What’s the deal with your refurbished biosafety cabinets?

Click here to see the used and refurbished biosafety cabinets from American Instrument Exchange.

We sell biosafety cabinets with such frequency and to such a wide variety of companies that we sometimes forget that not everyone is familiar with our BSC preparation and refurbishment process.

Based just north of Boston, we’ve been refurbishing and reselling biosafety cabinets for over 50 years. We work with products from The Baker Company, Nuaire, Labconco, and Thermo Scientific, among others. All of the biosafety cabinets we sell are decontaminated and we install new HEPA filters in each BSC prior to shipment. Our technicians inspect each biosafety cabinet to ensure that all of the controls work properly, that there are no cracks or chips in the glass sash, that the counterweights and sash raise and lower smoothly, that the UV and fluorescent lights are operational, and that any plenums or other features are intact and to manufacturer’s specifications. As a final step after we complete our refurbishing and testing we certify the cabinets here in our shop in order to insure that the unit will pass certification once it reaches your laboratory. 

So what does the refurbishing and testing include? First and foremost we install new HEPA filters in every biosafety cabinet prior to shipment. New filters help to prevent any cross contamination between labs and a working lifespan of up to 10 years, depending on the type of BSC and volume of work. Second, installing new HEPA filters can be time consuming and costly. The front cover of the BSC has to be removed and an interior cover may have to be removed as well. After that, depending on the make and model of the unit, the motor may have to be loosened, a HEPEX bag needs to be removed/replaced, and brackets removed or loosened, among other small steps. Then the gaskets on the new filters must be coated with grease to help insure a seal and the processed reversed. The media in these filters is so delicate and that it can’t be touch or at all damaged – even grazing the media with a palm or an elbow can damage them beyond use or repair.

Collectively our technicians have over 75 years’ experience working with biosafety cabinets and are installing new HEPA filters on almost a daily basis. We can repair and install UV kits, mount biosafety cabinets on casters, source stands and other accessories if need be, and help you select the unit that’s going to be the best fit for your lab and your budget.

In addition to replacing the HEPA filters we often change the motors in biosafety cabinets before shipping units out to customers. Like the compressors in an ultralow freezer, motors are the mechanical heart of a biosafety cabinet. A new blower motor in a BSC can extend the lifespan on a unit by 15 or 20 years.

So if you’re looking to purchase a bio safety cabinet, let us remove some of the stress and aggravation from the process for you. Call us today for a quote on a refurbished unit from Baker, Nuaire, Labconco, Thermo, or any other manufacturer. We’ll do our work here to make sure that when the BSC arrives in your lab it will be ready to go!

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/.