that tested my stuff said the alcohol was "too high". But they don't like 2% anyway (and I do.)

They thought 2% BA was too high?....huh.
 
Yes. Sort of odd, right? I know some guys like 1-1.5% but at 2% the safety factor is good and I notice zero pip or any other negatives.
 
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