Question about autoclave wastes and serological pipette - (Apr/13/2011 )
I am helping my superisor to start up a cell culture lab. There are two questions
1) I saw some labs using glass serological pipette and they autoclaved the pipette everytime before use. Is that a good idea? Also, they put the pipette inside an stainless steel box during autoclave, but the salesmen told me to use autoclave bag instead. Which one would be better?
2) My superisor asked me whether it is necessary to use autoclave bag to handle the used disposable items(Like used culture dish). Can we just use a rubbish bin to collect disposable and discard all disposable into the autoclave without the autoclave bag?
Thanks a lot for the time and help. My superisor and I are new to this field.
c7h15cooh on Wed Apr 13 17:44:09 2011 said:
I am helping my superisor to start up a cell culture lab. There are two questions
1) I saw some labs using glass serological pipette and they autoclaved the pipette everytime before use. Is that a good idea? Also, they put the pipette inside an stainless steel box during autoclave, but the salesmen told me to use autoclave bag instead. Which one would be better?
2) My superisor asked me whether it is necessary to use autoclave bag to handle the used disposable items(Like used culture dish). Can we just use a rubbish bin to collect disposable and discard all disposable into the autoclave without the autoclave bag?
Thanks a lot for the time and help. My superisor and I are new to this field.
Question 2: you can trow everything in the autoclave without using a bag, but then the entire autoclave would be dirty and after autoclaving, it would be a filty job to empty the autoclave... If you use autoclave bags, you can simply take those outside the autoclave and trow them in a garbagebag.
Also: if you trew it in a rubbish bin, with no bag, the bin will become really dirty...
1: if you dont autoclave the pipette it wont be sterile...
About using an autoclave bag? Dunno.. we put pipette tips in aluminumfoil or in plastic (autoclavable) boxes.. Just put it in something that stays closed so your pipettes stay sterile after autoclaving.
Bags cost money, plastic box too, but you can keep using it.....
We only use autoclave bags to sterilize our dirt/waste...
1. We sterilise glass pipettes with dry heat...in a metal box (i.e. you can use it forever compared to a autoclave bag)
2. and a normal plastic rubbish bag will melt....
pito on Wed Apr 13 18:33:08 2011 said:
c7h15cooh on Wed Apr 13 17:44:09 2011 said:
I am helping my superisor to start up a cell culture lab. There are two questions
1) I saw some labs using glass serological pipette and they autoclaved the pipette everytime before use. Is that a good idea? Also, they put the pipette inside an stainless steel box during autoclave, but the salesmen told me to use autoclave bag instead. Which one would be better?
2) My superisor asked me whether it is necessary to use autoclave bag to handle the used disposable items(Like used culture dish). Can we just use a rubbish bin to collect disposable and discard all disposable into the autoclave without the autoclave bag?
Thanks a lot for the time and help. My superisor and I are new to this field.
Question 2: you can trow everything in the autoclave without using a bag, but then the entire autoclave would be dirty and after autoclaving, it would be a filty job to empty the autoclave... If you use autoclave bags, you can simply take those outside the autoclave and trow them in a garbagebag.
Also: if you trew it in a rubbish bin, with no bag, the bin will become really dirty...
1: if you dont autoclave the pipette it wont be sterile...
About using an autoclave bag? Dunno.. we put pipette tips in aluminumfoil or in plastic (autoclavable) boxes.. Just put it in something that stays closed so your pipettes stay sterile after autoclaving.
Bags cost money, plastic box too, but you can keep using it.....
We only use autoclave bags to sterilize our dirt/waste...
Thanks a lot for your reply.
For question 1, I forgot to mention that their pipette are reusable.
Some friends told me that this is not a good idea to use reusable pipette, but my supervisor want to use it to save money.
For question 2, same...my supervisor want to save money to buy other reagents...
hobglobin on Wed Apr 13 18:52:41 2011 said:
1. We sterilise glass pipettes with dry heat...in a metal box (i.e. you can use it forever compared to a autoclave bag)
2. and a normal plastic rubbish bag will melt....
Thanks for your reply.
What the salesmen told me was that putting the glass pipettes inside the metal box would slow down the steam from entering the pipettes and caused an incomplete sterilization result. He said using an autoclave bag would be better.But I saw some labs using box and got no problems.
we buy sterile serological pipette and then decontaminate in 1% virkon overnight before autoclaving in plastic boxes that we throw away
All other waste gets collected by a specialist company
c7h15cooh on Thu Apr 14 01:42:38 2011 said:
hobglobin on Wed Apr 13 18:52:41 2011 said:
1. We sterilise glass pipettes with dry heat...in a metal box (i.e. you can use it forever compared to a autoclave bag)
2. and a normal plastic rubbish bag will melt....
Thanks for your reply.
What the salesmen told me was that putting the glass pipettes inside the metal box would slow down the steam from entering the pipettes and caused an incomplete sterilization result. He said using an autoclave bag would be better.But I saw some labs using box and got no problems.
About the serological pipettes: most often we trow them away too.. but sometimes whe just reuse it.. It depends for what we use them in order to re-use them.
And yes, the reusable ones, you can reuse them.. but it depends for what you need them.
(just to play safe or not)
What do you mean using a box? They use a box to autoclave ? (to put the waste in and then autoclave?)
About saving money with the autoclave bags: yes and no, maybe you save money not buying those bags, but if you dont buy/use them, you will spend more time on cleaning the autoclave.. And time costs money too in the end...
pito on Thu Apr 14 08:51:16 2011 said:
c7h15cooh on Thu Apr 14 01:42:38 2011 said:
hobglobin on Wed Apr 13 18:52:41 2011 said:
1. We sterilise glass pipettes with dry heat...in a metal box (i.e. you can use it forever compared to a autoclave bag)
2. and a normal plastic rubbish bag will melt....
Thanks for your reply.
What the salesmen told me was that putting the glass pipettes inside the metal box would slow down the steam from entering the pipettes and caused an incomplete sterilization result. He said using an autoclave bag would be better.But I saw some labs using box and got no problems.
About the serological pipettes: most often we trow them away too.. but sometimes whe just reuse it.. It depends for what we use them in order to re-use them.
And yes, the reusable ones, you can reuse them.. but it depends for what you need them.
(just to play safe or not)
What do you mean using a box? They use a box to autoclave ? (to put the waste in and then autoclave?)
About saving money with the autoclave bags: yes and no, maybe you save money not buying those bags, but if you dont buy/use them, you will spend more time on cleaning the autoclave.. And time costs money too in the end...
Thanks, what I mean is putting the serological pipettes (not the waste) in the box.
c7h15cooh on Fri Apr 15 09:11:07 2011 said:
pito on Thu Apr 14 08:51:16 2011 said:
c7h15cooh on Thu Apr 14 01:42:38 2011 said:
hobglobin on Wed Apr 13 18:52:41 2011 said:
1. We sterilise glass pipettes with dry heat...in a metal box (i.e. you can use it forever compared to a autoclave bag)
2. and a normal plastic rubbish bag will melt....
Thanks for your reply.
What the salesmen told me was that putting the glass pipettes inside the metal box would slow down the steam from entering the pipettes and caused an incomplete sterilization result. He said using an autoclave bag would be better.But I saw some labs using box and got no problems.
About the serological pipettes: most often we trow them away too.. but sometimes whe just reuse it.. It depends for what we use them in order to re-use them.
And yes, the reusable ones, you can reuse them.. but it depends for what you need them.
(just to play safe or not)
What do you mean using a box? They use a box to autoclave ? (to put the waste in and then autoclave?)
About saving money with the autoclave bags: yes and no, maybe you save money not buying those bags, but if you dont buy/use them, you will spend more time on cleaning the autoclave.. And time costs money too in the end...
Thanks, what I mean is putting the serological pipettes (not the waste) in the box.
You mean you want to autoclave the pipettes in a box? Yes you can do that.
Its like a box in wich you put pipettetips.. Or use a metal box as hobglobin allready stated
in the good old days, we used to use glass pipettes that we unplugged the cotton, washed, dried, replugged, placed in a metal box and autoclaved with dry cycle.
we were working with cyanobacteria (back then we called them blue-green algae). the generation time was considerably longer than for e. coli and we rarely contaminated our cultures (when we did it was most likely caused by something other than the pipettes).
a common misconception about autoclaving is that the steam has to touch the object or medium to sterilize it. heat is the sterilizing factor. steam provides thermal mass to carry the heat better than air does with dry heat allowing for better penetration.
in other words, the salesman didn't know about that which he spoke or he did and was trying to sell you disposable pipettes.