I recently inherited a clinic that has Baxter Tina system 1000 series, and Baxter Aurora machines. One of the machines (Aurora) Conductivity is bouncing all over the place. From 12 to 7 to 4 to 9. I tried to calibrate the conductivity but it's too unstable to calibrate so I then tried to calibrate the acid and bicarb pumps but the manuals directions do not match what the onscreen promps are telling me. any one out there with any info?

I am not familiar with the newer baxters but a trick I learned with 1550's that gave an unstable conductivity alarm was to calibrate the acid pump in "verify" to a neometer. If the conductivity of the pump is out of specs the machines would never calibrate. Try this and you may get lucky.

One other possibility is you have air in your system causing the instability.

when I try to calibrate the acid pump, the manual tells you that you have to prime the line first. about 90 strokes So you put the tared beaker on the scale, add 150 mil. of water, and push the verify button to start the prime. The pump strokes are on the monitor and start at 345. The manual then tells you to count down 90 strokes and push the stop calibration button which I do but the Machine continues to count down the strokes. The Manual states that you have to pause the calibration because you need to re-tare the scale and measure the weight of the volume of water taken in by the machine. I can't do that because if I press stop cal. twice, it cancells the calibration. I'm lost on the whole thing...

Hi Robb,

First of all, you most likely have air getting into the closed system somewhere. This will cause the condo to bounce all over. With the hydraulics compartment open, look at the hoses. There should not be any air bubbles in the hoses. Especially look at the hose going to/from the biacarb pump. If you have air, trace it back.

A less likely source would be defective conductivity probes or loose wires. Tighten the phillips screw on each of the probes to break any oxidization that has built up. Or replace the primary probes if you have a set. If this fixes the problem, make sure you do a temperature/condo cal. Conductivity cal must be preceeded by a temperature cal due. This may take up to 45 minutes.

To calibrate a pump: Get a styrofoam cup or similar volume container. Make sure your scale as a decimal point accuracy. Remove the acid or bicarb male jug connector and mark a line 0.5" from the end with a Sharpie. Put the line into the cup of water. Start the calibration and allow the respective pump to draw up about 90 strokes of water. Press the Stop key twice. It will take you out of the pump calibration. You are to do this step just to purge the concentrate lines of any air. Top up the container and line up the marked line to the top of the water level and tare the scale. Do not remove the line from the water. Repeat the pump calibration, but allow the full 345 strokes to take place. Once the pump stops, move the line up to the marked water level and note the mass of the water removed on the scale. Repeat the calibration and ensure that the readings are within 0.4 g of each other. Enter in the mass removed on the calibration screen. Do the other concentrate pump. It is also advisable to calibrate the dialysate flow as well since all 3 components are inter-dependant.

Thank you. I did have air in the system coming from the acid concentrate filter. I got my conductivity to stabilize at around 13.3 but my temp is only 34 degrees I tried to calibrate that but the temperature gain is failing I can only get this machine up to 37 degrees. any answers?