Q. I have a question about our sterilmatic autoclave. This is the third one I’ve used and this one has a strange characteristic. We can’t run the autoclave twice in a row without draining and refilling the chamber. Whenever we simply add water to it after a previous run it heats up, comes up to pressure and then the low level water light comes on and stops the unit. We have let it come back to room pressure, drain it and refill with cold water. Any idea what might cause this and fix the problem? Should we be able to do multiple runs once the water is hot and just top off the level in the chamber?

A: It sounds like the low water cut off is getting weak. Is there scale build up in the bottom of the unit? You are supposed to ALWAYS put cold water in unit after every run. It sounds like you have let it run dry a couple of times, weakening the safety. Could it be?

Thank you –
~Shlomo Savyon
1-800-762-1586
Your Sterilizer expert