For applications that require greater temperature control, a Lab Armor Bead Bath can be used. Bead Bath is designed specifically for use with beads, and therefore provides more consistent, uniform temperatures throughout the bath compared to traditional water baths. Thermal uniformity is +/- 0.5ºC at 37ºC and +/- 1.0 at 65ºC.

Beads warm 1.25-2.5X slower than water, depending on the volume of the vessel. But, there are ways to compensate for this:

• Raise the temperature of Beads
• To avoid over-heating, validate the adjusted protocol
• Keep the conditions constant from experiment to experiment

For example, to raise the temperature of a typical 500 ml bottle of cell culture media from 4ºC to approximately 37ºC in 30 minutes, traditionally, a 37ºC water bath is used.  To accomplish the same results using Beads<, the bottle can be submerged in 50ºC Beads for the same 30 minutes, then pulled out and placed onto the surface of Beads.  The Bottle of media will remain at 37ºC +/- 2ºC for up to 6 hours until use. 

When a frozen vessel is placed into the bath, the beads surrounding the bottle become temporarily cool. And if the vessel is large enough, just like a water bath, the overall temperature of the bath will decrease slightly below the set point and trigger the bath to begin heating. The cool areas surrounding the bottle will slowly warm up until the bottle reaches the set temperature. Although similar gradients are produced in water baths, in general, the whole bath cools down and re-warms without obvious gradients because of normal disturbances and stirrings, as well as natural thermal circulation of water. Instead of always stirring the bead bath, customers can most likely solve their problem with a simple change in protocol. By allowing frozen vessels to thaw overnight in the refrigerator to 4ºC before placing it in the bath, it will warm quickly in the bead bath and will not contribute greatly to cooling the bath and disturbing the temperature gradient.

• Eliminates the possibility of water wicking into the sample
• Eliminates cross-contamination from water dripping off a vessel onto other items on the bench when removing vessel from the bath
• If the bath is accidentally turned off or loses power, Beads maintains temperature up to 5 times longer than water offering better protection for the incubating sample.

There is another potential design problem with some non-air-jacketed baths. If the bath's heating element is not recessed below the tub, but it is instead fixed to the tub by metal-to-metal contact, the base of the bath can become very hot in areas where contact is made. This produces hot spots on the bottom, which results in uneven gradients in the bath. Small sized heating elements that only cover a small portion of the base of the tub makes this problem worse. Such baths produce hot spots even when water is used. If you are experiencing problems with your non-air-jacketed bath, as an alternative to buying a new bath, simply add a container of beads to your laboratory oven or incubator. A container such as a stainless steel pan with 3-4" walls can be filled with beads and placed into the heating unit. The container of beads will work great with a minimal gradient. Such a container can be added to a standard incubation oven, a cell culture incubator, or a refrigerator for cold incubations.

There are a number of different ways to use Beads. Many customers place containers of Beads in their refrigerators, incubators and ovens.

When creating an ice bath, one goal is to keep the beads dry. So it's a good idea to separate the beads from the ice packs, which accumulate condensation. We recommend using some kind of mesh wire or fabric. Also, any condensation that builds on the surface of the beads will be able to drip through the mesh. It's important to keep the beads from soaking in water for extended periods of time. Besides attracting contamination, excessive water contact will tarnish the surface of the beads and reduce the fluidity of the bath. Also, as an alternative to ice packs, dry ice can be used to make a colder bath (<0 ºC).

The beads do not contain any dangerous elements that will contaminate your environment or pose health risks. The beads are manufactured and batch analyzed by metal optical emissions spectrometry. Lab Armor maintains strict quality controls on all its raw materials and manufacturing outcomes. The beads are designed to be used safely at both low and high temperatures. For more information on safe working temperatures of Lab Armor Beads, refer to FAQ #20 below

A shaker unit is still required for large bottles or flasks that need high rpm agitation, such as 250 ml flasks for bacterial cultures. But for low speed agitation, a standard laboratory rotator (such as a Lab-Line Maxi Rotator), a bead tray, and a general-use incubator, can replace a shaking water bath. Here's how it works: Option 1) Samples are added to a StayTemp tray that is placed atop a rotator inside a standard laboratory incubator and agitated at the desire temp. Option 2) Warm beads from a Bead Bath can be scooped into an insulated WalkAbout tray and samples can be rotated on the bench top, outside the incubator for 0.5 to 1 hr at temperature. We can provide larger insulated trays for bottles and flasks too. In an incubator, the beads actually transfer thermal energy more efficiently to the samples than by air alone. And the beads stay at temperature ensuring consistent incubation despite folks opening and closing the incubator door repeatedly.