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Letter 27053
Cleaning stainless steam sterilizers
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I am working at a hospital and have been asked to clean the inside
of a steam sterilizer (stainless steel) and have tried some acids,
soaps and bleach, etc. Nothing seems to clean it. There is a green
residue and also a black powdery residue. The sterilizer is 3'x3'x4'.
Fairly large so it is discouraging to spend hours cleaning it only to
have it remain dirty. Is there something that really cleans this?
What are the green and black residues?
Luther Burnham
medical equipment tech - New Braunfels, Texas
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I have some experience cleaning steam sterilizers, although not
ones stained as badly as you describe. There are some acid materials
that would probably clean the sterilizer, but these are dangerous to
use, requiring personal protective equipment, ventilation, waste
disposal, etc. This is probably not practical for a hospital
environment. You may be able to grit blast the sterilizer interior,
but you will need to shield areas you do not want blasted. Also you
need to prevent the blast media from getting inside the sterilizer
plumbing. There are some commercial stainless steel cleaners that are
much less hazardous than acid, but may require use of large amounts
of elbow grease.
If you do mechanically clean the sterilizer, you may have to
re-passivate the surface after cleaning. There are some newer
commercial products for this purpose which are much safer than the
acid-based methods previously used.
Perhaps the company you bought the sterilizer from has a service
dept. if so, they may be able to advise you. I hope this helps.
Thomas Kemp
Sterilizers for the medical industry. - Erie, Pa. USA
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There are a number of safe products that you can use effectively
to clean this kind of equipment, but you will have to do some testing
to determine the effectiveness. The black is probably carbon coming
out of the stainless steel, but I am not sure what the green is. It
could be something from the parts that you are putting in the
sterilizer.
We have citric acid based products that could do the job for you,
but we need more details.
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