Shopping Product Reviews

Should you buy a cylindrical or rectangular chamber autoclave?

When you start shopping for autoclaves, you don’t realize how many options you’ll find. Internal or external water tank? Top loader or front loader? Floor or countertop model? Manual or programmable controls? And so on … By the time you start looking at the shape of the camera, you are ready to sign on any dotted line in order to finish. But there are significant differences between a cylindrical or rectangular chamber that you really need to know before buying an autoclave.

The pros and cons of a cylindrical camera

When pressurized steam begins to fill the chamber, it naturally expands and tries to make the chamber round. Therefore, a chamber that is already round will not have to be as strong to withstand the pressure. A cylindrical chamber can be made of thinner steel, which means it weighs the waste and costs less to produce. And because the steel is thinner, there is also less metal to heat, which means it costs less to operate.

A cylindrical chamber, on a front-loading model, also provides better vapor circulation around your instruments. Their sterilization trays are typically square or rectangular and when you place them inside the circular chamber there is plenty of extra room for steam to move, ensuring more reliable sterilization.

The disadvantage of a cylindrical autoclave chamber is that it has less usable space than a rectangular chamber autoclave.

The pros and cons of a rectangular camera

The main advantage of a rectangular chamber autoclave is that they typically have a much higher load capacity than similarly sized models with a cylindrical chamber. There is also less wasted space because again the trays are square or rectangular and so is the chamber so you have a closer fit within the chamber.

On the downside, we talked earlier about the pressure of the vapor inside the chamber. To avoid that rounding effect inside a rectangular chamber, it is made from thicker metal and generally requires additional reinforcement to maintain its shape. This means that it is a bit more expensive to produce and is a heavier machine. It also takes a little longer to heat up, which means it’s more expensive to run.

And finally, because steam circulation is not as good as in a cylindrical chamber, you and your staff will need to be much more careful when loading an autoclave with a rectangular chamber. While they generally carry larger loads, you need to be careful how you organize those loads.

Your compensations? When you buy a cylindrical chamber autoclave, it will cost less, be lighter, and cycle faster because it heats up faster. A rectangular chamber will have a higher capacity with less wasted space and will be heavier and more expensive.

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