Thursday July 06, 2000
The BioRad PowerPac 200 is a power supply ideal for SDS-PAGE and western blotting. As its name indicates, it reaches only 200V but it can withstand up to 2 Amps. This makes this power supply ideal for running and transferring protein resolving gels, such as BioRad's (or other) "mini" gels as well as common DNA electrophoresis (agarose) gels. This power supply can be run at constant voltage (for SDS-PAGE and agarose gels) or at constant current (for western transfers), but it cannot be used for running sequencing gels or any gel requiring voltage above 200V.
We purchased this power supply after our previous supply literally fried under constant western blotting usage which requires low voltage (<200V) but high amperage. I could not have been more satisfied with this piece of equipment, especially considering its low cost.
Some of the features of the PowerPac 200 that I found useful include:
1) Its versatility - it can be run on voltage or on current and has a controlling timer. It is very easy to read all three variables (V, A or accumulated/remaining time) when running in any of the three modes.
2) Its ease of use and set-up (took 5 min to learn and is logical!)
3) Its small size.
4) Its flat top (useful for storage).
5) Can run up to 4 gels at its max voltage and current easily.
6) Can set voltage in 1V increments, none of those 8-9V steps.
7) Automatic shutoff in leak and no closed circuit detection.
I have yet to have a negative experience with this power supply.
In summary, I would highly recommend the BioRad PowerPac 200 to any lab which requires a reliable, easy to use, relatively cheap power supply for SDS-PAGE, western blots and DNA agarose electrophoresis.
Pierre Beaurang, PhD.
Post-Doctoral Fellow
University of California, San Francisco