[Eisenstein]

I'm pretty sure it is because when there is high pressure the boiling point of water is higher.

[Aachen]

How would that help? It never says water, always steam, and it needs to get in all crevices evenly which afaik is easier with a gas than a liquid. If the steam condenses to water (for example due to raising its boiling point above the autoclave's temperature of ~125°C) that'd probably be bad

Apparently at 2 bars, water boils at 120°C. The first temperature mentioned on Wikipedia is 121°C. That's awfully close; but elsewhere the article is quite clear about using higher-than-atmospheric atmospheric pressure. I don't see an explanation that fits all the mentioned facts

[Eisenstein]

> If the steam condenses to water (for example due to raising its boiling point above the autoclave's temperature of ~125°C) that'd probably be bad

If water boils at 100C then steam condenses at 99C. If water boils at 120C then steam condenses at 119C.

> higher-than-atmospheric atmospheric pressure.

What does that mean?

> I don't see an explanation that fits all the mentioned facts

Is it really a difficult concept? If the boiling point rises so does the condensation point.

[Dylan16807]

Yes, pressure raises the boiling point.

But if we want it to be steam, isn't that a bad thing?

Don't we want a nice big safety margin between our active steam temperature and the temperature it condenses?

[Eisenstein]

> But if we want it to be steam, isn't that a bad thing?

Not if we want the steam to be hotter.

> Don't we want a nice big safety margin between our active steam temperature and the temperature it condenses?

Water is in one of three states: liquid, gas, solid. It has to be one of those. Where does the margin come from?