Plant growth chambers
must be able to simulate a range of climatic conditions accurately and
reliably in order to deliver optimal research outcomes. Thus, knowing
how to maintain plant growth chambers and walk in rooms is an essential
capability for phytotron and other facility managers that are tasked
with keeping them in top working condition for the plant scientists that
use them.
Regular plant growth chamber maintenance increases their longevity
and ensures that chambers continually operate at peak performance. It
goes beyond simple repairs, encompassing a proactive and holistic
approach that drives cost savings and mitigates risk of down time or
interruption to research.
Moreover, preventative maintenance ensures that the substantial
investment required to purchase, install and operate growth
chambers and rooms delivers maximum return for your facility and
researchers over time.
In this article, we’ll cover various aspects of plant growth chamber
maintenance, from understanding what maintenance entails, to finding the
right service provider, to future-proofing equipment and putting the
right strategy in place to meet your facility’s unique needs.
Quick Takeaways:
Regular maintenance of growth chambers is crucial for
extending their lifespan and ensuring consistent growing conditions and
research repeatability.
Preventative maintenance helps avoid costly repairs, saves
on utility costs, and enhances energy efficiency and system performance.
Planning and scheduling maintenance during low research periods minimizes disruptions, ensuring smooth ongoing experiments.
Partnering with the right maintenance provider ensures direct OEM support, flexibility, transparency, and comprehensive service.
Proactive upgrades and a strategic maintenance approach
tailored to your organization's needs can significantly improve
long-term research productivity and effectively control costs.
Regular maintenance ensures the substantial investment required to purchase, install and operate plant growth chambers delivers maximum return over time for your facility and researchers.
Understanding Plant Growth Chamber Maintenance
A helpful way to think about plant growth chamber maintenance is to compare it to that of a car. Cars need regular oil changes, tire rotations, engine and brake checks in order to continue operating efficiently and driving safely. Regular car maintenance can significantly extend the life, performance and reliability of a car.
Further, two cars manufactured in the same year, with the exact same make, model and usage patterns can be in vastly different condition years later depending on the frequency and quality of maintenance they’ve received.
This principle also holds true for plant growth chambers. Preventative chamber maintenance involves routine checks, adjustments, and replacements to keep chambers running smoothly and ensure they meet the precise environmental conditions needed to run experiments.
It requires inspecting mechanical equipment and functions that contribute to simulating natural environments—including lighting, refrigeration, irrigation, humidification systems, and fans—to create uniform, repeatable growing conditions in support of research objectives.
Maintenance is not just about fixing what's broken but preventing breakdowns in the first place, ensuring chambers continue to perform as expected for their intended lifespan.
The Benefits of Plant Growth Chamber Maintenance
We know that planning to maintain plant growth chambers effectively is crucial for ensuring their longevity, efficiency, and reliability. The four benefits below explore some of the most impactful effects that a solid maintenance plan brings to organizations and research teams.
Cost Savings
Preventative maintenance is a financial safeguard. By conducting regular checks and addressing minor issues promptly, facilities can avoid the larger expenses associated with major repairs or interruption to expensive research programs.
Well-maintained plant growth chambers are also more energy-efficient, requiring less power to operate and, as a result, reducing ongoing utility costs. A good example of this is retrofitting old chambers that are using fluorescent lighting with the latest, energy efficient LEDs. In essence, the investment in maintenance and retrofitting older generation lighting pays dividends by lowering the overall operational costs of running a chamber.
Facility Manager at the University of Manitoba performs retrofit of old fluorescent lighting with new LED lighting in a reach in plant growth chamber.
Energy Savings and Improved Performance
Optimally performing plant growth chambers maximize efficiency, translating to consistent and reliable results with reduced energy consumption. This efficiency not only aligns with sustainability goals by lowering the facility's carbon footprint but also lowers energy bills.
At the same time, ensuring that all system components are in prime condition prevents unexpected breakdowns, making the research process smoother and more predictable.
More Maintenance, Less Repairs
The longevity of plant growth chambers is directly tied to the rigor of their maintenance schedules. Regular preventative measures significantly extend the lifespan of a chamber by reducing the wear and tear on its components.
This approach minimizes the risk of sudden failures that could jeopardize months or even years of research. Moreover, by minimizing the need for emergency repairs, facilities can allocate their budgets more predictably and effectively.
Enhances Employee Satisfaction
Well-maintained plant growth chambers and growth rooms contribute to a more positive and productive research environment. It assures researchers that their experiments will not be interrupted by equipment failure, thereby fostering a sense of confidence and overall satisfaction knowing that they can depend on the equipment that is so vital to their research and the discovery process.
Further, addressing potential issues before they escalate not only prevents research timeline setbacks but also reduces stress and anxiety among staff. Consequently, a proactive maintenance plan not only benefits the plant growth chambers but also supports the well-being and morale of the researchers you have on staff.
A maintenance team with a direct line to the original equipment manufacturer will have access to the latest updates, parts, and repair techniques, ensuring your chamber is maintained to the highest standards.
Key Strategies for Success
Ensuring the longevity and efficiency of plant growth chambers requires a structured maintenance strategy. Follow these essential best practices to facilitate the preservation and optimal performance of your chambers and growth rooms.
Chamber manufacturers should not only offer to conduct thorough maintenance checks but also detailed documentation of their work. This historical record based on serial number is invaluable for tracking the chamber’s condition over time.
Plan Ahead
Many organizations are under the assumption that finding time for
preventative maintenance would be a challenge. While it does require
planning ahead, scheduled maintenance typically only takes a few hours
for small or medium sized chambers, and one day for larger growing
spaces. Effective maintenance scheduling can alleviate the feeling that
it’s hard to fit in. Consider also planning maintenance during periods
of low research activity such between semester breaks or between major
experiments so as to ensure minimal disruption.
Partner with the Right Maintenance Provider
Identifying the right maintenance provider for your organization is
critical for implementing a chamber maintenance plan that’s effective
long-term. The ideal team should:
Have Direct OEM Communication: A maintenance
team with a direct line to the original equipment manufacturer will have
access to the latest updates, parts, and repair techniques, ensuring
your chamber is maintained to the highest standards.
Accommodate Your Schedule: Flexibility is key.
The best providers can perform necessary maintenance tasks around your
research activities to prevent any disruption. The service provider
should be able to also provide you with an estimate of how long the
repair should take.
Offer Transparency and Documentation: A
trustworthy provider not only conducts thorough maintenance checks but
also offers detailed documentation of their work. This historical record
based on serial number is invaluable for tracking the chamber’s
condition over time and can be crucial for diagnosing future issues.
Your service provider should have a checklist that covers all the essential areas they’ll assess, including but not limited to:
Refrigeration
Humidity
Lighting
Electrical
Ensure that your chamber manufacturer has a checklist of common preventative maintenance items to look for in order to maintain optimal performance. Sample checklist below.
Maintenance is not just about preserving the status quo but also about future-proofing your equipment. Even with preventative maintenance, all equipment requires upgrades and eventually replacement after a certain period of time.
Think of it like you would using a 20-year old computer or mobile phone: It may be working, but it simply won’t have the same capabilities or performance potential of newer models. OEMs also phase out support for older models as parts become unavailable and as older generation systems and components are replaced by state-of-the art technology. Institutional knowledge of systems that are 15, 20 years or older will also naturally fade due to the attrition of technical staff.
Waiting until a system failure can lead to rushed decisions, compromised performance, and sub-optimal research outcomes. By proactively upgrading plant growth chambers and parts, especially critical components like aged control systems for which replacement parts may no longer be available, you can prevent lengthy downtime and emergency repairs, both of which can be costly.
Keep in mind that no equipment lasts forever. Every facility reaches a decision point where continued investment in older equipment becomes less justifiable than replacement. A strategic approach, informed by proactive upgrades and regular maintenance insights, can guide this decision, ensuring investments are made wisely and align with long-term research needs.
Setting the Right Strategy
Developing the ideal maintenance strategy for your plant growth chambers is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Every organization's needs, from deciding to upgrade aging equipment to timing replacements around funding availability, are distinct.
The key lies in partnering with a service provider who is well-versed in your specific equipment, has a direct line to your OEM, and is flexible enough to align with your schedule. This relationship is invaluable, offering insights that extend beyond routine maintenance to strategic advice on equipment lifecycle management.
A tailored approach that’s informed by authorized OEM service providers and regular maintenance insights ensures that your investments are cost-effective and capable of supporting your research needs reliably and long into the future.
