{"id":2829,"date":"2019-01-29T17:03:53","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T17:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/priorclavena.com\/?p=1248"},"modified":"2023-04-20T22:07:40","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T22:07:40","slug":"lab-autoclave-function-primer-intro-to-air-ballast-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.priorclave.com\/en-us\/2019\/01\/29\/lab-autoclave-function-primer-intro-to-air-ballast-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"Lab Autoclave Function Primer: Intro to Air Ballast Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

In general, autoclaving sealed flasks is a very, very bad practice<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span>But that isn’t to say it’s impossible<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/span>If you need to sterilize sealed containers, then you need to make sure you have a special autoclave function to do it safely: an “air ballast” system.<\/p>\n

What’s an “Air Ballast” Autoclave Function?<\/h2>\n

All steam autoclaves use heat and pressure to sterilize their contents.\u00a0 <\/span>If containers in the autoclave are open or loosely covered with foil<\/a>, then both the autoclave chamber and its contents cool and return to room temperature and pressure at roughly the same rate.<\/p>\n

But if the containers are sealed, it’s highly likely that the chamber will cool and depressurize much<\/i> more quickly than the load\u2014creating the potential for the sealed containers to explosively rupture.\u00a0 <\/span>An air ballast system uses compressed air to ease this transition.\u00a0 <\/span>As the chamber vents hot steam, the air ballast system floods it with cool pressurized air.\u00a0 <\/span>This fresh air cools the load while equalizing the pressure of the sealed flasks and chamber.\u00a0 <\/span>The cooled chamber and load are then permitted to gently return to ambient pressure.<\/p>\n

Other Benefits of an “Air Ballast” Autoclave Function<\/h2>\n

An air ballast is good for more than just explosion prevention\u2014especially if you run lots of liquid loads.\u00a0 <\/span>Although most standard lab autoclaves can prevent boil over (provided you follow good practices<\/a>), you still have to contend with a good deal of evaporation<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>An air ballast system minimizes evaporation and prevents boil over (unless you flagrantly flaunt The Rules<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"air

autoclaving and liquid loss<\/p><\/div>\n

An air ballast system also makes it significantly easer to process some delicate items (e.g., contact lenses, pouches of liquids or gels, etc.) without warping the containers during cooling.<\/p>\n

But not all air ballast systems are created equal.\u00a0 <\/span>You don’t want to take your sterile media load\u2014even one in sealed containers\u2014and immediately bathe it in a concentrated blast of a random sampling of all of the spores, volatile compounds, and other contaminants floating around your lab.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Priorclave air ballasts<\/a>\u00a0include a 0.2-micron filter, a pressure regulator, and oil and water traps, to help assure that you aren’t introducing a new and mysterious contamination source<\/a>\u00a0to your lab practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In general, autoclaving sealed flasks is a very, very bad practice.\u00a0 But that isn’t to say it’s impossible.\u00a0 If you need to sterilize sealed containers, then you need to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[376,377,324,365,74,68],"class_list":["post-2829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lab-autoclaves","tag-autoclave-functions","tag-autoclave-options","tag-autoclave-safety","tag-lab-best-practices","tag-lab-practices","tag-lab-safety"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLab Autoclave Function Primer: Intro to Air Ballast Systems<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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