The IKA Vortex Genius 3 may seem like any ordinary laboratory vortex at first, however, it is much more than that. It is very sturdy and surprisingly light. In standard mode it has the normal functions of a vortex: continuous and touch mode. The Genius 3 also has a very wide speed range which I have found to be greater than some of our older vortexes.
The IKA Genius 3 really comes into its own when used for other movement applications rather than just vortexing a single tube as most vortexes do. The ordinary vortex rubber can be removed and specialized bases added. It has optional attachments that plug into those bases such as those for Erlenmeyer flasks; it even has a top strap to keep the flask in place. There is also an attachment for microtiter plates and attachments for various sized tubes. The optional attachments can only be used in continuous mode, but this is not really a problem. Most of the optional attachments are approximately 150 mm in diameter, as opposed to the regular attachments which are 30mm diameter. If you placed your tubes into the numerous positions and just press down in the middle of the vortex as you do in touch mode, you would not get equal vortexing of your samples – especially if it’s in a microtitre plate; thus, the need for using continuous mode.
The tubes commonly used in our lab are 1.5 ml microfuge tubes. The attachment for this is a rubber ring with 54 places. This allows for many more samples to be vortexed; the other vortexers we use in our lab can handle 25 tubes, at most. We have also vortexed swabs and there is just no comparison between the IKA Vortex Genius 3 and our old vortexes. The old 25-place vortex heats up very quickly at higher speeds and shuts off; the IKA Vortex has never shut down, even when fully loaded and at full speed. I have performed some simple experiments using buccal and blood swabs between our old 25-place vortex and the IKA Vortex Genius 3 and have found approximately a 20-30% greater yield of DNA due to the greater speed and performance of the vortex. With the IKA vortex, you can visually see the swab being vigorously swirled about the tube and the fluid in the tube creating a vortex, unlike our other models. On the other hand, the IKA Vortex Genius 3 can be quite noisy on the bench. We have it on a piece of foam to dampen the noise; with the foam, the noise is not noticeable.
The IKA Vortex Genius 3 is quite inexpensive. The foam rubber attachments for your various needs may be quite expensive for what they seem to be, but they last a long time with prolonged use.
David Fegredo
Medical Scientist
PathWest
DNA Laboratory