Pump tubing is such a such a small area to look at when you look at bigger things in the biochem research laboratory, but once a tubing line is damaged or wears out, time runs out. Everything has to cease in order to replace it, and that means a stop to productivity. There are so many laboratory products as far as tubing is concerned to fit the pumping products that are in place, but finding the reliable and durable tubing that everyone wants is just a click away. Scientific pump products have to keep working, so buying an excellent brand of tubing may be necessary.
There was an instance where our old electrolyte system set separately from our primary chemistry analyzer was having real issues with the pump tubing, as it was wearing out faster than it should have. The peristaltic laboratory pump was working OK, but after taking the rotator wheel apart, we noticed that two of the rollers were clogged with electrolyte buffer crystals! This solved our dilemma, since now the rollers were rolling instead of rubbing. It is bizarre how the results did not seem to be affected by all of this. But to make sure we ran all of our controls again, to make sure everything was running OK.
Remember, there is very good quality peristaltic pump tubing (and many other types) out there in the marketplace, but making the right choice that would be a money saver in the end depends on the reputation of the supplier and the physical properties of the tubing itself.
It took a while, since we use the tubing products at a very quick rate, but we finally decided on the platinum-cured silicon tube products for our main jobs, as it can withstand the work load of our laboratory.
