IVC Washing Do’s and Don’t’s
Taking, or avoiding, a few small steps when washing your IVCs can help prolong the life of the rack.
Do:
Open all doors and caps before washing, and close when washing is complete.
Clean the plenums and manifolds with brushes. Debris builds up in exhaust ports and bedding fills up in supply tubes. Blockages in the plenums and manifolds can reduce airflow to/from the cages, ultimately impacting cage level ACH and captures.
Individually clean ports that connect to the cage.
Ensure proper connection (rack to cage fittings; gaskets; seals; hoses; blower to rack connections).
Don’t:
Wash the blowers, electronic devices, or gauges. Washing electronics will cause them to short.
Put racks back into service if they are not completely dry.
If any of your IVC’s connections are not fitted properly, you will experience a leak in HEPA filtered air, which can change the cage ACH, not to mention let unfiltered air into the cages and compromise immune suppressed or deficient animals.