For BOD determination, bacterial culturing, or water pollution testing, incubators play a critical role in laboratory research. Ensure your lab has a consistent, reliable refrigeration system to support your experiments and keep your samples safe. Choose the right incubator based on your needs, including what temperature, humidity, and CO2 range you’ll need. You can choose an incubator with a compressor to achieve temperatures down to 0degC or lower or a thermoelectric device that uses less energy and does not use refrigerants.
Reduced Risk of Contamination
Using a chilled incubator for your laboratory experiments will reduce the risk of contamination. This is because microbial contaminants need to have access to water to grow. Microbial spores and bacteria, for example, require RH values of at least 70% to thrive. Molds, on the other hand, need higher RH levels to thrive. This is because they are more sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity. We mapped the temperature distribution within each incubator with an infrared thermometer and then swabbed cold and hot spots to test this. We then plated the samples to compare their numbers of microbial CFU.
Increased Accuracy
Chilled incubators provide the optimal temperature conditions for growing cells, tissues, and other biological specimens. They also maintain optimal humidity and CO2 levels for the growth of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms, as well as cell cultures and tissue cultures. These devices are ideal for accurately detecting and surveilling infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, sepsis, enteric and diarrheal diseases, and sexually transmitted bacterial infections. In low-resourced health systems, access to culture-based diagnostics and screening tools is minimal due to the high cost of incubators, reliance on mains power to keep temperature levels constant, and shortage of trained technicians. Developing a productized, affordable, energy-efficient design that maintains continuous incubation temperatures on poor electrical grids will partially address this issue and increase the reach and reliability of temperature-sensitive or growth detection-based diagnostics.
Lower Energy Consumption
A key benefit of using a chilled incubator for laboratory experiments is lower energy consumption. This can save you money in the long run and reduce your carbon footprint. A lab refrigerator incubator uses a compressor or thermoelectric device to cool or heat your chamber. Thermoelectric incubators can reach temperatures down to 0degC or less and use less power than compressor incubators. This type of incubator can be used for both microbiology and environmental testing. It’s also ideal for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) analysis and other tests that require low temperatures to keep samples from killing or inhibiting growth.
Convenience
When it comes to storing and growing cell cultures, maintaining regulated conditions of temperature and humidity is vital. For this, laboratory incubators are essential. Whether you’re working in a microbiology or a biochemistry lab, incubators are necessary to help ensure your research is accurate and consistent. They also protect your samples from contamination by keeping them in a controlled environment. Cooled incubators offer precise temperature control, air circulation fans, and different sensors to monitor the temperature. They are ideal for BOD determination, enzyme digestion, bacterial culturing, and fermentation studies.
Safety
A chilled incubator provides safe and reliable temperature control for your lab experiments. Temperature fluctuations caused by opening the door or adding samples can cause false-negative results, so it is crucial to maintain a consistent temperature within the chamber to avoid inaccurate results. Incubators can also control other conditions, such as oxygen and CO2 levels. These can provide a more optimum growth environment for cells, which can help them grow faster and healthier. The right incubator for your lab can give heat, oxygen, and CO2 controls, along with contamination control options like air filtration, antimicrobial copper interiors, and high-temperature sterilization. Some models feature thermoelectric cooling, an eco-friendly solution for achieving low temperatures.
