Real Time ROI: Reliable Corp.’s i702C Steam Cleaner

The Lab

Founded in 1976, PRO-DENT Laboratory Ltd. is a full service dental lab located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. With 45 people working in 7 departments, the lab strives to provide high quality restorations with customer service to match. 

The product

Built in Italy with a stainless steel pressure vessel and high quality electrical components, the i702C Steam Cleaner produces 70 psi of steam pressure and reaches temperatures up to 221° F at the tip. Designed to safely and efficiently clean away leftover wax and other debris and for polishing final products, its 9 L water capacity can provide up to 8 hours of continuous steam. The external pressure gauges are easy to read, 4 safety systems protect users and two solenoid valves provide flexibility. The adjustable steam nozzle is attached to an 8-foot hose and it can be controlled via foot pedal.

The results

Sometimes it’s the tools you almost take for granted that can be a difference maker in the lab. Paul Tomcik, owner and manager of PRO-DENT, said he doesn’t often think about them, but that’s one of the reasons he’s pleased with the i702C Steam Cleaners used at his lab.

“These units offer the simplicity of use and the simplicity of engineering so they don’t break down, but they also offer the large capacity, which for us was the selling feature,” he said. “We fill it in the morning when we come into work and then it lasts the whole day for the volume we do, and we are a fairly large lab.”

Not having to stop work to let a steam cleaner cool down before opening the tank, refilling the unit and waiting for it to come back up to pressure and temperature makes lab operations more efficient. Tomcik said his lab uses steam for everything from blasting excess wax off models, to cleaning finished restorations as well as instruments and work areas.

Steam offers a quick way to keep work moving through the lab without disturbing the item being cleaned. Tomcik and his staff know they can always count on the i702C to be ready when needed.

“In the lab world efficiency is golden,” he said. “From the standpoint of efficiency, forced steam is a great way to go.”

In the six years the lab has had at least one of the Reliable Corp. cleaners on hand, Tomcik and his staff have found the units live up to their manufacturer’s name. As a manager he also likes the steam cleaners’ safety features, which are augmented by the fact that the units only need to be filled once a day, so his staff members are unlikely to have to open the water tanks while they are still hot and pressurized.

While some labs have steam systems built directly into the plumbing to provide on demand steam, Tomcik said the i702C has proven to be a more versatile option. They are portable so they can make steam available at any station in the lab, and because they are standalone units, if something were to go wrong, it would not be a problem with his building’s infrastructure, making it easier to isolate and repair.

The topic of steam cleaners might not be something that gets lab owners and technicians excited, but like any piece of equipment a lab is going to use, it needs to do the job set before it in a way that enhances the lab’s operations. Tomcik said his i702C Steam Cleaner does exactly that.

“There’s not much to it really,” he said. “Steam cleaning is a very fast and efficient way to topically clean something.”