Glass bead sterilizer

pinhead

Sprout
Thats what I have.
Been using it for a couple of years without any problem.

I still dip the tools in alcohol when I remove it from the sterilizer. Alcohol evaporates immediately because the tools can become quite hot.

That is still safer than flaming the alcohol off in an open flame.
 

Viridis

Seedling
Stupid question—Where are you putting the cord? Are you drilling a hole in the side of the hood, passing it through then sealing it? Or is it just coming back out the front where you're sitting?

I've been considering getting one for a while (I may have lit my workspace on fire once or twice).
 

pinhead

Sprout
I have the sterilzer sitting outside of my laminar flow hood. The tools are hot enough that when you take them out of the sterilizer the convection currents shouldn't allow any spores land on the tools. I tried to put the sterilzer in the hood with the cord coming out the front, but I don't think it makes a difference.

I took a few Microbiology courses in university and we didn't worry about contaminating the inoculation loops after we flamed them.
 

Lloyd Gordon

Cactus micrografter newbie.
Staff member
Based on the above, I'll try it just outside and then inside if I have a problem. 300°C should be good for a few seconds and cm's.
 

DennisZ

Carnivore
I have the sterilzer sitting outside of my laminar flow hood. The tools are hot enough that when you take them out of the sterilizer the convection currents shouldn't allow any spores land on the tools. I tried to put the sterilzer in the hood with the cord coming out the front, but I don't think it makes a difference.

I took a few Microbiology courses in university and we didn't worry about contaminating the inoculation loops after we flamed them.
Thanks for the info! It's good to know since my LFH (wonderfully crafted by Willy) gets a bit tight on space with the sterilizer in.
 

Lloyd Gordon

Cactus micrografter newbie.
Staff member
I use my sterilizer inside the hood at the front edge, the cord just loops around. So far my contamination rate has gone way down (knock on wood). I highly recommend glass bead sterilizers. I set it to 300°C. The handle is not hot to hold. I stick the forceps into the agar to cool it (the agar hisses as it boils for a second).
 

WillyCKH

CPSC Moderator
Staff member
It works for me too! I just wish the sterilizer is deeper so I can use it for longer tools.
 

John Yates

Carnivorous Plant Addict
just a thing to think about with the bead heaters and rapid heaters and alike ,they get hot very quickly , with over heat your stainless steel tools ,that you should be using ,cause them to flake off bits of metal,that ping off as cooling quickly in the flow-hood, that do contaminate the media easily ,my suggestion from experience is no to over heat your tools to red hot its not needed ! , and your tools will last longer too , too much over heating weakens them and make the porous getting contamination much easier , just heat quickly and put out on a tool rest to cool in the flow hood ,i use 4 to 5 sets of tools using flame from a alcohol burner and a small LPG gas bottle with a medium burner , spry the tool with your sterilization mix first then heat then let them or it dry then heat and cool , i found this has the lest amount of contamination left on your tools , autoclaving first is always best , but very time consuming and expensive , using the sterilization spry let dry and then heating then cool off has been working well so far , of cause auto-claving then heat sterilization after short usage is quite as good ,some use auto claved tools several times in one session, then put away to autoclave not reheating for me this is open to easy contamination ,its seems this is the older way to do it and from my seeing this had no real differences in the reheating tools meothod ,may be others have had different experiences ? just my observations :)
 
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