What’s involvedSterilizer

A sterilizer spore test: what's involved

What a spore test is, when it's run, how it's run and read, and what a failed test means for the sterilizer and the loads it ran.

What’s involved

No hands-on steps here: what the job is, what a pro does, and what to have ready.

A small vial or strip of harmless spores that shows the sterilizer really killed everything. It's the surest check that it works.
On the schedule your infection control plan and the sterilizer's maker set, and after a repair or a move.
The vial goes in a test pack, in the hardest spot to reach in a normal load, and the sterilizer runs its usual cycle.
Open it only once it has cooled: steam and hot metal burn.
The vial goes in a small incubator beside an unrun control vial from the same box. If the test vial keeps its color while the control changes, it passed.
Many offices mail the vial to a lab instead, which sends the result back.
Each result goes in the sterilizer log, with the load it ran in.
A failed test: stop using the sterilizer, hold back the loads since the last pass as your plan says, and call the sterilizer's service technician.

Handyman says: Failed? I'll find a sterilizer tech.

Free for every home. Handyman asks a few questions, then books a pro it trusts.