EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management Babyleo TN500 Incubator heating element & AC board

Hi All

Does anyone have Drager Babyleo TN500 incubators?

If so, has anyone found that the heating elements are regularly going faulty on them? (£1300 each)

And also the AC board that powers the heating elements? (£800 each)

Our Trust has spent a fortune on parts for these Drager Incubators so far.

Hi Dudley, Telford here ??. We have 22 babyleo incubators. We have had no issues with heating elements but in the last 5 years have changed a third of the AC power boards. We identified an open circuit resistor in them and have asked for feedback from Draeger. These incubators are no where near as reliable as the old Caleo. They were tanks that withstood anything.

Thanks Carl, sorry for the delay in replying.

We have also had the same problem where the current sense resistor on the Babyleo AC board (I think it's about 15 ohms) goes high resistance. David Woods from Drager says that the users are causing the damage by not powering down the Babyleo correctly.

Neonatal are telling us that they do shut it down correctly and EBME are stuck with the £800 bill each time it goes down.

Call me old-fashioned (yes, I know), but has anyone tried bunging in a higher-wattage resistor?

Also, for the record, just what is special about the powering down of this incubator? Are we (they) saying that it was never designed for normal hospital use: such as power interruptions (aka yanking the wall plug), etc.?

How does a resistor go high (rather than, say, open circuit)? Well, certain types can gain ohmic value due to, for example, a current spike. In other words, something that can be minimised (if not eliminated) by well designed circuitry.

I wonder if the failures of the (low value) resistor is actually caused during powering up (inrush, or something similar ... like when the heating elements kick in)? It would be nice to see the actual circuit.

Either way, it sounds like a design defect to me.

You're preaching to the choir here Geoff.

I've already talked to Drager about the lack of flyback diodes across Inductive loads and revising the surface mount fuses on the board but there has been nothing but tumbleweeds from the Manufacturer.

I would like to be able to replace components on the board but have been shouted down by colleagues citing patient risk....(worst case scenario is it starts alarming again???)

Hi again, yes we are mindful of the risk from replacing individual components. Dave Woods mentioned that they were looking into a design tweak which seems to suggest they are aware of the issue despite not admitting its an error on their part. It seems futile having SMT fuses that are capable of handling more than the components they are there to protect.

"despite not admitting its an error on their part"

Yes, we've found this too.

Vorsprung durch Technik ... or Schlechtes Design ist gut?

It would be nice if they replaced those boards free of charge: even better if they were to "an improved design".

But if you're planning to replace boards anyway, I can't see why a little "experimentation" shouldn't be attempted in house.

"Old School" versus "The New Generation", I guess. Or maybe just "Can do" versus "Risk Averse".