Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:33:03 -0500
Reply-To: mcneely4@COX.NET
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET>
Subject: Re: microwave oven
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I'm not certain that the device shown is meaningfully different from similar devices from the same manufacturer, but sold less expensively as "pressure canners." It includes an internal sterilizing rack, but that item is sold separately also. I had a colleague who taught workshops for high school teachers on laboratory microbiology practices. He taught them to use a Presto or All American (same company, essentially same equipment) pressure canner for sterilization (because an autoclave is such a large, expensive piece of equipment). I think instruction on how to use a pressure canner for sterilization can be gotten from other sources -- check with home health services for example. Here is the web site for Presto - All American. Of course, the consequences of the material not being sterile might be much greater for you than for high school students growing microbial cultures for class projects.
http://www.pressurecooker-canner.com/prprca.html
I also wonder if it would not be much more practical to just carry packaged and sterile stuff with you, but then I don't know and am not asking what you are sterilizing.
David McNeely
---- David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET> wrote:
> At 08:42 PM 9/9/2010 -0700, Paul and Catherine Lemiuex wrote:
> >We need to install a microwave oven in order to sterilize medical
> >supplies so we can continue camping in our 1990 Westy. Having
> >trouble finding a microwave that will work with a second battery and
> >inverter. Does anyone have any experience, suggestions or comments?
>
> Running a microwave from Vanagon batteries would be tough. This
> small 600-watt oven, for example
> http://www.haieramerica.com/en/product/MWM6600RW uses 950 watts of
> power. That means give or take one hundred amperes out of your
> battery, and to support that kind of draw you should have 300 (for
> AGM or gel batteries) or 400 (for conventional batteries) amp-hours
> of battery capacity so as not to damage the batteries from too fast a
> discharge.
>
> I think you'd be much better off looking into a steam sterilizer that
> you can run off the stove. IIRC the stove burners are rated at 5600
> BTU/hr each, which is the same or slightly larger than a regular
> stove burner. A full propane tank should give you in the area of 48
> hours burning time for one burner.
>
> Here's a ten-quart one at a not-too-outrageous price:
> http://www.amazon.com/All-American-9-5-Quart-Pressure-Sterilizer/dp/B000S8G1TS
>
> Yours,
> DAvid
--
David McNeely
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