Reaction Stations Save on Running Costs

You can save as much as ninety percent on equipment running costs by replacing conventional hotplate stirrers with reaction stations from Bibby Scientific.

Reaction Stations

When purchasing laboratory equipment, it is common to focus on the initial costs, but you should also remember the running costs. In the modern world, running costs can quickly mount to exceed the initial purchase costs, making what appears to be the cheaper alternative become greatly more expensive over its lifetime.

An economic alternative to hotplate stirrers

If your laboratory has several heating mantles or hotplate stirrers in daily operation then it is highly probable that you could save significant amounts of money by changing over to reaction stations. Reaction stations provide user-friendly "lab-in-a-box" replacements to conventional heating, stirring and cooling equipment. The energy-efficient reaction stations can handle between six and fifty reactions in parallel, either using identical temperatures and stirring rates at each location, or different, independently controlled rates for every location.

A hotplate stirrer generally requires from 550-950W of power, approximately equivalent to the usage of an entire reaction station performing as many as fifty simultaneous reactions. A major additional advantage of reaction stations is the fact that they offer accurate control over temperatures and stirring rates, and can be left operating unsupervised seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Between the low power, and the extended operating hours, this amounts to significant energy savings over a few years of use.

Heating, Stirring and Cooling

As an example, running ten hotplate stirrers at 950W of energy usage for each, one, 24 hours a day, five days a week, you would stack up running costs of £33,600 assuming energy rates of 14.5 pence per kW/h. In comparison, running costs for a 10-position reaction station range from £960 to £3840 depending on the model being used. Bibby Scientific offer three reaction station series, each featuring a ten position reaction station.

With the above rates, even the most expensive Integrity series reaction stations will pay their way within three years, with some of the RS series reaction stations paying for themselves in under one year. After this point, you can save money on running costs every year, whilst also profiting from additional benefits in heating, stirring and cooling precision.

Whilst cost savings will vary from one country to another, the trends will be as described above. For precise calculations featuring your local currency and energy costs, you can use Bibby Scientific's spreadsheet to calculate energy costs for reaction stations and hotplate stirrers specific to your country.