HOT AIR OVEN – use, care and maintenance

HOT AIR OVEN

Hot air oven is used for the sterilization of glassware’s (e.g. conical flasks, beakers, stirring rods, glass Petri plates) and other heat-stable materials. The sterilization of materials in the hot air oven is due to dry heat unlike the autoclave that achieves the same purpose but with moist heat.

Hot air oven is operated at different time intervals and temperature levels, but this is dependent on the nature of the materials to be sterilized. It is critical that users of the hot air oven read the owner’s manual carefully in order to get optimum service from the equipment.

Combustible materials and solvents such as ethanol, methanol and chloroform should not be placed inside the hot air; and inflammable materials, cotton wool and other laboratory clothing’s and plastics should not be sterilized in the hot air oven (Figure 1).

REFERENCES

Cheesbrough, M (2006). District Laboratory Practice in Tropical countries Part I Cambridge

Chung K.T, Stevens Jr., S.E and Ferris D.H (1995). A chronology of events and pioneers of microbiology. SIM News, 45(1):3–13.

Dictionary of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, 3^rd Edition. Paul Singleton and Diana Sainsbury. 2006, John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Canada.

Goldman E and Green L.H (2008). Practical Handbook of Microbiology, Second Edition. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, USA.