Resource Guide

2019 BATH & CHILLER RESOURCE GUIDE Questions to Ask When Buying Choosing the Right Fluid a Bath or Chiller for Your Chiller Water Bath Basics Baths and Chillers: All Roads Lead to Efficiency Features to Consider When Buying a Laboratory Water Bath HomogenizerBath & Chiller Resource Resource Guide Guide ? may be best. These baths can control temperature within Questions to ±0.1°C of the desired temperature. What if I am dealing with non-routine samples or Ask When analyses? For laboratories that have a wide variety of processes or Buying a Bath regularly run into non-routine samples or analyses, using a more robust system may help speed up preparation and downstream analysis. Many vendors offer advanced systems or Chiller capable of highly precise temperature control, plus the ability to perform reciprocal or orbital agitation. Some systems also by Lab Manager come with the ability to pre-program temperature controlled shaking protocols, which can save money by freeing up What type of bath or chiller is needed for my technician time. sample type or downstream analysis? Depending on the sample type, there are a variety of different options available for water baths and chillers. For example, incubating cultures may require continuous TOP 5 QUESTIONS YOU agitation. To accommodate this need, many manufacturers SHOULD ASK WHEN BUYING offer hot water baths with different shaking protocols A BATH OR CHILLER including reciprocal and orbital options. Another important 1. Does the product have any exclusive features? consideration is the size of the water bath as it must be able What sets it apart from other vendors’ chillers or baths? to accommodate the vessels you require. 2. What is the warranty period? What does it cover? 3. Are service plans available? If so, is there an on-site option? How can a bath or chiller accommodate 4. Does the unit have the appropriate cooling or heating temperature-sensitive samples or processes? capacity for the application? Is there enough reserve capacity to account for environmental cooling or A wide variety of baths and chillers are available that can heating losses? accommodate temperature sensitive samples. Most water baths 5. Does the manufacturer offer the necessary accessories are outfitted with heating and cooling capabilities, usually for the application? (tubing, fluid, adapters, electronic interfaces, etc.) controlled by either analog or digital means. For more precise control on temperature sensitive samples, a circulating bath Lab Manager 2 HomogenizerBath & Chiller Resource Resource Guide Guide But, there’s more to consider. Water Adding the right type of water can extend the life of a water bath and keep the surface intact. However, a commercial algicide or biocide should also be added to completely avoid the Bath Basics lagoon syndrome. It turns out that using the right kind of The need to clean water makes a difference in a water bath Even after taking these measures, a water bath must still be by Mikey May cleaned regularly. For full cleaning protocols, consult the manual or manufacturer. Depending on the water bath, different ven though they are frequently used, water baths guidelines may be advised. might be the most neglected pieces of equipment in a Elab. Their use involves heating water to about 98.6°F, Without specific instructions, a few general rules help. First, placing containers in the bath, taking them out, adding more no bleach! Like the wrong water, bleach can corrode stainless containers, and on and on, creating the perfect environment for steel. Next, no abrasives! Instead, stick with soapy water and a growing algae, bacteria, and fungus. Luckily a few easy steps soft cloth. If desired, a commercial product made specifically for can prevent your water bath from becoming a lagoon. cleaning water baths can be used. Scientists use water baths for a wide variety of applications. Some labs clean their baths with hot water. For that, about At St. Olaf College (Northfield, MN), assistant professor of 140°F water for 30 minutes or so should kill any living biology John L. Giannini uses a water bath to change the contaminants in a water bath. Even after that, it’s still a good temperature of enzyme reactions. “The most important thing idea to empty the bath and manually clean out any lagoon is to keep your water clean by changing it often,” Giannini says. leftovers. The question is: What’s the best way to do that? Take a bead break Pick the right water If keeping the water clean is just too much work, replacing It turns out that using the right kind of water makes a difference the water with beads may be a good solution. For applications in a water bath. Tap water contains dissolved ions and can where a bath doesn’t circulate or shake, the water can be cause issues from scaly buildup to chlorine-driven corrosion. swapped for beads. Therefore, it is not the ideal choice for water baths. Then, it all works the same, but the bath stays cleaner. Some scientists use water from a lab purification unit. However, However, even with beads, some cleaning is still required. Now even this water can corrode stainless steel. This is because some and then – depending on how a bead bath is used – the beads lab purification units include a salt back flush that can leave must be removed and cleaned using ethyl alcohol. corrosive sodium ions in the water. Water containing these ions can even put pits in a water bath’s surface. The best approach to heating things in a lab depends on the lab and, often, the existing equipment. No matter which method is Instead, the best choice is to use distilled or deionized water. selected—water or beads—the cleaning doesn’t go away. Lab Manager 3 Bath & Chiller Resource Guide Product Spotlight: The general purpose water bath is a fundamental product in the lab. Many manufacturers often sacrifice quality and innovation strictly to meet the demands of a tight budget. PolyScience believes you can have both, as well as convenience, durability and safety. Our goal with our water baths has always been is to strike a perfect balance between cost and reliable precise temperature control. Something we have once again achieved with our new generation of PolyScience water baths. 50 years of research and innovation have come together to offer you the best water bath with the greatest ease of use on the market. Learn More Featured Manufacturer PolyScience PolyScience specializes in precise liquid temperature control and for more than 50 years, PolyScience has been providing precise liquid temperature control solutions to a wide variety of markets. We offer products that will control the temperature for as low as -100 and up to 200 degrees Celsius and achieve stabilities of plus or minus 0.004 degrees Celsius. The simple idea that innovation and the belief that we can always grow, improve and create has been at the core of what continues to make us a leader in the temperature control industry. www.polyscience.com Lab Manager 4 VacuumBathHomogenizer & Chiller Pump ResourceResource GuideGuide When using a water bath, contamination prevention is essential. Toward that end, having a stainless-steel reservoir is a good Features to start and transparent covers allow the user to observe the procedure without continually opening the bath. However, users have additional options when it comes to the material Consider of construction. While stainless steel is the most common material, ceramic interiors may be easier to keep clean. When Buying Regularly draining and replacing the fluid in the water bath is another key way to avoid contamination, and buyers should consider how easy that process is going to be. Whether the a Laboratory water bath has a drain built in, and whether the drain is a simple valve that can be easily opened or requires a screwdriver to open, can make a big difference for the user. Two new Water Bath water bath features that have received positive feedback are an integrated drain hose that makes the bath cleaner and easier to From construction material to accessories, empty, and removable hinge covers that allow one to retrieve numerous options are available samples without having to place the cover (likely to be dripping with condensation) on the lab bench. By Erica Tennenhouse Additional features that make a water bath simpler to use lthough typically used for heating and thawing in include digital controls, integrated timers, and the ability to cell culture, water baths have a variety of applications operate in both Fahrenheit and Celsius. Because baths are Ain research labs, from material characterization to typically shared within the lab, having presets can make it histological studies. Whatever the application, those thinking more convenient to switch settings between users. A calibration of purchasing a new water bath for their lab should consider the feature can save the user time and money by removing reliance range of available features that can facilitate safety, help avoid on a third-party company to perform calibration. contamination, and make the unit flexible and easy to use. A water bath must be flexible enough to accommodate the Water bath safety is all about having over-temperature range of samples and devices that will be placed inside it, from limiters and audible alarms that warn the users of extreme test tubes to test tube racks to flasks of all different sizes. For temperatures. One situation that is best avoided is having the example, if users want to incubate an Erlenmeyer flask that is heater remain on after all the water in the bath has evaporated. taller than the depth of the bath, they require a lid that can be It is therefore important to have a safety mechanism in place configured to allow the neck of the flask to stick out but still that can automatically turn the system off when dry running cover the rest of the bath to minimize evaporation.

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