The Role of Incubators in Cell Culture

Question

I recently started working in a small research lab at a university, and we’re handling a bunch of different cell lines. One weird thing I’ve noticed is that our results were all over the place for a few weeks — turns out the CO2 levels in our incubator weren’t calibrated properly. ‍♂️ I’m still kinda new to this, so now I’m wondering, beyond just temperature and CO2, what else should we be watching for in these incubators? Do you guys ever do extra maintenance or checks that aren’t obvious to beginners?

Answer 1

Yeah, I’ve run into that before! We had one incubator that looked fine from the outside, but it was messing with our cultures because the humidity tray dried out too fast. I now make it a habit to check humidity levels every other day — especially if the weather changes. If you’re looking into better gear, I’ve used a few from this site where they’ve got reliable options under https://gentaur.co.uk/laboratory-equipment/ . The newer ones save a lot of headache long-term. Also: never underestimate how much vibration can mess things up! 

Comments

I’ve always found it funny how labs tend to have that one piece of equipment that’s super ancient but “still works,” even if it groans every time you open it. Honestly, the stuff people keep running because they’re used to its quirks is wild. I once saw someone slap an incubator door shut with duct tape like it was a fridge from the '80s — and everyone just shrugged and kept going.