The list of factors to consider when purchasing a ULT freezer to store your expensive reagents and precious samples is long and includes important considerations like location and capacity, reliability and performance, energy efficiency, ease of use, as well as connectivity and remote monitoring.
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While vendor sites offer an abundance of information, Biocompare, with its extensive product directory containing millions of products, is an invaluable resource to streamline your freezer purchase decision making. Not only does it list product specifications for tens of ULT freezers from all the top vendors (see Table below for a sampling of the information available on Biocompare) it also includes user reviews from scientists in the lab who understand the importance of a reliable ULT freezer and want to share their knowledge and experience with others. Some recent ULT freezers reviews are listed below and more can be accessed here.
PHC
PHC’s VIP Series was given a stellar review by a lab director at Columbia University who noted that the “freezer has more capacity than our old freezer did and the temperature is more reliable.” They were particularly impressed with the “extra set of doors inside to help keep cold air inside", and the ability to only completely open half the freezer at a time.
Eppendorf
The New Brunswick C760 Innova was a mixed bag for a research specialist at UNC Chapel Hill who liked the “very large capacity for a small footprint” but had problems with the compressor (which was ultimately replaced free of charge).
Similarly the Cryocube 740hi was praised for holding a large number of samples and cooling rapidly, but was criticized for poor-quality sealing foam.
Thermo Fisher Scientific
Thermo’s TSX 70086A was given high marks from a research scientist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who hailed the freezer as a “great piece of equipment for storing samples, such as protein lysates, bacteria stocks, cell lines (for short-term use), for long-term stability.” The one downside they noted, which could also be considered a plus, is that you “cannot open freezer for more than three minutes, otherwise a loud alarm starts.”
A Columbia University lab director also sang the praises of Thermo’s TSX 70086A saying “This is a great freezer for lots of storage and reliable temperature control for sensitive samples.”
Stirling Ultracold
Stirling Ultracold’s SU780XLE was the go-to freezer for a lab director at UC Berkeley who noted “our lab has been using this -80° C for a few years now and have been having excellent results with it. It does its job, and the ergonomic design makes spacing optimal.”
A post-doctoral researcher at the University of Georgia was also a fan of the SU780XLE, saying succinctly it was “a good ultracold freezer for sample and bacterial culture storage and it possessed steady-stage temperature with variation no more than 1° C.”
Conclusion
ULT freezers typically have a long service life and should only need to be replaced every 12 to 15 years, which makes it imperative that you select the right freezer for your experimental needs now and in the near future. Once you have determined your requirements and looked over the specifications and performance data from the freezers that meet your needs, check out Biocompare's reviews and get honest product assessments from scientists with hands-on experience to help you finalize your decision about which freezer to purchase.
Table. Specifications for Some ULT Freezers Found in the Biocompare Directory
If you're interested in submitting a review detailing your experience with an ULT freezer or an antibody, assay kit, reagent, instrument, or service used for your research, submit a review today! Once published, you'll receive a free $20 Amazon gift card from us as a way to say thanks.