EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Technical Assistance Tyco/Valleylab Smoke Evacuator

We have several Valleylab OptiMumm smoke evacuators supplied by Tyco. They are proving less than reliable; worse still, Tyco inform us that they cant fix them in the UK, and they have to be returned to the US for repair. Turnaround is several months and they have lost one of ours already. Neither can they supply parts. Anyone else having this problem or are we the only mugs who bought them? Seems a bit extreme for a fan in a box.

Hi BillB
Yes we have had loads of problems with these units. One unit was away for repair over 12 months because they have to go to the States with all the customs checks etc. Sometimes the fault can be as simple as the carbon brushes on the motor wearing down, although we found a similar set of brushes I am reluctant to fit them as they are not OEM parts. Sometimes Tyco will supply a loan unit but its a bit Hit and Miss. Typically they are away for 3 to 6 months. The Diathermy sensing unit gets damaged very easily as well, the ferite cores break so we have to buy a complete sensing unit costing aprox £350. We have another manufacturers unit in a couple of Theatres they seem reliable so far. Perhaps you need to swap to a more user friendly supplier.

We too have had the same problem with the Optimum Evacuator. Theatres have now started purchasing the Erbe IES 300 which, should it fail, is repaired in the UK. One area has also bought the Conmed smoke evacuator although its filter life is only 8 hours long and the unit does not sense occlusion or incorrect fitment of the filter.