Sterilizing ACT equipment

I thought I’d try to sanitize my acapella in boiling water and they melted out of shape, my bad… guess I won’t do that again. My husband makes beer and uses a sanitizer solution to rinse all his bottles and equipment he uses in it. Has anyone used anything like that to sanitize? I’m not thrilled with getting extra chemicals on it so I figured I’d throw that out there to question others. Not sure if the microwave bags would also melt and deform the acapella.

Here are the instructions right from the distributor:
https://pim.integratedmedsys.com/Brands/ICU/Smiths%20Medical/PDF/1641407209_AcapellaPatientGuideBrochure.pdf
I'm not sure why yours melted - perhaps it came into contact with the bottom of the pot? I use a round silicone mat (hot pad) in the bottom of my pan, set the heat to just keep it boiling, and have not had such a problem.
But, you can use (fresh) 3% hydrogen peroxide for 30 minutes, or 70% alcohol for 5 minutes to sterilize as well.
My friend, a retired health inspector, says the sanitizer used for beer bottles, bar glassware, etc is not adequate for TB, so I think it is not OK for NTM either.
Sue

Thank you Sue, it makes sense that the acapella might have touched the bottom of the pan, lesson learned! I’ll stick to the other methods you mentioned. Thanks for the beer sanitizer information as well, it will satisfy my husband’s curiosity about it.

@rbl Inquiring minds wanted to know more about beer & mycobacteria! I found this blog, sounds good to me.

For your husband:

What makes beer antibacterial?
Ignoring its chemistry, the main antibacterial aspect of beer is its preparation – long boils kill pretty much any pathogen, leaving behind only a few viable spores. These spores typically do not survive fermentation, meaning that brewing a beer can clean up nearly any water source.

Chemically, beer is not antibacterial due to any one compound, but rather due to a combination of things. Alcohol, for example, can inhibit a number of pathogens, but other pathogens do just fine in the presence of alcohol. As an extreme example, the pathogen Mycobacterium nonchromogenicum can survive over 75% ethanol. So while ethanol kills some pathogens, others are pretty much oblivious to its presence. Sadly, with the broad availability (and massive mis-use) of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, ethanol-resistant pathogens are becoming ever more prevalent.

Hop compounds also inhibit some bacteria – specifically, members of the gram positive group of bacteria. But this lethality is not universal among the gram-positives (e.g. hop-resistant lacto strains are still gram-positive), and of course these compounds don’t do squat for gram-negative and other non-gram positive pathogens.

Finally, there is the acidity of the wort. Most beers finish below pH 4.5, which is the threshold for antibacterial acidity. But many pathogens have no issue with low pH’s – indeed, any pathogen that enters via our guts must be able to survive several hours in our stomach, which has a pH around 2; or nearly 100X more acidic than your average beer.

Overall, none of these chemical characteristics are sufficient to keep beer pathogen-free – most pathogens will survive fine if exposed to just one of the above antibacterial compounds; but the combination of the three is lethal to most bacteria.

from https://suigenerisbrewing.com/index.php/2014/02/18/fact-or-fiction-can-pathogens-survive-in-beer/

@rbl Inquiring minds wanted to know more about beer & mycobacteria! I found this blog, sounds good to me.

For your husband:

What makes beer antibacterial?
Ignoring its chemistry, the main antibacterial aspect of beer is its preparation – long boils kill pretty much any pathogen, leaving behind only a few viable spores. These spores typically do not survive fermentation, meaning that brewing a beer can clean up nearly any water source.

Chemically, beer is not antibacterial due to any one compound, but rather due to a combination of things. Alcohol, for example, can inhibit a number of pathogens, but other pathogens do just fine in the presence of alcohol. As an extreme example, the pathogen Mycobacterium nonchromogenicum can survive over 75% ethanol. So while ethanol kills some pathogens, others are pretty much oblivious to its presence. Sadly, with the broad availability (and massive mis-use) of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, ethanol-resistant pathogens are becoming ever more prevalent.

Hop compounds also inhibit some bacteria – specifically, members of the gram positive group of bacteria. But this lethality is not universal among the gram-positives (e.g. hop-resistant lacto strains are still gram-positive), and of course these compounds don’t do squat for gram-negative and other non-gram positive pathogens.

Finally, there is the acidity of the wort. Most beers finish below pH 4.5, which is the threshold for antibacterial acidity. But many pathogens have no issue with low pH’s – indeed, any pathogen that enters via our guts must be able to survive several hours in our stomach, which has a pH around 2; or nearly 100X more acidic than your average beer.

Overall, none of these chemical characteristics are sufficient to keep beer pathogen-free – most pathogens will survive fine if exposed to just one of the above antibacterial compounds; but the combination of the three is lethal to most bacteria.

from https://suigenerisbrewing.com/index.php/2014/02/18/fact-or-fiction-can-pathogens-survive-in-beer/

Thanks, Scoop for such a great post!
I do the same as Scoop with one exception. Instead of a baby bottle sterilizer, I use microwavable steam cleaning bags. I pop them in the microwave for 3 min with 2 oz of distilled water. I don't have enough counter space for a baby bottle sterilizer so these work better for me. I get them from Amazon. This link is below. Best of luck to you.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000096QQ5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
One final thought: If you do have a high mineral content in your water, it may help to soak your items in a solution of 1:1 water to white vinegar every so often. It will clear out the minerals. All the best to you!