From owner-celegans@net.bio.net Wed Jan 08 22:00:00 1997 Path: biosci!lamg.com!Tritech_Research From: Tritech_Research@lamg.com (Tritech Research) Newsgroups: bionet.celegans Subject: Incubator warnings!!! Date: 8 Jan 1997 18:35:12 -0800 Organization: Los Angeles Macintosh Group BBS Lines: 71 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <2591227903.5765907@lamg.com> Reply-To: Tritech_Research@lamg.com NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net Since all of the Worm Labs use incubators, and many of the Worm Labs have Tritech Research DigiTherm Heating/Cooling Incubators, I think it is important to post some general warnings and specific information about them here. *This is NOT a sales pitch* Just as with computer data, backing up strains is important. As with all kinds of "incubators", including temperature- controlled rooms and even -80C freezers, our incubators can (and WILL eventually) break down. And, left in a broken down "incubator", temperature-sensitive samples (like worms) can be damaged or destroyed. Therefore, it is critical to store important samples (and strains) in multiple locations: in more than one incubator and/or more than one freezer. All of you know this, but it is sometimes easy to forget when the equipment is working flawlessly for months and months. And it is because someone cooked some strains that I thought to write this now. That was the general information part; here is a brief discussion of possible failure modes of our incubators. The Coleman and Igloo thermoelectric units that we use right now have fan motors and heat pumps "rated" (by Coleman or Igloo) for an average life of 50,000 hours (= 2083 days = 5.7 years). However, the standard deviation is very high - we test the incubators here for several days before shipping them out, and occasionally we find (and discard) units where the heat pump will burn out. If the fan or heat pump burns out in "heating mode", the incubator may continue to work "normally" (since a burned out heat pump generates heat, and our controller will turn power on and off appropriately), or the unit may not be able to get hot enough (probably no big deal... BUT...) If the fan or heat pump burns out in "cooling mode", the incubator can overheat (since a burned out heat pump or fan generates heat, and our controller will keep supplying power since it "thinks" it is trying to cool. Even though our unit runs on an impressively low, energy-efficient 50 watts, even a portion of this can be enough to warm the incubator to heat-shock temperature and above. If the controller stops working (which usually happens if the temp. probe is cut or damaged, but could also happen if there is a huge power surge), the unit will either stop running (in which case you get room temp) or keep running indefinitely (in which case samples will either freeze or cook). **************************** So, there you have it. It is just as important to keep backups of strains stored in other company's incubators. Even though they charge at least 4x as much (over $2000 compared to our $500-650), they break down too, sometimes covering worm plates with ice, or cooking them. I have even seen >$50,000 20C rooms heat up to over 37C. One advantage of our incubators (besides convenience, accuracy, and cost) is low repair cost. In the event that you have a problem, (after our 1-year full parts and labor warranty expires) we can replace the entire heating/cooling chamber, heat pumps and all for about $200, giving you essentially a brand new incubator; whereas, other companies will charge that much just for a service call. Or, we can get you a replacement fan for about $25. If you need a copy of our catalog or have any other questions, feel free to e-mail or call (800)733-3874. ***************************** All that being said, have a happy, healthy, and experimentally successful 1997! Andy Papp TRITECH_RESEARCH@LAMG.COM .