Refurbished Innova 44 available from American Instrument Exchange. Click HERE for more details.
For years and years we sold and repaired large capacity incubator shakers that were designed like chest freezers: floor-mounted with hinged doors that opened up clam-shell style. For the most part these were fine machines – durable and reliable. After all, if used and maintained properly there’s not much that can go wrong with a simple shaking mechanism, so unless the temperature controls failed you’d probably get several years of hassle-free use from these machines.
In short, we figured that the floor-mounted incubator-shaker had reached the apex of shaker design, that any improvements would be superficial, like adding a clock to a kitchen oven or a USB jack to a car stereo system. And then lo and behold, along came the New Brunswick Innova 4400 series.
These units essentially took the old design and flipped it on its side: this allowed the doors to open like a pizza oven so that the units could stack. With seemingly simple design improvement New Brunswick doubled (or even tripled) the capacity of incubator shakers while maintaining the same overall footprint. For labs in expensive areas like Cambridge and Boston, San Francisco, the North Carolina Research Triangle, and other regions where space is at a premium this innovation was welcomed enthusiastically.
The New Brunswick Innova 44 and 44R are the second generation of this design and while not quite as revolutionary as the 4400 series it does offer additional improvements as well as a solid cast iron triple-eccentric, counterbalanced drive upon which the durability of these units depends.
For the average user the most noticeable improvement is the door: the Innova 4400 and 4430 features the aforementioned glide-up door, but on the Innova 44 and 44R models the horizonal bar handle has been replaced by a more robust vertical handle, while the door springs are perceptibly smoother during opening/closing.
We typically sell these units as either double or triple stacked systems, but even if a restricted budget only allows for the purchase of one unit at a time the units can be stacked after delivery in the lab and connected with a simple bracket, which means that as your needs for culturing grow so too can your capacity, all without the need to completely revamp. This provides you with up to three chambers with independent temperature and speed controls. (Just be sure to check with your landlord or facilities manager to make sure the floor can handle the weight capacity of the full stack!) Additionally, even when the units are stacked repair and service personnel can still access the electronics and heating/cooling system components, meaning that if one chamber has problems the others can continue running while repairs are made.
Another advantage the New Brunswick Innova 44 design has over the older models is the slide-out platform mechanism. The chest-freezer style models necessitated reaching down into the incubation chamber to reach the shaking platform to put in or take out flasks. The slide-out platform, by contrast, allows users to load samples without excessive bending or reaching, thereby avoiding back and shoulder strain.
There are some other nice features here, too – nothing strictly necessary, but certainly beneficial. The water reservoir (which is built in to the unit) includes a drain for easy cleaning in the event of excessive condensation or sample spills; the RS-232 communication port is a bonus; the solid state brushless motor is dependable and low-maintenance.
In short, the New Brunswick Innova 44 and 44R are excellent updates on classic machines. Like the Baker e3 SG604 bio safety cabinet, the Buchi R-215 rotary evaporator, and the Thermo Series 3 4110 incubator, the Innova 44 takes all of the best aspects of a machine that has been around for many years and improves on them, keeping all the best features while updating or discarding the drawbacks. Bottom line is that if you purchase one or more of these incubator shakers you can reasonably expect to get several years of service or more out of the machines.
American Instrument Exchange has been a reliable source for used laboratory and scientific equipment for over 50 years, buying and selling equipment since 1969. Our surplus lab equipment is reconditioned for many types of laboratories, including biotech, biomedical, medical research, chemical, pharmaceutical, and university and hospital research laboratories. All lab equipment listed on our website is in stock and ships from our 30,000 square foot warehouse in Massachusetts. Our facilities include a fully equipped shop with highly trained technicians who thoroughly test each instrument before it reaches your laboratory. Please visit our website at https://www.americaninstrument.com/.