Search Results for "foil"
Should I cover the tops of flasks with foil before autoclaving?
Should I cover the tops of flasks with foil before autoclaving? Short answer: No. (DISCLOSURE: This blog fully complies with Betteridge’s Law of Headlines) We’re consistently surprised by the persistence […]
Lab Autoclave Procedure Best Practices: The Futility of Foil
There are many justifications for crimping foil loosely over the mouths of containers before autoclaving. The most common—and seemingly most reasonable—is that this common autoclave procedure keeps viable spores from […]
Autoclave Sterilization Tips: Abandon All Foil, Ye Who Pass This Way!
We need to talk about your autoclave sterilization rituals and aluminium foil. Specifically: Do not use aluminium foil when sterilizing empty beakers and flasks! Loosely crimping foil over the mouths […]
Gravity Cycle vs. Vacuum Cycle: When to Use a Vacuum Cycle
A standard autoclave cycle is a gravity cycle—so-called because, as steam rises to fill the sterilizer chamber, it displaces the cold air already in the chamber, which is then drawn […]
How to Autoclave Agar Plates and Reduce Single-Use Lab Plastics
Given the quickening pace of global climate change, an increasing number of lab managers are looking for single-use plastics alternatives (and it’s about time!). Making the transition to glass agar […]
Supply Chain Problems Renew Interest in Pipette Tips Sterilization
Earlier this year many lab publications were reporting severe pipette-tip shortages, with wait times of at least 3 to 6 months for some tips. Six months later, many labs are […]
Evidence-Based and Cost-Effective: Good Laboratory Practice Examples
Are we consistently showing our students and colleagues good laboratory practice examples? The fact is, with most of what we do each day, we fall back on “that’s the way […]
Autoclaving Big Beakers and Flasks? Use the Vacuum Function!
If you’re regularly autoclaving large Erlenmeyer flasks, graduated cylinders, or beakers—and it’s not practical to run the entire load lying horizontally—a vacuum function is vital to your consistent success. Why […]
This No-Cost Lab Autoclave Procedure Significantly Improves Sterilization
We’ve spoken at length about the follies of foil, and regularly help customers kit out autoclaves precisely suited to their specific tasks. But there is one thing that any lab […]
Lab Autoclave Function Primer: Intro to Air Ballast Systems
In general, autoclaving sealed flasks is a very, very bad practice. But that isn’t to say it’s impossible. If you need to sterilize sealed containers, then you need to make […]
The Number One Contaminant in Your Research Lab
There can be a fine line separating good research lab practice and voodoo compulsions. (“Loosely crimping” foil around the mouths of flasks and beakers prior to sterilization is a perfect […]
Top Tips for Autoclaving Pipette Tips
You don’t have to spend much time in a research lab to learn that pipette tips have a nasty habit of stubbornly clinging to a little bead of water. Some […]