New Freezer in place, Now what?

[rbayliff]

Hi all, we've purchased a new freezer for our plasma and cryo, and I've been trying to find out what we need to do to validate the temperature is accurately recording before moving product into the freezer. We compared the digital readout, chart recorder and an NIST thermometer for 24 hours and noticed +/- 10 degree differences at times between the three. I'm interested in what you do in your facility or any advice you have. Thanks!

[mjshepherd]

When I installed the new freezer and refrigerator in our new facility I contacted CAP and was told to perform a 24 hour temp. validation and that the chart, internal, and NIST temps all had to agree within 0.5 degrees. All blood bank units should have a way to calibrate the the chart and internal temp monitor to agree with the NIST.

I would recomend in your case, place the NIST in the unit and leave for 4 hours, then calibrate your chart and internal monitor to match your NIST. Continue to monitor every 4 hours and adjust your temp calibrations until you have continuous match. This should not take very long, you should have a good match after the first couple of reads. If you don't I would call the manufacturer of the units for advice/ troubleshooting.