A medical and normal refrigerator may be similar in appearance, even certain features can be same. But there is a difference in the design. The most important and noticeable difference is the temperature. A normal refrigerator is designed to maintain a temperature from 0° c to -10° C whereas, medical fridge is designed to maintain a temperature till -85°C. Look carefully for the specification before buying a medical fridge, here are some tips:
• Decide what will you preserve
• Know the configurations you want
• Determine the size
• Evaluate the safety measures
• Choose model which is capable of maintaining constant temperature
• Know the safest temperature
Do's of medical refrigerators
• Preserve blood, vaccines, and medications in individual stacks tidily.
• Frequently defrost
• For circulation of air, see there must be sufficient space
• Use vaccine stored early first, then go for ones in a new stock
• Use voltage stabilizer
• Check the temperature at least two times a day
• Used vaccines with early expiry dates before
• If the temperature is not within the prescribed limit, take action immediately
• Keep the equipment level
• Keep the equipment locked and open it only when required
• The room where the refrigerator is kept should be properly ventilated
• You must keep a separate stem thermometer with the vaccines to control the temperature
• Keep equipment away from sunlight in a cold room.
• Keep equipment 10cm away from the wall
• Polish the licks and hinges of refrigerator at regular intervals with oil
Don'ts of medical refrigerators
• Never keep drugs
• Do not keep expired vaccines
• Avoid too much opening and closing of the door unless required
• Do not keep anything in the fridge for more than a period of one month
• Do not fix the plug loose in the socket
• The thickness of the frost should not be more than 6 mm
Medical refrigerator and the normal food refrigerators
The medical freezer as well as refrigerator is designed differently for minimizing the bacterial contamination and also operational attributes when compared to a normal food refrigerator or a freezer. The most common differences are:
• The temperature required for a medical refrigerator is much colder than the one in standard food refrigerator.
• The standard food refrigerators do not have features like programmable alarms, auto defrost for research applications
• Medical refrigerators are designed to prevent bacterial contamination, strong inflammable equipment, ultra-low temperatures, and explosion proof units.
• In a food refrigerator only normal food items and few bottles of water can be stored at normal temperature whereas in the medical refrigerator, important medical items like biological samples, blood, bones, and vaccines are stored at -30° C to -40 ° C also in medical refrigerators enzymes and biochemical are stored at -20° C.
In medical refrigerators, freeze-drying stages are:
• Prior to freezing, pre- treatment
• Freezing
• Primary Drying
• Secondary Drying
Contact :
Contact Person: Jose C. Calderon
E-mail: [email protected]
Mega Super Stores, Inc
Address: 2010 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Suite 220, Del Mar, CA 92014
Tel/Fax: 800-568-5450
Website: http://www.cooler-store.com/