| 1. | | What is the purpose of the “hook shape?” |
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| The shape of the pipette is designed to fit naturally in your hand. It is unfamiliar, because you have used “conventional” style pipettes before. With the “hook” on top, you do not have to grasp the pipette tightly to have it work in your hand, in fact you can actually open your palm up, and the pipette will still stay on your hand. |
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| 2. | | Why are the “button” functions opposite of those on conventional pipettes? |
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| The Transferpette was designed to reduce stress on your hand. Rather than having to bend your thumb to operate the buttons, as on conventional pipettes, it was designed to use movement of the entire thumb, reducing hand stress. Also, by having the ejector as the most straight-line movement, it increases the force available to eject the tip. |
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| 3. | | What is the pipette housing made of, and how chemically resistant is it? |
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| The pipette housing is made of polypropylene, which is the same material that pipette tips are made of. If you can pipette it, you can splash it on the housing. However, in general, it’s not a good idea to soak a pipette housing in solvents for cleaning. |
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| 4. | | How do I get replacements for the little “screws” that secure the ejector cap on my Transferpette®? |
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| The “screws,” named “lateral closures,” on older instruments were made of solid plastic at one time. They have been redesigned with a metal pin through the center for strength. Contact BrandTech Customer Service, and they would be happy to send you some replacements. |
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| 5. | | How do I get a replacement for the volume adjustment knob for the Transferpette®? |
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| While not especially fragile, these knobs can break if the pipette is dropped or the knob is turned past its range. These knobs are available as catalog number 9481, and have a list price of $3.25. When replacing the knob, it is important to be careful not to move the wheels on the volume display. |
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| 6. | | What tips fit your pipettes? |
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The tip cone on the Transferpette® single channel has a unique design that fits many brands of pipette tips. The multichannel Transferpette® has a V-ring design that also fits most major brands. However, because there are a huge number of tip manufacturers, some of whom privately-label to distributors, it can be very hard to tell.
Also, many brands of pipette tips are made with poor quality control and materials, so their tips do not consistently fit. BRAND guarantees the accuracy and precision of their pipettes (except 0.5 - 5mL and 2mL fixed volume) with Gilson/Rainin, Eppendorf and Finnpipette pipette tips.
BRAND’s 5mL tips and the Finnpipette 5mL tips can fit on each other’s pipettes, however when switching brands, it may be necessary to recalibrate the instrument. It should be noted that BRAND makes a very high quality tip, very competitively priced, and they fit on Gilson/Rainin, Eppendorf and Finnpipette pipettes as well. For other brands of tips and for filter tips, I suggest asking the manufacturer for samples. |
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| 7. | | Is the tip ejector removable? |
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| The Transferpette has a very slim design. The tip ejector is not any wider than the pipette tip. So in many applications it does not need to be removed. |
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| 8. | | What does “corrosion resistant design” mean? |
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| The pistons of the Pipetman and many other pipettes are made of stainless steel. If this corrodes, the volume of the piston changes, and the pipette becomes inaccurate. The pistons on most of our pipettes are made of glass, which will not corrode. The ultra-micro sized Transferpette models have a stainless steel piston, as glass is impractical in such small sizes. |
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| 9. | | Why don’t the fixed volume models have the Easy Calibration™ adjustment system? |
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| The volume display mechanism is an integral part of the Easy Calibration™ adjustment. Since there is no volume display, the fixed volume Transferpette must be adjusted the “old fashioned” way, like all the other pipettes on the market.
The fixed volume Transferpette S pipettes do not require a tool for calibration adjustment. |
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| 10. | | Why can’t I autoclave my entire Transferpette®? |
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| There are parts in the upper housing of the Transferpette® that are not resistant to the heat and steam of autoclaving. However, if you are autoclaving your pipettes to perform sterile work, the lower housing of the instrument can be autoclaved for sterility. Because only the lower housing is autoclaved, the Transferpette® does not need calibration after autoclaving the lower housing. Autoclaving the lower housing also saves room in the autoclave, important for people with small autoclaves.
Transferpette S single and multichannel models are fully autoclavable at 250 F / 121 C for 20 minutes. Details are available in the Operating Manual. |
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| 11. | | Are your pipettes individually calibrated? |
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| Yes they are. All pipettes and Digital Buret™ bottletop burettes leaving the factory is individually tested for accuracy and precision. Only the Dispensette® bottletop dispensers are lot calibration. |
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| 12. | | Why are the ejector caps different colors? |
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The colors of the ejector caps indicate which tips fit on the pipette. The colors are:
Light gray - ultra-micro tips
Yellow - 200µL tips
Green - 300 µL tips
Dark Blue - 1,000 µL tips
Red - 5 mL tips. |
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| 13. | | What is the purpose of a filter tips? |
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| Filter tips are used to prevent cross contamination or “carry over” from one sample to another. When samples are aspirated into a pipette tip, a fine mist or “aerosol” is created, which can get into the pipette. Even after changing the tip, the aerosol can contaminate the next sample. For most applications the carryover is minuscule. However, for DNA applications, even the smallest fragment of DNA carried over from the previously pipetted sample can cause problems. It would be quite awkward to disassemble and clean a pipette after every sample. Filter tips were invented to capture the aerosols. They protect both the pipette from contamination from samples and protect the samples from contamination from the pipette. |
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| 14. | | What is the difference between sealing filter tips and non sealing filter tips |
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| Sealing filter tips have additives in the filter that are designed to prevent liquid from passing through the filter, much like the hydrophobic filter in an accu-jet® pro or macro™. They prevent a pipette from being contaminated by the sample. However, when the tip is sealed it is very hard to recover the sample from the tip. Often DNA samples are very small, and the loss of the sample may not be acceptable. Sealing filter tips can also be degraded by autoclaving—the steam seals up the tip. Also the additives can contaminate the sample. Non-sealing filter tips impair the flow of liquid through the filter, but do not stop it completely. This allows the liquid to be recovered easier. BRAND filter tips only contain polypropylene (the tip) and polyethylene (the filter). There are no additives to contaminate the sample. In addition, the tips are fully autoclavable. |
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| 15. | | How can I tell which filter tips fit which pipette? The nominal volumes are all different from the standard tips. |
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You can tell what standard tip the filter tip was made from by comparing at the low end of the pipette tip’s capacity. Filter tips that can go as low as 0.5 µL are made from ultra-micro tips. Filter tips that can go as low as 2 µL are made from “yellow” tips. Filter tips that go as low as 5 µL are made from 300 µL tips, and ones with a minimum capacity of 50 µL are made from “blue” tips.
However, many pipettes, such as our 2 - 20µL “yellow” tip Transferpette have extended nose cones to reduce the volume of the column of air for better accuracy. A filter that is higher up in the tip can get in the way, and will not fit properly, even though the tip would fit otherwise. It’s best to consult the tip guide in the catalog. If you are using another manufacturer's pipette, we would be happy to send you tip samples to try. |
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| 16. | | Why don’t your filter tips allow me to use the full volume of my pipette? |
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| The filters occupy physical space within the pipette tip. If you set your volume above the rated volume of the tip, the filter will get wet. |
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| 17. | | Sometimes you will refer to “yellow” tips and “blue” tips in quotes. Why is that? |
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Originally, all 200 µL pipette tips were colored yellow, and all 1,000 µL tips were colored blue. People would refer to them by their colors, as it was easier than specifying the size. Later it was determined that some of the dyes used to color the tips could interfere with their work. So colorless versions were developed of the tips, but often they were still called “yellow” or “blue” even though the tips were no longer colored. BRAND tips, when purchased bulk are colored for easier identification, but are free of cadmium dyes, which was the most problematic.
BRAND tips, when purchased in racks are colorless to ensure no problems. The plates on which the tips are inserted are colored yellow, blue dark gray or green for easy identification. The dark gray carrier plates indicate our special nano-cap™ ultramicro tips, and green indicates our 300µL tips. Boxes of ultramicro tips have colorless carrier plates. |
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| 18. | | Do “universal tips” fit your pipette? |
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| There really isn’t such a think as a “universal tip.” All pipette manufacturers have slightly different dimensions on their tip cones — different diameters, different tapers, etc. However, BRAND has designed the tip cone on our single channel models to fit most quality tips, as well as our own. The multi-channel pipettes, with their “V” ring design, fit most brands of quality tips as well. |
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| 19. | | Are your tips “universal tips?” |
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| See the above answer. BRAND tips fit most major brands of pipettes, and are specifically designed to work well with BRAND, Gilson and Eppendorf pipettes. The may fit well with other pipettes with similar designs. Ask for a sample. |
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| 20. | | RNAse free, DNA free, ATP free, Endotoxin free…what do all those specifications on tips mean? |
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RNAse is an enzyme found in bacteria. It is used by the bacteria to break down foreign nucleic acids that might enter the bacteria, analogous to the way our immune system gets rid of bacteria. Likewise, presence of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of cells, and Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), indicate the presence of bacteria or other living things during the tip manufacturing process. Killing these bacteria by autoclaving will not remove or inactivate these biological products. If they are present, they can interfere with molecular work, such as PCR. Assays to directly determine the presence of DNA, RNAse or ATP are very difficult and expensive to do. Our BIO-CERT® tips are assayed for these molecules, and are certified free of these substances within tight limits. Many more routine sterile applications, such as cell culture, do not require the absence of DNA, RNase or ATP, however they can require the tips to be endotoxin-free.
Endotoxin is also a substance found on the surface of bacteria. It is very easy to detect via a extremely sensitive process called the Limulus Amebocyte Lysate Assay BRAND’s sterile tips are tested this way regularly, and are found to be under 0.06 I.E./mL, which is the limit of detection. This indicates that the tips are free of bacteria, which infers that they are free of RNAse and DNAse. Because our PD-Tip™ repeating pipette have a large amount of plastic in each tip, it is very difficult to be able to certify each lot of tips to be free of all of these chemicals, so our routine sterile PD-Tips are certified endotoxin-free. BIO-CERT® PD-Tips are available for an additional fee. |
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| 21. | | What is a “lambda” as a unit of volume measurement? |
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| A “lambda” (Λ) is sometimes used as a shorthand for a microliter (µL). They are the same thing. 1,000 µL = 1,000 Λ = 1 mL. |
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| 22. | | How often should I calibrate my Transferpette®? |
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| It depends. We recommend that the Transferpette® be calibrated at least every year. However, as part of any continuous quality assurance process, if the instrument requires significant adjustment, the interval should be shortened. |
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If you're having trouble finding the information you want, BrandTech Customer Service is here to help. Call us at 888-522-2726, or if you prefer, contact us online.
