Instru Incubator

Introduction

The incubator is a low temperature oven designed to grow cultures (bacteria - 37°C, yeast - 30°C, mammalian cells - 37°C,...). You can set the temperature you need and leave you cultures there to grow (warm) or get induced (cold). Some have a shaking mechanism (for Erlenmeyers) or are static (for plates).

Static Incubator I

This incubator has racks inside and is specially designed to hold plates. Plates should be placed upside-down (medium above, air below) and should not be sealed.

Static Incubator

Functions

A) Handle to open and close the furnace. Block it tightly down to close the incubator hermetically

B) Temperature display

C) Buttons to set-up the temperature

D) On/off switch

Rules

1) What's inside should be labelled with your name.

2) The incubator can be left on for several days but once you're done with what is inside please turn it off

3) Don't set-up temperatures higher than 50°C, we have the furnace for this.

Shaking Incubator

This incubator is typically designed to grow microorganisms in liquid medium. It has a shaking system for the good oxygenation of samples. This incubator cannot cool down.

Shaking Incubator

Functions

A) Shaking module. Fix your flasks tightly or you're gonna have fun cleaning ;-)

B) Handle to open the incubator chamber.

C) Temperature display

D) Buttons to set-up the temperature

E) On/off switch for the temperature module

F) Same as C,D,E but for shaking speed. Don't go above 80rpm with this device.

Rules

1) Don't go above 80rpm with the shaking module (It's not the coolest incubator in the world... )

2) Don't set up temperatures higher than 45°C

3) Don't leave the door open it's pointless...

4) The incubator can be left on for several days but once you're done with what is inside please turn it off.

Tips

For liquid medium when using an Erlenmeyer flask, don't fill the flask more than 1/5 of the total volume (ex: 50ml for a 250ml flask). This ensures a good oxygenation of your cultures.
For agar plates, a plate should be made with 20ml of medium. When incubated put it upside-down (medium above, air below) and don't seal it. It avoids the formation of water on the cultures with might "drown" them. A good thing to do before plating is to put the plate at 37°C to evaporate and pre-heat the plate. Makes bacteria happier.