Lab freezers became over the years’ indispensable devices in any modern medical lab. Usually it is used to conserve lab supplies such as enzymes, cells, reagents and different samples. Using laboratory freezers, the scientists are saving weeks and sometimes months of work and millions of dollars. Even more, many of these samples are irreplaceable, so we can see the obvious reasons why a laboratory freezer is of vital importance. Of course, besides the freezer there are also other important lab appliances such as laboratory shaker and laboratory incubator.

The Difference between Laboratory Freezer and a Household Unit

As modern medicine is focused in protecting different research samples, having the right laboratory freezer is very important. There is a big difference between the standard and laboratory freezers. You already know that the household appliances are specially designed to keep groceries. For sure, your household unit does not store any precious samples such as RNA or DNA. This is why the laboratory freezer is specially built for precise lab utilities having a reliable cooling system mandatory in sample’s integrity.

The Most Important Characteristics of Laboratory Freezers

Some of the most important characteristics of laboratory freezers are the followings:

Security and Safety of Samples

Maybe you already know that the access to laboratory freezer’s contents can be restricted. For this, the freezers are provided with special locks. These locks were added to respect the worldwide regulations related to radio, chemical or biological samples. All of them should be locked away and any unauthorized access totally restricted. The obvious reason behind these regulations is of course the safety of the samples.

This way, the sample integrity is assured while it is kept in laboratory. For these reasons, the laboratory freezers are manufactured with special locks. In case that some of them are not made with locks, these can be easily installed. As well, the laboratory freezer can be provided with room-entry security technologies such as pin codes, proximity recognition and swipe cards. This way the access is both controlled and recorded. If necessary, a report can be requested at any time.

Protection and Integrity of Samples

Besides these security measures, the laboratory freezer is also provided with temperature control devices. These features help scientists to know whether the samples are appropriately preserved or not. Based on the information received, the lab personnel is able to change the settings accordingly. Usually the samples storage is maintained at about -20 degrees Celsius. Any laboratory freezer is supplied with an alarm system that is going to notify whether the samples are safely kept or not. These alarm systems have an important role in monitoring pre-set functions of the laboratory freezer.

Safe Sample Recovery and Temperature Stability

The laboratory freezer is the only device able to keep the medical samples below the ambient temperatures. It also maintains a stable temperature in different conditions, being influenced by a number of factors such as:

Interior Space: Usually this is very important as a bigger space requests more energy to keep it cool.

Inventory Access: This depends on stored items and the project necessity to access the items at different timings.

Ambient Temperature: The temperature varies more during summer than winter. Anyway, the laboratory freezer is able to maintain the same environmental temperature in different seasons.