Preparing our equipment for use needs to be part of our daily checks, and one such piece of equipment is suction. When we check our suction we should ensure that all unused ports are closed. It is not uncommon for even experienced providers to hit that suction switch, hear that machine fire up but get nothing coming from the tube. At this point we go in to trouble shooting mode instead of treatment mode which can have deleterious effects on our patient. Proper preparation leads to higher rates of success.