The Hydrocollator

The Hydrocollator, made by Chattanooga,  is a hot pack unit. There are other manufacturers but Chattanooga has been around the longest so I will refer to all hot pack units as a hydrocollator.

The hydrocollator, that ubiquitous piece of equipment that is found in almost every athletic training room along with a whirlpool and ice machine, is a modality that is used constantly but never gets any recognition. This is a machine that will last a lifetime as I have units that are older than the students being treated by it.  You can tell a lot about an athletic training room by its hydrocollator.  This was brought to my attention recently by a student's comment.  He asked why the water in our hydrocollator was so clean and other schools were so dirty.  I got a good belly laugh out of that statement. You see I do something that I find very few facilities do.  I periodically clean my unit.  You know what I also have done?  I have read the instructions on both the unit and the packs themselves.  You can learn a lot about things by reading the directions.

So I thought this would be a great topic, "Caring for Your Hydrocollator".  Did you know that it is recommended that you change the water every two weeks in your hydrocollator?  I have seen some units that look like the water has never been changed. Sometimes these units even smell bad.  You also need to check the water level daily.  You will lose water through evaporation and high use.  If a pack  has a tear in the fabric the filler will leak out into the water and also onto the toweling.  Dispose of these pack immediately and change the water. This is what contributes to the murky water. You should always have a supply of spares on hand.  Chattanooga lists the pack's life span as one year, while many of us get see them last much longer than that.  Frequent cleaning of the toweling is also essential.

Another mistake that people make is when the unit is not used for long periods, such as over the summer.  You have two choices, leave the unit on but make sure that the water level is checked periodically so it does not evaporate. The second option is to drain the unit and shut it down for the period of time.  The most important thing to do in this case is care and storage of the hot packs themselves.  They should be put separately into plastic bags and stored in a freezer.  I have used this technique for years and it works great.  If you do not and just let the packs dry out over time they will never be the same.  If you have ever seen a pack that looks like it is full of chunks and not expanded out fully, then the pack has been allowed to dry out.  Once this happens it will never return to its normal form and thereby not retain as much hot water, making the pack cool down faster.

We also have a few rules in our athletic training room concerning the hydrocollator unit.  Athletes are never allowed to retrieve a hot pack themselves and we do not allow athletes to sit or lie on top of a hot pack.  Hydrocollator units seem to last a forever but when they do break down they are relatively easy to fix.  I have replaced a few heating coils in my day. If you would like to actually read the directions for Hydrocollators you can follow this link. So if you want people to recognize your facility for it cleanliness, take some time and clean your unit.