[Histonet] Leica ST5010/ST5020 vs Ventana Symphony

[CHRISTIE GOWAN]

Hi Olivia,
We currently use the Symphony stainer and based on our lab's needs, we love it. When choosing a stainer, you need to look at what your needs are. We stained so many racks of slides a day on our old Leica Autostainer that we were constantly changing solutions. Also, if we put more than 4 racks at a time on to stain, it bogged down the whole process. We used a separate oven to dry in so we were getting up to load the oven, getting up to load the stainer, getting up to change solutions and so we were making a lot of steps for one process. The Symphony is an enclosed system that contains 3 stainers, 2 ovens, one coverslipper and a bar code reader. When you purchase the system you are locked into their reagents so you need to see if this is cost effective for your lab. We were able to eliminate one position after purchasing the Symphony as well as our need to pay for waste disposal. I will say that we also use the vantage system in our lab and that has also impacted our eliminating the one position. We still use our Leica stainer and coverslipper for research and education and for a backup if the Symphony is down. They are both good stainers and each have their pros and cons. The other issue to think about is size and real estate. The Leica's are benchtop stainers and the Symphony is a stand alone which needs to be vented as well as distilled water flow. Hope this helps you a little.
Christie Gowan
UAB Medical Center
Birmingham, AL
 
> Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:58:32 -0700
> From: quakermed <@t> gmail.com
> To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> Subject: [Histonet] Leica ST5010/ST5020 vs Ventana Symphony
> 
> For those of you who currently use or have used any of these instruments:
> Why did you chose it and how do you like? If you've used both, which do you
> like better and why or why not?
> 
> We're currently manually testing. We're considering moving our lab into this
> century and need a little advice.
> 
> Thank you!
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