incubator decontamination? - (Sep/07/2006 )

Our lab is having trouble with mold contamination, and we suspect it is coming from our incubators. Does anybody know of a company that specializes in taking apart and decontaminating CO2 incubators?
Thanks!

We had a similar problem Just 2 days back we have heat sterilized our Binder incubator.(180C). Hope it helps which we will get to know soon!

Dear Calvin,

Can I quickly ask about how easy it is to remove the CO2 Sensor prior to the high temperature decontamination ?
Also have you ever had damage to the sensor while removing it ?

We maybe purchasing a significant number of Incubators (> 40), and as you well know, fungal contamination can be a problem.

Thanks

Rhombus

Recently got a new binder incubator as well, and the sensor is like a plug that's pretty easy to remove.

To prevent fungal contamination, we put CuS04 + EDTA in our water pans.

When we had contamination, we wiped everything down with phenol-based wipes. We had to get approval to use them (because they can be hazardous if not used correctly), but it did the trick!

We had to autoclave all the shelves and dif. removable parts and then wiped the surface with a sol. called Bakdown. tthen wiped with water and then 70% ethanol.

Definitely removing and putting back sensor is simple but needs lot of concentration and accuracy. Because you need to exactly align the sensor in two orientations simultaneously. But should not be difficult if learnt once!