Australia's Science Forum

Hi,
Can someone please tell me where is the best place to get a pressure cooker from. I have one but it is small & old.

Nahrein

if you don't have a lot of money to spend and are going to use it for science use, i have heard people picking them up at salvation army / vinnies stores and the like, for a few $$
Otherwise a you beaut shiney brand new one will cost over $100 from myer and the like.

If you have a HomeArt store somewhere near you they often have them for not very much money (under $50).

I bought mine from Big W. I think it was about $160 but it is larger than the old one and safer to use.
It doesn't have the jiggly thing on top, you just click on the handle and presto!

Thank you for your help.I will check at the places you have suggested.
Nahrein

Also try online - I just looked up dealsdirect and they have one for $59.95 + shipping and topbuy has one for $49.95 + shipping. Tempted to buy one for myself!!

Hi Nehrein,

I recently bought one 10L Prestige Brand Pressure Cooker for $95.00 from an Indian Store named Udaya Spices at Wentworthville. It is a really good quality one which fits 1L beakers/Conical Flasks. I heard they are opening a new store in Liverpool in no time.

Hope this helps
Anju.

I know it's becomes a bit of a habit to try and scrimp and save and stretch the Science department budget as much as possible but there are pieces of lab equipment that are essential. A laboratory pressure steam sterilizer while relatively expensive is specifically designed to destroy microbes as opposed to cooking a chicken quickly. Lab sterilizers will have a calibrated gauge to ensure correct pressure can be monitored and maintained, they are built strong ,designed to last and replacement parts if and when required are easy to obtain. Cheap kitchen cookers often do not have gauges and if they do how accurate are they? Unless you are looking to replace your “home” kitchen pressure cooker I would seriously consider checking your science suppliers for a price on an autoclave. If you do decide to spend up, consider the autoclaves with the build in heater as this makes maintaining temperatures easier.
Cheers

Last year I upgraded my kitchen pressure cooker (due to it stop functioning properly) to a laboratory steam sterilizer, it wasn't cheap, but feel it was worth it. I did start looking for a kitchen pressure cooker to replace it, but quickly came to the conclusion I needed to bnite the bullet and spend some money to get something purposely built for the laboratory. I couldn't quite stretch the budget to buy one that had a built in heater, so still needing to put it on a hotplate. I bought mine from Southern Biological.

If anyone is still looking for a pressure cooker, deals direct have one on sale for today only (26/2/13) for $49.95 plus delivery (usually less than $10). Anyway, just though I'd let you know. Can't guarantee quality or anything as I haven't got one. It's only a 6L but for some schools that's probably big enough.

Aldi has them at times, also Kmart...the ones that plug and dont need a hotplate are best

I was looking at the ASSIST website and came across the preparation of Agar. It says 20mins @121 degrees C, 15 p.s.i. or 103 kPa. The autoclave bags I use to kill the used plates state 121deg C on them.

I used our old Namco pressure cooker for 20mins but I never saw a manual in the time I have been here, so not sure of temperature nor pressure used. It seemed to work well.

I am looking at buying a new pressure cooker and the ones I thought I would like are mostly around 7-8 and 12-14psi (Raco, Futura, Silampos, Baccarat and Scanpan).

The only one I can find at 15psi is Hawkins. Has anyone used one of these and what are they like?

Does pressure value really matter after all?

Rita