Lab equipment purchasing

[wangxm-forest]

@lizzieinvancouver We want to buy equipment for soil DNA extraction. I asked around and these are what I found so far:

Vortex (plus vortex adapter - Qiagen cat. no. 13000-V1-24) ThermoFisher Pros:

• Handle more samples at once
• Digital

Cons:

• Pricey

WestLab Pros:

• Cheap

Cons:

• Can only handle one sample and you have to do it manually

Centrifuge 16,000x g standard benchtop, as around… ThermoFisher Here's a list of all centrifuge ThermoFisher is selling, you can roll down to see the ones with Max. RCF of 17000 x g, and most of them can take 24 samples.

Fresco™ 17 Microcentrifuge Refregirated This model have the temperature range of: -9℃-40℃, since we are dealing with DNA, probably the ability to operate at low temperature is an important thing?

Microcentrifuge for travel: WeberScientific Pros:

• speed we need;
• relatively small and light
• minimizes sample temperature increases during longer runs at high speeds

Cons:

• can only take 12 samples
• only 1 year warranty

Pipettes (P20, P100, P1000)

Pipettes prices can vary a lot. ThermoFisher ones are around 800 CAD each and WestLab ones are about 300 CAD each.

[lizzieinvancouver]

@wangxm-forest Thanks for your work on this! Here's a few thoughts after discussing with a couple people:

1. We should get a benchtop centrifuge that holds at least 24 samples. It does NOT need to be refrigerated (I double-checked with David Lipson). We should get a decent one, even if it is a little bigger than we want.
2. We should consider ALSO getting a cheap mini one! I will see what David thinks of the one you sent.
3. We should get the nicer thermofisher vortex.
4. We should get the nicer thermofisher pipettes.