I use sealed sterile vials. I have thought about capping but I want a clave before I do that
KRAZIEONE
Just to tell you before the rest of the post bro, this post is more aimed at anyone looking into using an autoclave and buying unsealed vials bro, I know you already know all of this. I'm just taking the chance to tell/inform others about this since you brought up wanting to buy one before going the unsealed vial route.
Yeah I completely understand bro. I bought my autoclave before I ever decided to fuck with unsealed vials. Unfortunately, some equipment that's able to be used in a clave costs extra (due to needing to be higher quality and be made of certain material so it won't degrade/rust/whatever). When you buy your crimper (when that time comes), be SURE that it is clave-able. The cheaper ones aren't that well made from what I understand, and aren't made to be sterilized by a clave. The ones that can be claved seem to run around $200 (versus $140-160 for the lower end ones that aren't supposed to be). But these are truly high grade. And will last much longer (some of the cheaper ones have a lot of plastic that can break, rendering it useless etc).
A lot of people I've talked to about this didn't realize that a lot of scientific equipment needs to be made a certain way to be able to be sterilized PROPERLY by certain equipment (no covered areas that can't be reached, odd edges, bumps/depressions [it has to be COMPLETELY flat], etc). Clean rooms are the same way. There's extremely specific protocol concerning precisely how the area has to be setup/made and what it can/can't have. Equipment that needs to be sterilized for a clean room (which is what autoclaves are used for) have to follow a lot of the same principles. The crimper I was discussing for claving uses stainless steel and other high end materials so it won't degrade/rust/break/crack or anything when used in a clave. And if you decide to buy a bottle top dispenser, you HAVE to make sure you can disassemble it and it EXPLICITLY says it can be autoclaved.
Don't forget, an autoclave is much more than just an "oven that has water" lol. It gets to a VERY high pressure (MUCH higher than any pressure cooker that your mother/wife has -- so don't compare them), which is what makes it so the steam and heat work faarrr better together at sterilizing and killing EVERYTHING. So you want to make SURE you don't get something cheap and plastic that will crack/break from the pressure of the clave.
Its a great decision to buy and use a clave, as it will ensure everything is completely sterilized (whereas the dry heat from an oven + alcohol isn't 100% guaranteed to completely sterilize everything). Unfortunately, you'll end up spending more for higher quality equipment.
Be ready to have up to
several $1000 set aside for everything if you decide to buy an autoclave, high quality crimper, high quality bottle top dispenser, the bottles, caps, etc. If you get a small autoclave you can save money. But you also don't want to buy one and have it too small to sterilize all your equipment!!! So be sure to measure your equipment that you need to sterilize before buying one. Make sure everything will fit in it. You may end up spending far less, depending on what kind of deals are running, what equipment you can find used, and what size of everything you need (plus if you already have some of the shit). I'm just warning anyone looking into going this route... don't be surprised if you find the total bill for everything more on the high end.
Bro I use that for beakers rubber stoppers and vials, it killed all bacteria and spores in 30min ;-)
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Is that plastic?? How can it guarantee that in 30 minutes? That's what an autoclave does (though some can do it in 15 minutes). How hot does it get? Is it pressurized? How much do those cost? I just can't imagine something plastic being just as effective as an expensive stainless steel autoclave (that has to be BOLTED down so the top doesn't fly off due to how high of pressure/heat it gets to).... Does it actually guarantee to kill EVERYTHING? Or just certain viruses/bacteria?!
If that thing works as well as a bigass stainless steel autoclave (which I seriously can't see how it could)... then consider my mind blown lol.