Freezer storage disasters are the worst part of this hobby

Posted by protocol88 in Reconstitution and Storage

I am so annoyed right now because my backup batch of supplies completely frosted over in the back of the deep freeze. The container leaked moisture and ruined the seals on three separate vials before I even got a chance to unpack them for my lab notes. I thought I had the temperature and humidity completely dialed in using silica packs inside a sealed Tupperware container. Turns out the condensation cycle during the automatic defrost mode completely wrecked everything while I was away for the weekend. Such a waste of good materials and time and now I have to wait another week for replacements to arrive. Anyone else learn this painful lesson the hard way or is it just me being clumsy.

6 Comments

clinicalhead

Always use double vacuum sealed bags with extra desiccant packs if you are going to use a kitchen freezer.

kineticmind

Auto defrost is the silent killer for stored compounds. You always want a manual defrost unit for long term storage.

researchguy4

Man that really sucks to hear. Were the vials already pierced or were they still completely sealed under vacuum?

vialfiles38

Wait do you guys put your unconstituted powders in the freezer or just the fridge? I always kept mine in the fridge door.

protocol88

They were totally sealed which is the annoying part. I think moisture just pooled around the rubber stoppers and degraded the seals over time.

kineticmind

Freezer is fine for dry powder if it is truly dry and airtight but standard fridge is way safer to avoid temperature swings.