Refrigerators, freezers, and incubators aren’t always appreciated for the role that they play in scientific and medical research. But these pieces of equipment are crucial for facilitating breakthrough discoveries and protecting the quality and integrity of truly life-saving products. These pieces of equipment are, in many ways, the unsung superheroes of the laboratory.
With refrigerators, freezers, and incubators playing such a key role in the modern laboratory, it’s crucial that teams make the right choice when it comes to purchasing. To do that, laboratories must meticulously evaluate the performance data of available options.
However, performance claims for these pieces of equipment can be tricky to understand and compare — important definitions may not be well understood, data can be sparse, and research has revealed no standardized industry-wide guidelines on how to test and report on equipment performance. Without this guidance, understandably, product testing practices, data collection, and results presentation can also vary considerably between lab equipment providers. While ENERGY STAR® certification helps alleviate some of the difficulties by offering a standardized and transparent approach to measuring performance claims, it only addresses refrigerators and freezers, the data may not always be relevant for your real-world application, and not every lab equipment provider participates or publishes their results.
It’s easy, therefore, to see why many prospective customers on the lookout for new equipment may struggle to understand performance data and make confident purchasing decisions. In the worst case, organizations could end up buying equipment that does not adequately fit their needs, wasting precious time and organizational resources in the process.
To help alleviate these challenges, PHC Corporation of North America has created this in-depth eBook. After reading it, you’ll know more about:
• The key performance metrics that can be particularly challenging to understand and compare
• Why these metrics can be so challenging to understand and compare, including how equipment testing, data collection, and data presentation can vary (and what that means for data interpretation)
• What you can do to better understand and interpret equipment performance data for more confident purchasing decisions