Cleanroom equipment is expensive, but that’s because it’s high functioning, specialized equipment for an extremely important and sensitive job: maintaining your cleanroom’s integrity and required classification standards. But like all equipment, it breaks down, wears out, and slows down with time. So how do you know when to replace it?
Like your household appliances, your cleanroom equipment will have a general lifespan, after which you should replace it. Here are some general lifespan guidelines for common cleanroom equipment:
- Prefilters: 2 months
- HEPA filters: 7 years
- ULPA filters: 7 years
- HVAC system: 10-12 years
- Major analyzers/ automated equipment: 7-10 years
- Fridges/Freezers: 5 – 12 years
- Fumehoods: 20 years
- Autoclave: 20 years
- Centrifuges : 7 -10 years
- Microscopes: 20 years
- Microtomes : 20 years
- Waterbaths : 7-10 years
- Incubators: 7-10 years
- Balances: 20 years
- Warming Plates: 10 years
You should always replace equipment as soon as something goes wrong with it that’s not repairable or when it becomes inefficient. If you have a piece of equipment that still technically “works” but isn’t performing at top efficiency, the money you think you’re saving by waiting to replace it is just going to be eaten up in energy costs.
