As if weekly maintenance wasn’t enough, there are still some procedures that you should go through twice per month to ensure your sequencer’s health. When it comes to bi-monthly maintenance, start by checking the polymer. The most common question we hear at SeqGen is “How often should I change the polymer on my machine?”
If you’ve been working with your ABI 3130/xl or 3730/xl for any length of time, you’ve probably asked yourself, “Which takes more time to maintain—a sequencer, or a newborn baby?
We would have to call it a toss-up, but if you’d like, you can give us any insight into this question in the comment section.
Even though it might seem as if the recommended weekly and bi-weekly maintenance is thorough enough, monthly maintenance protocol is recommended as well. Here are some of our favorite maintenance tips sure to make your life easier in the long run.
If your lab is like ours, you know that a week can come and go in the blink of an eye! You’re just minding your own business, running samples, and all of a sudden another week can be checked off the calendar. This isn’t a bad thing; you know the saying—time flies when you’re having fun! But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be taking care of your equipment in the meantime.
At the start of every week, there are a few procedures to perform to make sure that your machine is running at peak performance. Before you dive headfirst into your samples, it’s best to make sure you are starting with a clean slate, otherwise your machine could end up looking like this.
We all know that our sequencers need constant maintenance and attention to stay at the top of their game, but keeping up with each and every tiny moving part on these machines can seem daunting.
One of the little parts on the ABI 3130/xl, 3730/xl, 3500/xl to stay on top of is the piston. If you neglect to take care of this piston, the polymer can back-flow into the pump motor, which can cause serious problems (and an expensive service visit) down the road. Flushing the water trap is the easiest way to care for it. So to make sure your traps and pistons are squeaky-clean, follow these six easy steps to flush the trap on your ABI sequencers.
