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Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs / Cycle Operation / My spore test (biological indicator) has failed. What happened?

My spore test (biological indicator) has failed. What happened?

There are several items that can cause a spore test to fail. The primary reason why a sport test fails (i.e. the biological indicator grows bacteria) is because the indicator was not exposed to a sufficient combination of temperature and time. Assuming the autoclave is set to the correct temperature and time, here are a few things to check:

  1. The sterilization time was not long enough. Make sure sterilization time is set properly and possibly try extending the time.
  2. The chamber drain strainer might be clogged. Remove and clean the drain strainer.
  3. If you are running a pre-vacuum cycle make sure the vacuum pulses are working by looking at the printer tape or cloud data. You can also verify you have proper air removal by running a Bowie-Dick test cycle.
  4. Check to make sure that the load is not directly covering the chamber drain port.

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