I switched over to
LTS pipettes from Rainin a couple of years ago. The ease of pipetting, pipet tip sealing, and simple ejection has been great and has reduced wrist strain and tension. But these are typical pipettes that only offer simple pickup and ejection of preset volumes. In addition, I also have
EDP3-Plus electronic pipettes that have proven very useful for multiple sample pickup and dispensing. These electronic pipetters are pretty pricey, however, and too heavy for general use. So when I heard of the new Rainin E-man Hybrid™ pipettes, I thought I would give them a try.
The E-man Hybrid offers several new features such as titrate, track mode and cycle counter. It promises to combine the ease and lightweight LTS features of a manual pipette with digital control and real-time LCD sensing. I thought the most useful function would be the ability to see on the digital screen how much liquid is in the pipette tip and how much was ejected out. This can be especially nice when it is important to know how much sample is in a tube or whether an aliquot was accurate. It is also nice to be able to see on a digital screen the exact volume that is dialed in, with the display reading to the 0.5 ul - much more accurate than the dash marks on typical pipettes to determine fractions of a microliter. The cycle counter lets you know how many times the sample has been aspirated and dispensed. The titrate mode allows one to see the amount of liquid dispensed. There is also a GLP service reminder and user calibration.
I have found the new features useful a couple of times, but for the most part unnecessary. The pipette is heavier and thus creates more strain on the wrist. While changing the volume is the same as with the manual pipettes, the electronic function requires you to lock the pipette by switching a lever with your thumb. If not done correctly (or if you’re lazy like I am about switching) a really annoying Lock Error message pops up on the screen. I often can’t tell if the volume is correct or not, as the LCD often switches between two numbers for some reason. The message won’t clear until the plunger is fully pushed down. I really just use the pipetter as I would my old manual pipettes. The one good thing is that the E-man is only slightly more expensive than the manual version, and Rainin offers some great deals. While the E-man is nice to have on hand for certain occasions requiring greater accuracy or when determining volumes of unknown aliquots, I wouldn’t replace my old pipettes with this newest version.