HERAcell® 150 CO₂ Incubator From Heraeus

Heraeus incubators have been around for many years and when our old Heraeus finally started having problems, we really wanted to keep with the brand. However, apparently Heraeus only sells through outside vendors. After some searching I found a couple local vendors, Thermo Scientific and Pacific Laboratory Products, which offer some models. The Heraeus HERAcell® 150 is a 150 liter unit available with CO₂ and/or O₂. The temperature ranges up to 55°C with >95% humidity. This model is only offered with an air jacket. Although water jackets reportedly retain heat longer in case of a power outage and are less prone to variability, if the power goes out, so does your CO₂ and the cells are not going to be happy anyway. Air jackets come up to temperature much quicker, are lighter and allow the option of a hot air sterilization cycle. When buying an incubator, an important choice involves the option of a stainless steel or fungicidal copper interior. I chose the copper option as copper has been proven to repel bacteria and fungicidal growth, making it the absolute best way to keep cells free of contamination. As maintaining healthy cells is a number one priority, the copper lined interior is well worth the added price. Another option of the HERAcell® 150 is separate doors for each of the three shelving compartments, further eliminating contamination problems.

We love our new Heraeus incubator. It was really easy to set up and connect the tubing, clean the shelves, and adjust the CO₂ and temperature. The auto start ContraCon decontamination cycle heats the unit up to 90°C and goes through a routine, automatically decontaminating the whole system (even from mycoplasma) with the shelves and everything still assembled. Everything was set up and ready to use in 24 hours. We have not had any contamination problems in the several months we have owned the incubator (unlike our Sanyos which still grow fungus in the water bath even with a UV light). In the Heraeus, the water is added directly to the bottom of the incubator (which has really nice rounded corners), allowing for direct heating and making water changes very easy and spill-free. There is also a water level alarm, thermal conductivity or infrared sensor and auto-zero self-calibration. Another big issue for us is humidity, which is easily adjustable and well maintained, preventing any drying out of our tissue cultures. Aside from all the other standard features the incubator comes with, the fact that we have never had any yeast, fungal or bacterial contamination automatically makes this incubator one of the best I’ve seen.

The major criteria for any incubator must be: lack of contamination, maintenance of CO₂ levels, and proper humidity. So far the Heraeus has met and exceeded each of these expectations. Our cells have been very happy with this system. It is easy to maintain, tremendously reliable and one of my favorite lab purchases (the best ones are those you never have to worry about).