As new technology is developed and introduced to the marketplace, you may have heard a nasty rumor that the manufacturer will no longer be offering support or maintenance on older machines like the ABI 3130/xl Genetic Analyzer, or 7900HT qPCR.  You might have even gotten a notice that effectively says that you’ll have to upgrade to a newer model if you want to keep your lab operational.  Sure, these machines have improved functionality and can make a lab more efficient, but the bottom line is this unnecessary upgrade is costly and just doesn’t make sense for a lot of labs.

No matter what industry you’re in, budgets are tight. Costs for reagents, coverage plans, unexpected breakdowns, and plenty of other issues--the funds dry up quickly.

However, over the years we’ve picked up plenty of tips and tricks that can save your lab money and extend the life of your machine and its parts. So without further ado, here are 4 ways you can squeeze more out of your lab’s budget now.

We all know that the reagents for your sequencers and qPCR machines aren’t cheap, so of course everyone is looking for any and every way to save on these supplies. With a bottle of polymer costing a few hundred dollars, you learn quickly that it is not to be wasted. Luckily, some very bright people work with these machines every day and they’ve come up with some ingenious ways to get the most out of your polymer.

We all know that reagents for Next-Gen Sequencing can be enormously expensive. Since most labs are running on tight budgets, it’s natural to try to pinch pennies anywhere possible. But one thing you don’t want to try to save money on might be a surprise.

It seems like more and more, we’ve seen our customers using low-grade, deionized water in their MiSeq’s. While this might seem like an easy way to save a few dollars and avoid dealing with the manufacturer, you could actually be doing damage to your machine.

Over the past few years we’ve been bringing you the most common issues and best trouble shooting tips through our blog. There have been all kinds of odd errors for us to work on this year, but we kept seeing these particular problems occur over and over.

Since we love working with our partners in the lab, we wanted to dive into our blogs and bring you the most helpful tips and tricks we could find. So without further ado, here are the 5 most helpful hints we've given out so far.

Yes, we all know it’s that time again. New Year’s Resolutions are notoriously hard to keep, however you’ve finally convinced yourself, “This is the year I finally stick with my gym membership past February!” But have you thought about any resolutions for your lab?

Check these 5 things.

We don’t need to tell you the importance of having your HiSeq operating at its full potential, but it can be difficult to determine if your machine is in need of a preventative maintenance visit.

But luckily there are a few tell-tale signs to look for in each area. If you feel that your HiSeq performance is beginning to decline, and you’re noticing discrepancies in your data, check for these 5 things for common errors.

If you have an ABI 3130/xl or 7900HT, you’ve probably been asking yourself “What will I do when the OEM stops servicing my machine?” Depending on your labs’ specific situation, it might make sense to go ahead and upgrade to a newer model, but this just doesn’t make sense for a lot of the labs out there.

Congratulations! You finally have a fancy new next-generation sequencer, and now your throughputs are going to go through the roof. However, just like with any sequencer, you need to have a coverage plan, for instances when something goes horribly wrong. You might think that you’ll be fine for the first year since Illumina provides a warranty, but that isn’t quite the case.

When your sequencer just stops in the middle of a run it can be flat-out scary. Everything was going fine, and now it seems like someone just hit your machine with a bat. We know that you probably immediately start thinking of the parts that you’ll need to replace, as well as the lost revenue and time. Before you reach for the checkbook and a bottle of migraine pills, hold on just a second. Let’s back up a few steps and attempt to get to the root cause of the issue.

When your autosampler stops prior to the completion of a run, check the event log to see what is going on. There are many possibilities for autosampler failure, and depending upon when the failure occurs and what the actual error message is, you may be able to salvage your data.