Warming large media bottles in Lab Armor Beads.

Modified: July 10, 2008

Article: BT1428

Symptoms

Cell Culture media bottles take longer to bring to temperature in Lab Armor Beads than in a standard water bath. In direct comparison to water, it takes Beads approximately 1.25X longer to warm the contents of microfuge tubes and up to 2-3x longer to warm a 500 ml media bottle. To troubleshoot these issues, follow the recommendations below.

Problem

Due to its greater thermal mass, Beads take longer to warm than water. When a cold vessel is placed into Beads, like water, it cools slightly then returns to temperature as it brings the vessel to temperature. Both the temperature drop and the rate of return to temperature depend on several factors related to (1) the volume and the original temperature of the vessel, (2) the amount of Beads contained within the bath, (3) the set instrument temperature, and (4) the thermal efficiency of the bath.

Products Affected: Bath Armor

 

 

Resolution

Adjust the experimental protocol or increase the temperature of the bath.

To warm refrigerated vessels such as 500 ml tissue culture media bottles more quickly, simply raise the temperature of Beads to compensate for the slower rate of heat transfer. For example, to raise the temperature of a typical 500 ml bottle of cell culture media from 4ºC to approximately 37ºC in 30 minutes, submerge the bottle in 50-60ºC Beads for the 30 minutes, then pull out and place the bottle onto the surface of Beads. The Bottle of media will remain at 37 ºC +/- 2ºC atop the 50-60ºC Beads until use. But, to ensure proper heating of the sample and to avoid overtemperature exposure, be sure to validate the adjusted protocol and to keep the conditions constant from experiment to experiment.

 

To thaw frozen 500 ml bottles such as serum bottles more quickly, first bring the bottle to 4ºC in a refrigerator prior to adding to the bath. This can effectively reduce the amount of time it takes to warm the bottle of serum from 1+ hours to 30-40 min. Additionally, by periodically relocating a cold bottle within the Beads, the bath is able work more efficiently, which can reduce warm up times even more. It is best practice to warm larger media (500 ml) bottles in higher capacity baths. It takes longer to warm when the size ratio of the bath to the media bottle is too small. In some cases, small water baths, whether water-filled or waterless, can become very inefficient when multiple large bottles are thawed or warmed at the same time. Dual tank baths are ideal for laboratories that perform frequent thawing (see below).

 

 

Use a dual tank bath.

 

In some laboratories, a dual tank bath is the best option. Both tanks are filled with Beads but set to different temperatures. One tank is set to 50ºC for thawing and rapid warming while the other is set to the appropriate incubation temperature (37ºC). Once vessels are thawed they can be transfered from the first tank to the second tank and allowed to rest until use.

 

 

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