Boil vs Bake

I am currently working on putting a yeast bank together. I use jars to put the yeast in before the test tubes. I am now looking into either baking or boiling jars to sterilize them. Does anybody have any advice regarding the 2 procedures???

I haven't done either, but my mom always does a lot of canning at home, and to sterilize her mason jars she would always boil them. It's a little different, because she'd usually fill them with hot stuff as well. One thing that may be helpful is a canning jar lifter like this if you choose to go the boil route.

I'd probably pick boil just because it's faster.

Boiling will not sterilize. In order to properly sterilize you will need to get the water to 250 degrees and maintain this temp. This can be properly done with am autoclave or the much cheaper alternative of a pressure canner. It is possible to sterilize with dry heat i.e. baking. This will require temps that are higher and for a longer duration. Most autoclavable plastics will not hold up to this heat.

Are there any chemicals that i could easily use to sterilize the equipment. I dont have a pressure cooker so the oven will be my best bet. Now what about the lids? Would a high concentration of bleach sterilize them?

Have been looking at yeast banking for a while and have read a lot. My setup will be to pressure cook the vessels and equipment, and just spray star-San on everything else. I know that contaminants are a potential problem but -4F works just as well on them as on WLP-002. Woe to he who thinks he has sterility in a Homebrew setup. It's all relative.

Guy for Northern Brewer (I believe) for his yeast washing boiled.

While not totally sterile (CDC says have to have at 250 for half an out) but boiling for 15 minutes effectively sterilizes the jar as it kills almost all of the bacteria that gets to your yeast. The over in probably the best way to do it.

That said, for what you're trying to do, I don't think boiling would be bad and may be much safer than baking for 30 minutes.