The different types of pipette tips and when to use them

Different Types of Pipette Tips and When to Use Them

Like deciding what to wear for the day, walking into a laboratory means you have to choose the right pipette tips for your experiments. This is about precision in avoiding mistakes and contamination rather than personal preferences when working in a lab. There are various types of tips, each designed with a specific application in mind.

Below is an ultimate guide on how to make sense of different kinds of pipette tips and their uses.

1. Non-Sterile vs. Sterile Tips

Non-Sterile Tips: These can be used for general laboratory procedures where sterility is not necessary. Using non-sterile tips may save money if you are dealing with non-sensitive samples or performing routine tasks.

Sterile Tips: Required when doing tests where contamination would lead to compromised results, such as in microbiology, molecular biology or clinical settings. Such tips are pre-sterilized and certified free from contaminants like RNase, DNase, endotoxins etc. Although it might seem appealing to autoclave non-sterile tips onto sterile ones, inconsistent outcomes may occur because autoclaving does not have quality control measures.

2. Filter Tips

Filter Tips they are designed in such a way that prevents aerosols and liquids from entering the pipette body and thus safeguarding your samples as well as the pipette. Whenever you are dealing with volatile substances, corrosives or infectious materials it is important to use them. In some cases like PCR experiments where there is risk of contamination leading to false results, presence of filter tips is compulsory.

3. Long Tips

Long tips can get to the bottom of narrow tubes and deepwell plates without causing contamination towards the pipette’s shaft. In case you are working in a laboratory where you transfer liquids from tall containers, it is advisable to use long tips that maintain sterility and accuracy.

4. Short Tips

If you have short tips, ergonomic pipetting will be made possible, and hence there will be less strain on your arm or hand especially if you are using small well plates or multichannel pipettes. By sitting closer to the bench, they ensure exact pipetting making them the best for such fast robots.

5. Low Retention Tips

Low retention tips refer to those that comprise of special polypropylene blend or else coated with a hydrophobic surface intended for minimizing liquid retention. It is particularly essential when handling viscous or low surface tension liquids like concentrated protein or DNA solutions; this kind of tips ensures maximum sample recovery as well as accurate pipetting which may influence sensitive assays.

6. Wide Bore Tips

In delicate specimens like cell suspensions, standard ones can shear cells mainly due to their small opening; while wide bore tips have bigger holes thus providing easy passage for the solution through them hence preventing damage among other things when dealing with delicate samples such as cells in suspension or very thick liquids.

What Counts Concerning Quality and Fit

Quality of the tips that you get is as important as choosing the right type of tip for your pipette. This is because, by selecting poorly fitting or low quality tips, you risk taking inaccurate measures, adding to the strain of pipetting and contaminating samples in the process. Thus, it is advised that a high-quality tip should be compatible with your pipette for better outcomes and accurate results. Keep in mind therefore, how well the tips fit into your pipette so as to ensure consistency in lab work.

The importance of selecting the correct pipette tip does not depend on someone’s liking but rather impacts on getting reliable results. In order to ensure successful and efficient lab work it is necessary to identify various types of pipette tips and their applications.

Aanak Goswami

Aanak Goswami

Designation: Global Marketing Head.
With over 13 years of experience in driving organizational growth through strategic business development and sales initiatives, Aanak, specializes in the Research, Institutional, Clinical Diagnostics, Healthcare, and Biopharma sectors. A key aspect of his expertise is leveraging industry insights to generate impactful growth and develop lasting business relationships.

Aanak Goswami

Designation: Global Marketing Head.

12+ Years of experience in generating growth for organisations. Having customer management skills with experience of Research, Institutional, clinical diagnostics, Healthcare and Biopharma customers.

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