Most equipment failures in a lab don't come out of nowhere. A freezer runs warm for days before it alarms, a cryostat starts cutting thick-and-thin before it stops, a centrifuge gets louder before it fails. A simple maintenance schedule catches these early, and the logs it produces are exactly what inspectors ask for.
Below is a general checklist by frequency. Your manufacturer's instructions always come first; use this to make sure nothing falls through the gaps.
Daily
- Record refrigerator, freezer, incubator and room temperatures against the acceptable range
- Check that alarms on cold storage are on and audible
- Clean work surfaces, centrifuge bowls and cryostat chambers after use
- Run the daily function checks and QC your analyzers require
- Note anything unusual: new noises, error messages, frost build-up
Weekly
- Clean and inspect centrifuge rotors, buckets and seals for cracks or corrosion
- Empty and clean cryostat waste trays; check the knife holder and anti-roll plate
- Change water in water baths and flotation baths
- Review the week's temperature logs and sign off corrective actions
Monthly
- Check freezer and refrigerator gaskets and defrost if frost is building up
- Clean condenser coils and vents on cold storage and cryostats where accessible
- Do quick in-house volume checks on critical pipettes
- Verify that backup thermometers agree with primary monitors
Every 6 to 12 months
- Pipette calibration, every 3 to 6 months for critical pipettes (see our pipette guide)
- Centrifuge RPM and timer verification
- Thermometer and data logger calibration
- PCR thermocycler temperature verification
- Cryostat preventive maintenance, more often for high-volume Mohs labs
- Biosafety cabinet and fume hood certification, at least annually
- Electrical safety testing of lab and patient-care equipment
- Calibration verification of test systems at least every six months under CLIA
Document as you go
Maintenance that isn't written down didn't happen, as far as a surveyor is concerned. For each instrument, keep:
- A log of routine tasks, with the date and initials of who did them
- Service and calibration reports with as-found and as-left results
- A record of every repair and how the instrument was checked before use
- A due-date list so nothing lapses
Keeping all of this on one calendar is the hard part. A service agreement puts calibration, preventive maintenance and certification for every instrument on one schedule, with records you can pull up during an inspection. For the inspection side, see our CLIA inspection checklist.