Hey #NewPI #AcademicChatter crowd: I'm thinking about getting a vacuum pump to speed up aspirating supernatant from pellets. We don't have access to a vacuum filter flask setup unfortunately. Was thinking about something like this: https://www.fishersci.co.uk/shop/products/airjet-mini-membrane-vacuum-pump/15134816#
Anyone with experience with benchtop vacuum pumps?
@MarkHanson our lab uses benchtop pumps. Main issue is noise—if I’m doing a lot of work with it I put in some earplugs, though other lab members don’t seem to mind. We bought a standalone noise isolation cabinet but still haven’t set it up since it’d take a lot of tubing to go from that cabinet to the bench where we are using the vacuum currently. Our pump has a tendency to dance around on the desk due to vibration so some padding might also help keep it in place.
@MarkHanson at a conference now but I can check next week. We largely use it for aspirating from multiwell plates during IF preps, but it seems plenty powerful for something like a mini prep manifold (tho not something I have explicitly tried).
@askennard yeah we'd be doing aspiration of ethanol from RNA pellets as the main use. Just would help to power through hundreds of samples.
You might check out the noise isolation cabinets for sonicators ours is padded and has lots of ports for tubing and cables.
@askennard nice. Can I ask what model? What work do you do with it?