Pressure Cooker

[Damien]

Folks-

Thank you for the fantastic replies regarding my prevous questions. Does anyone have experience using a pressure cooker as a sterilization device for test tubes? I have read that this is doable but I am not quite sure how to go about it.

Thanks again,
Damien

[Diamond Knot]

I did it all the time. It was my "poor man's" autoclave. I used to keep my own slants as a homebrewer, and made the agar media, poured it in the cleaned tubes, and sterilzed them in the pressure cooker. I also steralized mason jars of water and various other tools.

I think I ran at 250F for an hour or something similar. A little fuzzy now.

[bbrodka]

15 min at 15 psi will create 250 degrees
this is the minimum time to kill the critters

Small amount of water to create steam
keep your items out of the water
don't count any time until 15 psi is reached