Conserving Oxygen in Your ICU

If you have recently purchased or have an existing Snyder Manufacturing Company ICU, here are some great tips to help conserve oxygen in your unit.

1st. The most common issue concerning oxygen usage is whether or not the ICU has a good seal of gasket material around the large acrylic doors.

The ICU was originally shipped with a Mylar gasketing material to act as a seal between the cage face and the back of the acrylic doors. This helps prevent oxygen from leaking out of the animal chamber. The gasketing will need to be inspected periodically (especially at the bottom of the doors). If the seal is breached it will affect how the unit holds oxygen. On an older ICU system (pre-2001) the gasketing material inside of the ‘B’ compartment, the narrow door next to the animal compartments, should be inspected to ensure it is not damaged.

  • If the need to replace the semi-permanent gasket in the ‘B’ compartment is imminent, please contact your Snyder Manufacturing Company sales rep to find out about a permanent aluminum retro-fit kit that is currently available!

2nd. Knowing how to calibrate the system correctly.

  • Calibrating once in every twenty-four hour period is recommended.

It is critical that the following items are checked for and corrected, if necessary, before calibrating your ICU.

  1. Check the Soda Lime tray for the proper amount of material. A thin layer is all that is needed.
  2. The temperature displayed is as close to ambient as possible (72 degrees).
  3. There is NO oxygen being delivered into the system via the main O2 port or the nebulizer.
    Snyder Manufacturing Company recommends that the flowmeter be turned off while calibrating the system.
  4. Check the High and Low set points to verify the main O2 system’s ‘on’ and ‘off’ settings. The High set point (Oxygen turns off) and Low set point (Oxygen turns on) should be within 2 points of each other.
    • Example: If the High O2 set point is at 35%, then the Low should be at 33%.
  5. Touching the ‘up’ arrow once will check the high and the touch the ‘down’ arrow to check the low settings.
    • WHEN YOU TOUCH THE ‘UP’ OR ‘DOWN’ ARROW TO CHECK YOUR SETTINGS, WAIT UNTIL THE SMALL RED PERIOD IS NOT FLASHING BEFORE CONTINUING, OTHERWISE YOU WILL BE ENTERING NEW INFORMATION AND CHANGE EXISTING PARAMETERS.
  6. If the ICU unit was recently used for O2 treatment, it will have to be ‘aired out’ before starting these procedures.
    • Simply turn the system ‘on’ & the flowmeter ‘off.’ Open the large acrylic doors and ventilate for 1 minute.

If you have any questions concerning these procedures, please call for ICU technical support at Snyder Manufacturing Company 1(800)756-0631 ext. 28