Most purchasers don’t have the luxury of simultaneously putting multiple ULT freezers to the test under controlled conditions over an extended period.
”Thus it’s not uncommon to fi nd competing vendors making confl icting claims about which units off er the quickest time to reach setpoint, the most stable performance, temperature uni- formity within the cabinet or the best recovery from a door opening, for example.
Wilkes notes that Thermo Fisher Scientific
and most other leading vendors have “a bet- ter–best platform,” in which top-of-the-line models sport super-insulated panels, upgrad- ed control sets with more reliability indicators and other bells and whistles compared to more basic offerings.
Shoppers should expect to pay in the neigh- borhood of $8–13,000 for an upright ULT freezer, with some specialty or premium mod- els costing more.
If your lab pays the electric bill, or is otherwise motivated toward energy efficiency, keep in mind that a single, average ULT freezer uses about as much electricity as a small house. A 2014 report prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy found that high-efficiency ULT freez- ers saved between 20 and 66% compared to similarly sized and similarly aged standard ULT freezers—with the Stirling Ultracold saving an estimated $570 per year, recouping its higher initial cost in less than three years.1
Cicek recommends that researchers find a freezer that holds a stable temperature and cools back down to –80° as quickly as pos- sible, since they’re likely to be opening the door multiple times in a day. In this regard, the Thermo Scientific Revco (see Figure 1)
fared best of the upright ULT freezers tested by Mayo Clinic (which doesn’t surprise Wilkes, who points out that there is often a tradeoff between performance and energy usage). And, to get more bang for the buck, she recom- mends getting the highest capacity available for the footprint.
Table 1 lists things to consider when shopping for a ULT freezer.
Conclusion This article has provided a sampling of ULT freezers and purchasing considerations.
Vendors such as Eppendorf, NuAire and BINDER offer a range of innovative systems. For more details, please visit
www.labcompare.com.
Reference
1. Legett, R. Field Demonstration of High Effi - ciency Ultra-Low-Temperature Laboratory Freezers;
http://energy.gov/eere/buildings/ downloads/field-demonstration-high-effi- ciency-ultra-low-temperature-laboratory
Josh P. Roberts has been a full-time biomedi- cal science writer for more than a decade. After earning an M.A. in the history and philosophy of science, he went through the Ph.D. program in molecular, cellular, developmental biology and genetics at the University of Minnesota, with dis- sertation research in ocular immunology; e-mail:
tcwriter@msn.com
AMERICAN LABORATORY • 41 • MARCH 2015
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56