Anoxomat FAQ's

Q1: How many jars can I process with 1 cylinder of anaerobic gas-mixture?

A: 1 cylinder of 50 liter filled with 200 bar of anaerobic gas-mixture can easily fill 1.500 anaerobic jars with a volume of 2.9 liter (MART Anaerobic Jar AJ9023) selecting the anaerobic recipe, or more than 5.000 selecting the microaerophilic recipe.

Q2: Is it necessary to wait untill a jar is full with dishes before starting an anaerobic or microaerophilic recipe?

A: No, there is no need to wait until a jar is full with dishes. Because conditions are reproduced within minutes it's possible to open the jar during incubation, take out or include the prepared dishes, close the jar again, connect it to the Anoxomat and press the button for the anaerobic cycle or microaerophilic cycle. This makes the Anoxomat comfortable in work and suitable for storing patients material under anaerobic conditions. You can do this any time of the day. This makes the Anoxomat also a suitable device for collecting and transporting patients' material under anaerobic conditions.

Q3: I don't have much space in my laboratory, does the Anoxomat uses much room?

A: No, the Anoxomat uses only 39 x 41 x 15 cm of a desk-space.

Q4: Do I need to buy your MART Anaerobic Jars with the system?

A: Although the Mart Jars are especially developed for optimal use with the Anoxomat System we offer the possibility to modify existing Jars from other suppliers (e.g. BBL® big and small Jars, Oxoid® Jars, Biomerieux® Jars, Don-Whitley® Jars and many others). The modification can be done by yourself using the MART Jar Modification Toolkit. With this toolkit you can modify 25 anaerobic Jars, made from plastic or metal, for usage with the Anoxomat-System. For the home-markets (The Netherlands & Germany) it is also possible to send the lids of the jars for modification to MART.

Q5: What is the composition of the anaerobic gas-mixture?

A: We advise following compositions for both anaerobic as well as microaerophilic work;

80% N2, 10% CO2, 10% H2, or

85% N2, 10% CO2, 5% H2

With these compositions it is possible to culture both anaerobic as well as microaerophilic organisms.

Q6: For Helicobacter pylori it is better to use conditions where the Oxygen-level is 5%. This should be reproducible time after time. The incubation time is quite long, 7-12 days. Is it possible to do this with the Anoxomat-System?

A: Yes, with the Anoxomat WS8000 System you can program 40 different end-user recipes and determine which condition you want, what level of oxygen is required.
MART Microbiology B.V. has developed, together with the Laboratory of Medical Microbiology in Enschede - The Netherlands, a special recipe for culturing Helicobacter pylori.
There are also models like the WS8080 where you can adjust your level of CO2 and use it for capnofilic conditions, or just increase the level of CO2 in your anaerobic jar.

Q7: With the Anoxomat I can use a catalyst. What is it made of and do I need to replace it often?

A: The Mart Catalyst is made from Deoxo D. palladium. Together with the 10% H2 in the anaerobic gas-mixture this ensures the catalytic removal of the last oxygen.
It is essential to use a dry catalyst each time culturing anaerobes. The Anoxomat tests the quality and activity of the catalyst. You don't have this quality-test with other systems using the catalyst.
You do not need to replace it often as long as you regenerate it each time after incubation. The life-cycle of a catalyst depends on many factors. On average you can use it for 6 - 9 months, maybe longer depending on how many anaerobic cultures are processed, what type of anaerobic bacteria you are culturing and if you store it dry at room-temperature.

Q8: How does the Anoxomat-Quality Assurance works?

A: The Anoxomat-Quality Assurance works in advance so you know that when the Anoxomat which light indicating all these tests O.K. for the particular connected anaerobic jar, you are sure that all the conditions for a successful anaerobic or microaerophilic culture have been successful tested. These are:

1) Extended Jar-Leak Test both in under- and overpressure conditions: the anaerobic jars will be severely tested on leakage in under- and over-pressure conditions. The Anoxomat Pressure Sensor Device is able to measure pressure differences of 1 mbar.

2) Extended Gas-Input Test: this test keeps tracking on sufficient gas-input in the anaerobic jar so the replacement of the original air with the anaerobic gas mixture is successful. Also it test if there is no gas-leakage or a too high or too low gas-input pressure.

3) Extended Catalyst Test: during 3 minutes this test will measure the activity of the catalyst. If there is no activity or a bad working activity, the Anoxomat will give you an alarm. You can change the catalyst before you put the jar into the incubator. All these tests will take not longer then 3 minutes. You have the opportunity to test with or without the Catalyst-test. However in routine culturing they always test for the standard level QA (level 2). You have also the opportunity to test each anaerobic jar with the Quality Assurance selector on or off. The Anoxomat will during the QAP only continue and finish the work with the anaerobic jars which get the green light from passed during all the tests.

Q9: Is the Anoxomat difficult to handle and to understand?

A; No, not at all, we have designed it very simple with a sort of "Plug and Play"-philosophy. Just simply connect the anaerobic jar with the jar-tube of the Anoxomat and choose the program (anaerobic cycle or microaerofilic cycle) you would like to run. There are only 3 panels (the operator-panel, the indicator-panel and the programming-panel with the display, which gives the information).

Q10: How do you know for sure that the conditions in the jar are really anaerobic?

A: You could use an indicator strip although we doubt if this is really enough. We suggest to use 2 control plates, one is inoculated with a culture of Clostridium novyi, the other with Pseudomonas aeroginosus.