About 2 weeks ago, I had a SciCan statim sterilizer that had a check valve that had failed. The check valve’s job is to prevent steam from getting into the air compressor. During the drying cycle, this air compressor turns on and pumps air through the check valve, the boiler, and the cassette effectively drying the instruments. Normally the noise that is generated by this compressor is a low hum. I quickly found however that when the compressor was used with any of the new check valves, it produced a far louder buzz noise. SciCan had switched from an old style of check valve to a new style that permitted a larger flow of air. The compressor was simply too loud to be acceptable when the new check valve was used. So I mentioned it to John, our company’s inventor and he worked on it and came up with this:
John has installed a clear/white Statim 5000 biological filter between the air compressor (lower left) and the boiler’s check valve (mid picture) This is beneficial for several reasons: It reduces the noise considerably, it provides biological filtration for the compressor’s drying air, it provides a safety barrier for moisture possibly preventing failure of the $665 air compressor, and it permits the use of the new high flow check valve. We have contacted SciCan to let them know about this problem, but for now if your stat-m is loud during the drying cycle, we can install this and minimize the noise problem.