The Biohit Proline 710800 is an 8-channel electronic repeat pipettor that is capable of pipetting 50-1200 ul of liquid at a given time. This electronic pipettor is easy to program (all done with six buttons on the handle) and has several different features including straight pipetting, multi-dispensing, mixing, sequenced dispensing and multi-aspirating. The main reason we bought this pipettor was for the multi-dispensing feature, which allows you to fill an entire 96 well plate with 100 ul per well in less than 10 seconds with minimal strain and effort. The tips are designed to hold 1200 ul of liquid, so one simple push of the button aspirates the entire volume needed to fill an entire 96 well plate. Then to dispense the desired volume, you simply place the tips into the desired wells and push the same button with your thumb (just a light tap is all that is needed). This process is repeated until the entire plate has been filled (takes less than 10 seconds). The whole process takes 15 simple clicks with the thumb – one to aspirate the desired volume, one to discard some priming excess, 12 clicks to fill the different columns and one final click to discard any remaining liquid. The reduced stress on the thumb and arm are probably more important than the time saved using this pipettor. Using a traditional 8-channel pipettor, one would have to fill and dispense the tips 12 times in order to fill the entire plate, a process that can lead to repetitive stress injuries.
In addition to the multi-dispensing capabilities, the design of Biohit Proline pipettor is an advantage that should not be overlooked. This pipettor is extremely well balanced and very comfortable to hold. Instead of holding the pipettor with your hand and fingers as you do with traditional pipettors, this pipettor has a hook that rests on the top of your hand. This allows you to support the pipettor without having to grip the machine with your fingers. In addition, the tip-release is also very well designed: to eject the tips, you use your four fingers instead of just your thumb, which greatly reduces the normal stress associated with ejecting tips.
This is the only electronic multichannel pipettor I have ever used, so unfortunately, I cannot compare it with other models that are currently available. One minor concern with this Biohit Proline pipettor would be the price, as these pipettors do not run cheap. In addition, so far we have only used the Biohit tips designed for this pipettor, so I do not know if cheaper generics are available. However, the Biohit tips have worked extremely well, as the pipettor has gaskets to ensure the tips are on securely. With these gaskets, the tips hardly ever leak and you don’t need to secure them with your fingers before pipetting, which is sometimes necessary with cheaper multichannels.
Another concern is the force with which the pipettor dispenses liquids and whether or not this could lead to cross-contamination. This is not a problem when filling an empty 96 well plate, but could become an issue when feeding plates that already contain cells (might be more important for non-adherent cells). The pipettor does have five different speed settings, so this may not be an issue if the pipettor is set to the lowest setting. I don’t have as much experience feeding plates, so I am not sure how much this is really a problem. In summary, the Biohit Proline Electronic Multichannel Pipettor reduces the time and strain required to fill multiple 96 well plates and is a must for anyone whose work involves tedious amounts of tissue culture.