Blaise Midnight, Biomedical Engineer with Zoetek Medical, talks about daily operation of a Tuttnauer 2540M Sterilizer.
Today, I am going to talk about the operation of a Tuttnauer 2540M sterilizer. “M” means it is a manual sterilizer, which means you have to manually operate the valves. 2540A would be automatic. However, today we’re doing the M.
Check Distilled Water
The very first thing you need to check on in this sterilizer is to make sure that you have plenty of distilled water in the reservoir. It can only have distilled water. Never use tap water or any other kind of water.
Water Level
The cover has a min and max line that will indicate your operating water level. The water level should be in that area. It is difficult to see the water level because the water doesn’t leave an obvious mark. So, look inside the reservoir because you’ll see that, just a couple of inches from the top, there’s a cylindrical valve that looks like it has a key chain ring on it. That is the safety valve. When you put water in the reservoir, you want the water to be to the bottom side of that valve. The valve sits sideways. That would be a normal full water level so you can put the cover back on.
Load Chamber
First, turn on the power. Then, load the chamber with whatever it is you want to sterilize. If you unscrew the handle and rotate it to the side then the door will open. Inside you’ll see the trays. New ones come with a little tray holder that allows you to remove trays when they’re hot. If you don’t have a new model then you could use an oven mitt. Just be aware that those tend to be very warm. At that point you would put whatever it is you want to sterilize on the tray. However when you put stuff in don’t pack them tightly. Tightly packed items don’t sterilize well because you want the steam to be able to surround and get to all sides of whatever it is that you’re sterilizing so you can get good sterilization. Make sure you don’t pack it full or stack them on top of each other too tightly.
Rotate Knob to “Fill Water”
After the previous steps are completed, go to the very bottom knob, which is the function valve and switch. It only turns in a clockwise direction. When you first start out it should be at a 12:00 straight up position. Rotate it 90 degrees clockwise to the fill water selection. At that point, water from a reservoir will start to run down through the internal valves and piping and into the chamber. You have to stick around for a minute and watch for the water to fill because, as it fills, it will start to come up the bottom of the chamber.
Rotate Knob to “Sterilize”
Right inside you’ll see an indentation that’s two and a half or three inches long. When the water creeps up and gets into that level, you will want to rotate your function knob one more notch clockwise to sterilize. At this point, the water will stop running into your chamber. If you leave it in the fill position and you walk away or aren’t paying attention, then all your water from the reservoir will run through your chamber and out onto the floor. Always make sure you stand by as you don’t want to flood the area.
Close & Latch Door
Once you’re in the sterilized position and you’ve already loaded whatever it is you want to sterilize, close the door, rotate the handle back into the forward position, and then snug it. You don’t need to crank it down super hard. If it’s got a good door gasket on it, just a snug turn is all you need on it.
Set Temperature
You then want to decide what temperature you want to sterilize your instruments and you would have to reference whatever your policy is for your facility. Typically, you’d be between 250 and 270 Fahrenheit or 121 and 132 Celsius. You can turn the second knob from the bottom, this is your temperature knob, to the point where you want it to be. Let’s say you want to go 250, so a straight up 12:00 position, that would be the temperature that you’d sterilize. If you wanted to go up, then you turn it clockwise when you want a higher temperature. Also, you would have to resort to whatever it is your facility uses for the time for the sterilization.
Set Timer
Now that you have your temperature you will move onto the timer. The top knob is the timer and you can turn it to whatever time you want, say 20-30 minutes. Once you have set your temperature and timer the heater will start to heat up whatever it is that you have in there to be sterilized.
Reset Temperature
Our gauge here will start to increase. There’s a little knob in the center of the gauge. If you turn it counterclockwise until the red pointer is on top of the white pointer then as the white pointer goes up with the temperature it pushes the red pointer with it. When you’re done and the temperature drops the white pointer will drop back down but the red pointer will stay at your maximum temperature. However you do always need to reset it back down to zero if you want to use that function. Now let it run. After the set time, it’ll come down to zero and you’ll hear a ding.
Rotate Knob to “Exhaust Dry”
Go back to the function valve at the bottom and turn it one more quarter of a turn in the clockwise direction to the exhaust dry position. At that position you’ll hear the steam, pressure, and residual water that’s in the chamber pushing back up into the reservoir. It’ll give you a little bit of a rumble which is normal.
Close & Latch Door
Once the pressure on your gait gets down to zero you can open your door by turning it in the counterclockwise direction, unscrewing it, and tipping it to the side. Always be aware that there may be a little bit of residual steam coming off the top of it. To make sure you don’t get burned keep your arms or hands away from the top.
To Dry, Set Timer
If you want to dry the items that have been sterilized then you leave the knob in the same position and reset your timer for ten minutes if you want ten minutes of dry cycle. However, if you don’t want a dry cycle then you can just skip this whole step.
Rotate Knob to “0” Position
When you’re all finished, whether you wanted a dry cycle or not, turn the knob one more quarter of a turn clockwise to the 12 O’clock position marked “0” that turns the power off. This will shut off the heat to your sterilizer.
Open Door & Remove Items
After the following steps are done you can open the door and remove your instruments. You can just leave the knob in the same position.
If Finished, Turn off Power
If you’re not going to use the unit for some time then can flip the power switch off. However, if you think it’s going to be used again shortly then you can leave it on and just repeat the whole function.
Thank you for watching Zoetek Medical Tek Tips. Keep an eye open for more tech tips and feel free to contact us at any time if you have any questions about anything we’ve covered or anything else that we can help with. I’m Blaise Midnight for Zoetek Medical.