This may sound like a silly question, but I was wondering if anyone running the ECHO has noticed black and whitish-yellow build-up in the lines (sometimes it is bad enough to clog the line)? We decontaminate frequently with the Rely On, as directed and we follow all the recommended procedures and we have noticed this build-up and foul smell in two of our three ECHOs. (And when I say 'foul' smell I mean it. It is really putrid sometimes. :disbelief)

The waste containers are emptied and rinsed frequently, often more than once per shift. Also, the build-up is in the external and internal waste lines. It has gotten so bad that we just change whatever tubing we can, when we clean the instrument. It started not long after we started running patient samples on them and it hsan't gotten any better.

We don't seem to be getting anywhere with anyone to resolve it. I was wondering if anyone else has run into the same problem and what you did to resolve it, if anything.

Thanks

I haven't noticed a smell but we definitely have growth on the waste lines. I asked 2 of 3 field service reps (ongoing problem, hopefully fully resolved) that were here this month about it. I thought it would be changed with annual PMs. They said to not worry about it and it won't cause problems (party line). It would be nice if we could take that tubing off and run a little bleach through it and rinse it thoroughly but of course we aren't allowed to do that.

We perform the decon using 'perasafe' supplied by immucor and have not noticed any of the problems you have. You could ask Immucor if this is the same as the solution you use, if not give this a go.

Thanks guys, I will check on the Perasafe. They told us to use Rely On and it doesn't seem to do much. I would love to run bleach through it that's for sure! We have just started changing the tubing. We have also had to change two probes because they were clogged.

Some decontaminants wihich are used "across the pond" are not approved by the EPA in the US . . . I wonder if perasafe is one of those?

We were having problems with a stinky echo too. We changed our procedure to include an addition of Virkon 1 % (which I believe is the Canadian version of Rely-on) on a daily basis to the waste container. It seems to have contained the problem. We make up fresh solution weekly and use daily.