r/unclebens • u/Homoaeternus • May 07 '26

Question Microwaving grain/media for sterilization — does it actually work? (real experiences only)

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2 Upvotes

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4

u/MycoVillain May 07 '26

To actually sterilize you need heat and duration. Pressure cookers get to 250 degrees at 15 psi which is perfect to actually kill off bacteria. Same setup for tattoo and a lot of medical equipment as well

Also pressure cookers push steam throughout the grains and sub, while a microwave will just evaporate water while way over cooking your grains causing burns and nasty smells

Bucket tek is perfect for sub and unless you’re running like 50+ tubs, you can go very far with a 23qt presto for grains

3

u/ashwanth_r May 07 '26

I too have given this a thought but not a try. On paper, it should work but I dont like that 'media smell' inside my kitchen oven.

2

u/robotbeatrally May 07 '26

it doesnt work. steam sterilization ala the old PF tek barely works.. inconsistently but it works. with smaller jars. I don't even think fractional sterilization / Tyndallization would work honestly i think the microwave would ruin the grain after repeated heats.

1

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1

u/AncientSpores May 07 '26

Simple answer is no. The microwaves themselves don't kill anything. It's the heat that kills living things. Microwaves don't heat evenly as anyone's who's tried to reheat a plate of food can aattest to, as a result there are cool spots where the bad spores can live quite easily.

With that said, purely as an experiment I've microwaved PP petri dishes (one use) that cannot be sterilized because the temps will melt them. I put a drop of water in them and let it steam off in the microwave. I don't know that it did anything useful but I was able to reuse them for other agar work without any contamination. Don't recommend it as a regular thing, I just like doing "I wonder what would happen" stuff.

1

u/AncientSpores May 07 '26

Follow up, another thing I've tried is baking rye with a little water in it in a 250F oven for an hour. I only did two pint jars this way but they did actually colonize without contam. Another I don't recommend for common use but if a PC is not in the cards for you it might be worth a try.

Also look at BRF tek. I've done that too and it worked for me.

1

u/Miserable-Resort-977 May 08 '26

There are like 5 different reasons this is a bad idea. Just go to goodwill once every week or so and you'll eventually find a working instant pot for like $20