Monday morning aspirator blues

You walk in to your surgery on Monday morning, sit down to your first patient, your assistant picks up the suction tip to aspirate and 'Nothing'.

So what's the problem ?

Your suction pump has possibly got Monday morning Blues.

The problem may have arisen on Friday. The suction was dutifully cleaned by your assistant and then left.

Monday morning is when we get most calls for aspirators not working, The cause is often a sticking suction pump. The dry section of most humid suction systems can get wet due to a number of problems. Namely

1. You are using a foaming aspirator cleaner, despite the reps acclaim that 'This is the best, cheapest, non foaming suction cleaner on the market'

Shake the bottle if it foams, give it to the rep in a cup of tea and if he starts getting speech bubbles you know he was talking out his rear.

2. The pump was overloaded with cleaning fluids, then put to rest for the weekend to rest and corrode. This is common and if the moisture remains in the pump for the weekend , the dry pump can begin to corrode. When you come in on Monday morning the turbine blade has been siezed by the corroding aluminium casing.

3 The capacitor on one or both pumps has dropped below its prescribed value- This is really common, so much so we do not got to look at a suction pump without the capacitors being checked. Your pump my have two or more sets of windings. One supplied directly from the mains and the second via a capacitor. If the capacitor is not putting it out, then the pump may not have enough torque to start particularly if there is corrosion, as mentioned above.

So what to do. If the pump is seized, you will need an engineer even if you manage to free it up, it is likely to stick next Monday!.

You may be able to free it off temporarily, but get your engineer to check the capacitors. If your engineer does not carry a capacitance meter, get another engineer.

The main thing is to ensure the dry section of the pump has had time to dry, after the solution has been flushed through last thing at night.

Run the pump while the filter cap is off, with the filter still in place. This way plenty of air enters the system to dry off the pump, before it has to sit all night or all weekend. Run it fir at least three minutes.

Check your suction cleaner is recommended by the manufacturer. There are perhaps only three on the market I would recommend and they are all made by manufacturers of suction systems. If it foams do not use it. Do not put alcohol down the suction or the spittoon. One case I came across was where a dentist used salt. The pump lasted one day, yes it had to be replaced on Monday after being fitted on Friday.

I was on a large chemical manufacturers stand at an dental exhibition once. I explained how I loved their suction cleaner. "Oh you use our cleaner" the employee said with glee, hoping she had found a fan of their product. " Oh no I wouldn't use it" I replied. The lady on the stand looks puzzled " I am sorry I do not understand, you like our aspirator cleaner, but do not use it!". " yes that right, I recon, I sell about 25% of the suction pumps we sell through a year because of your suction cleaner, because it foams!". " Our suction cleaner doesn't foam sir, I assure you".

I promptly picked a bottle off the stand and shook it twice. You could not feel any solution in the bottle it had all turned to foam. I handed it to the lady and said "Sorry but it does". She had to concede when she opened the top of the bottle. The suction cleaner may well have worked well on wet line systems where it is not so important., but it sure was not designed to work with dry or humid suctions which are so common in the UK.