Blood bank refrigerators: relevant climate conditions and maintenance levels

Blood bank refrigerators play the main role in blood safety and appropriate blood production. Confirmation of their functions to maintain temperature stability with a PM program is compulsory. The main objective of this study is to identify the level of maintenance and regional climate effects on blood bank refrigerators in different blood centers. In order to study the level of maintenance and possible regional climate effects on each blood bank refrigerator، a survey on 85 local refrigerators in seven regional blood centers was carried out. In this survey، along with the amount of temperature leakage from the body and glass insulators، the quality of ribbons used was also evaluated. The results obtained from this study showed the degree of temperature leakage on bodies of the fridges، metal doors، and glasses to be varied due to different factors like room humidity and temperature changes، air flow around refrigerators، and spaces between refrigerators and other appliances or wall. This study contributes to a higher knowledge level of local manufacturers on how better to produce blood bank refrigerators to be compatible with different climate conditions of Iran.