Pelton and Crane OCR+ cracked chamber

[Autoclave.Guru]

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[Autoclave.Guru]

Pelton and Crane OCM, OCR and OCR+ autoclaves have been the venerable workhorses of many practices since the early 1960's. However, production of these units been halted since 1989. So, at minimum these units are 25 years + old. That's why I posted this article under vintage autoclaves.

The chambers in these unit eventually crack from expansion and contraction over the years. Loose and defective heating elements can also damage the chamber by overheating it. Lastly, these machines lack updated safety devices to turn them off when the cycle is over. Many have left these units on over night and over heated the chamber repeatedly when the water dried up.

when the chamber is cracked water will be pushed through that crack and onto the heating element. In a lot of cases the autoclave will keep running until the heating element rusts through and shorts to ground. Many of these units have already had their original mica heaters replaced with metal clad heaters.

It is not advisable to try to seal the crack(s) and install a new element for a short term fix. Nor, is it advisable to try to weld the chamber. Basically, this is the death of another Pelton & Crane manual autoclave.