With the vast choices in the market, you should be able to know how to choose the right and best kind of centrifuge. Keep three parameters in mind while selecting a centrifuge.

Your needs

Specifications

Total cost

Your needs

It is important to know your needs before buying a centrifuge because, for every application, there is a right and best kind of centrifuge available. The most common applications that utilize centrifuge systems are medical and laboratory works. Most commonly microcentrifuge, benchtop centrifuge, high-speed centrifuge, ultracentrifuge, and hematocrit centrifuge are used in these fields. For example, ultracentrifuge is commonly used in extracting cellular components, such as DNA, in molecular biology, microbiology, and biochemistry. Hematocrit units, on the other hand, are mostly used to separate blood components into the plasma and RBC layer.

Specifications

Some of the specifications that you should be taking into account are:

Speed and performance (revolutions per minute and relative centrifugal force)

Instrument capacity

Ease of operation

Reliability

The rate of centrifugation, usually expressed as revolutions per minute (RPM), is used by the manufacturers to describe how fast the centrifuge is rotating, regardless of the size of the rotor. On the other hand, the relative centrifugal force (RCF) is the force from the revolutions of the rotor that is exerted on the contents of the rotor which causes the separation of aqueous solutions in the centrifuge. These two are one of the most significant features to consider in choosing centrifuges because the need for the centrifugal force varies for the sedimentation of various samples. For example, to properly separate certain bacterial cells from a sample, high speed or ultracentrifugation is needed.

Some centrifuges have fixed speed, while others offer variability due to control panels or rotary systems that enables the user to designate a specific speed or power. This variable-speed feature and rotary selection allow users to utilize their centrifuge for various applications (multipurpose centrifuge).

Instrument capacity refers to the maximum amount or volume of samples that you can fit inside the rotor. Generally, for microcentrifuges, the volume of the sample that it can take is only up to 5.0 mL per tube or vial. However, some models of Eppendorf can accommodate tubes with volumes of up to 50 mL. The number of tubes or vials per rotor varies among models of microcentrifuges. The number and type of samples each centrifuge can accommodate depends on the type of rotor of the centrifuge, and in some models, these rotors can be replaced with some models having up to 18 rotor options. Some centrifuges are also equipped with systems for refrigeration, which are useful for temperature labile samples.

On the ease of operation, there are different types of control panels and programs that a centrifuge can have. You should opt for buying models with controls that are user-friendly if you are not used to handling centrifuges so that you would be able to use the centrifuge properly and to avoid errors that could lead to disasters in the working place. Some centrifuges have alarms, safety locked lids, and automatic rotor identification that could help in the ease and safety of performing centrifugation while multitasking with other laboratory works.

Total costs

It is important to take note that the higher the power of the centrifuge, the higher the energy it needs, hence it is less energy-efficient than the low-speed ones. However, some models are more budget-friendly that could still produce satisfactory results, albeit not as accurate as expensive high-speed centrifuges. Another important thing is that some models can be bought with or without rotors; you have to buy the rotors separately if the rotors are not included in the model. Also, the warranty of the product should be taken into consideration in case things proceed the way you didn’t anticipate.