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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 9, 2011 9:02:36 GMT -5
There's nothing like coming in on a Monday morning, only to find out that one of the -80° freezers has gone belly up.
Someone else's freezer went down several months ago, so 3/4 of the contents belonged to a lab that is not our's. So I've been on the phone all morning trying to find the owners. We don't have the room to store their samples in our other freezers.
Cheapass freezer, this is the THIRD time this year that it's needed repair. I wonder if there's a lemon law for freezers?
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Post by pig on May 9, 2011 9:12:18 GMT -5
We have alarms on all the ones here so someone gets a call if they go down.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on May 9, 2011 9:14:32 GMT -5
There was a power outage here in the college and all the -80's went down. It was when I was on maternity leave and my bosses moved all the samples to a different fridge but forgot to tell me. I had a stroke when I got back thinking someone had tossed all my samples!  |
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DebMD (banned)
Junior Associate
"Banned," they say. "Don't worry," they say. But beneath their words lurks a dark, terrible secret.
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Post by DebMD (banned) on May 9, 2011 9:45:28 GMT -5
I'm surprised that if the freezer has important samples that it's not connected to a main alarm system.
The fridge that holds patients snacks(juice and sandwiches) if it get's too warm...there is a stat call to us for notification that it's too warm and that someone is coming to fix it right away.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 9, 2011 9:50:03 GMT -5
The freezers are connected to an emergency generator, but they're not connected to any sort of internal alarm.
Mainly because the university charges an obscene amount of money to do so - and it's not very effective. They will not call if it alarms. One of our freezers is hooked up to this service (we don't pay for it), but my name is not the contact.
Luckily, the stuff that MUST remain cold is in liquid N2. If a freezer goes down during the weekend, it will maintain freezing temps for 2 days - which is sufficient for most of the samples.
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TD2K
Senior Associate
Once you kill a cow, you gotta make a burger
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Post by TD2K on May 9, 2011 10:59:57 GMT -5
Did you do your chemical safety test yet?  |
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 9, 2011 11:02:07 GMT -5
Et tu, Brute?
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Post by pig on May 9, 2011 11:02:55 GMT -5
Just so happens all your sperm samples were in that freezer TD, get busy making more.  |
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 10, 2011 19:18:55 GMT -5
Interesting response today....
I called our local rep and left a rather detailed message about the freezer's failure yesterday. Surprisingly, she called me back and said that she'd call the Thermo rep and tell him our issues and the university rep to tell her what was going on. Within 30 min, I had a call from both reps!
Long story short, the Thermo rep agreed that 3 warranty repairs in a year justifies my lack of confidence in the freezer, so he's making arrangements to replace it with a new one.
Ironic thing is that we have a -80° freezer we purchased in 1987. I can count the number of repairs on that freezer on my thumbs. Same brand.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on May 10, 2011 19:20:44 GMT -5
Somehow I knew it was going to be one of theirs. I can't remember what all they make at the facility my stepmom and dad work out. They don't work in manufacturing though. My stepmom's brother did work on the paint line for awhile.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 10, 2011 19:27:03 GMT -5
Thermo now makes everything. They bought Forma, they bought Revco and every other model of ultra low freezer on the market, other than Sanyo and So-Low. Then VWR bought the whole batch.
Sanyo is miserable to try to get parts for (up to a 3 month wait on those - an adjacent lab to our's has one), so if we go looking for another freezer, we'll likely go with So-Low.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on May 10, 2011 19:34:11 GMT -5
When my stepmom started it was Forma Scientific and now I guess its Thermo Forma? Or maybe they've changed names again. Its funny her and my stepdad got divorced in 2005 and now they work at the same company and work with each other. Good thing they get along |
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on May 10, 2011 19:36:55 GMT -5
The freezers are connected to an emergency generator, but they're not connected to any sort of internal alarm. Mainly because the university charges an obscene amount of money to do so - and it's not very effective. They will not call if it alarms. One of our freezers is hooked up to this service (we don't pay for it), but my name is not the contact. wow....what is your alarm system that you cannot have yourself configured as the call contact for your critical alarm? I work in automation - both process and building management systems. in our system, you can specify a different call-out for each alarm point. |
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 10, 2011 19:47:53 GMT -5
The alarm system is configured into university security. So if the alarm sounds, they're supposed to call a contact person on the list.
The problem with this is that security is sketchy, to say the least. The one freezer in our lab that IS on the system (it's not our's, so I don't get called) gets a LOT of false alarms (3-4/mo). The one time it actually did go down, the system didn't pick it up. So IMO, not really worth the cost.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 10, 2011 19:49:08 GMT -5
When my stepmom started it was Forma Scientific and now I guess its Thermo Forma?
It's Thermo Forma, but has been purchased and is now a division of VWR.
Gotta love these mergers. They have screwed us up more than you can imagine.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on May 10, 2011 20:09:50 GMT -5
The alarm system is configured into university security. So if the alarm sounds, they're supposed to call a contact person on the list. The problem with this is that security is sketchy, to say the least. The one freezer in our lab that IS on the system (it's not our's, so I don't get called) gets a LOT of false alarms (3-4/mo). The one time it actually did go down, the system didn't pick it up. So IMO, not really worth the cost. yikes, what was the actual alarm? or was it that the operator getting the call didn't think the alarm was real? I work in an FDA-regulated environment, and have for my entire professional career. your reply makes my head hurt as to how it's possible and acceptable. |
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Post by pig on May 11, 2011 7:44:24 GMT -5
Thermo Shandon is a great company.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 11, 2011 7:58:35 GMT -5
or was it that the operator getting the call didn't think the alarm was real?
I have no idea. You wouldn't believe the battle that I had to get the freezers on emergency generators. The problem is that the dental school is so old that the system is insufficient for the needs. So when we buy a freezer, trying to find some way of getting it tied into the generator is a HUGE hassle. We've already been told that nothing else can come out of this lab, so we've been using the clinic circuits (which are 1 floor under us).
I think that this building's slated to be torn down and rebuilt in 2014ish. Can't come too soon. We have water problems, power problems, leaking like you wouldn't believe. The windows leak like sieves. Problem is that when it was built in the 1960s, there wasn't the need for space/power/water like we have now and the system's thoroughly overloaded. So we do what we can, with a system that's patched together.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 11, 2011 8:01:56 GMT -5
Thermo Shandon is a great company.
May be, but the quality of the products has declined over the years. I have 2 freezers that we purchased in the 1980s that have needed few repairs (maybe 2 each, I'd have to look at my records).
We have another freezer that we purchased in 2000 that has had 2 repairs. We have another freezer that we purchased 3 years ago that has had 2 service calls so far. The last freezer that we purchased last year (along with an incubator) has needed 3 repairs in its first year, the incubator has needed one repair so far. All from Forma/Thermo.
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Post by pig on May 11, 2011 8:08:00 GMT -5
I bet they don't make their own freezers. The stuff they actually make is pretty good imho.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 11, 2011 8:12:13 GMT -5
Supposedly (per our repair people), Thermo is making everything.
IMO, Revco used to be the industry standard but Thermo is now making them and it has fallen to the lowest common denominator.
Now, the only ultra lows that are available not made by Thermo are Sanyo and So-Low.
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ZaireinHD
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Post by ZaireinHD on May 11, 2011 8:15:30 GMT -5
we're on Wednesday now! - Hope things get better for ya mich1
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Post by pig on May 11, 2011 8:17:35 GMT -5
We don't have any of their freezers but we've always gotten excellent CS with thier crystats, tissue processors and microwave processors. I know they don't make the refrigderation units for their cryostats.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 11, 2011 8:26:45 GMT -5
We've got 6 ultra low freezers and 4 incubators. Oldest ultra low was purchased in 1987ish, along with an incubator which *should* still be working other than the movers set something heavy on top of it when we moved labs from TX and sprung the door. It never maintained CO2 properly after that.
After we moved here, we purchased one in 2001, a new incubator purchased in 2003-4 (to replace the one with the sprung door), 2 new incubators in 2008, along with another ultra low, and then 2 more ultra low freezers in 2010. All are Thermo - mainly because we did have such good luck with our early ones.
Now, not so much.
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Post by pig on May 11, 2011 8:30:50 GMT -5
20 years is well past the lifetime of a freezer. Compressors are usually only good for 7-8 years. You're lucky they've lasted so long.
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