In the Orange County area, laboratories move at a fast pace, and time between an equipment’s purchase and its obsolescence or degradation may seem to pass very quickly. Many labs have a veritable library of old equipment and nearly-forgotten consumables which continue to see semi-regular use in between collecting dust and taking up valuable floor space.

While the most effective and the most competitive laboratories regularly purge their expired reagents and discard their deprecated gear, replacing the detritus with fresh supplies is something that many labs struggle with. Thus, for labs seeking to stay up to date and maintain a rapid pace of innovation, finding the best source of lab supplies in Orange County or the best lab equipment Sacramento is a must.

How to Identify When Lab Equipment and Supplies Aren’t Current

While it’s easy to identify a brand-new piece of equipment or a newly-purchased consumable, lab supplies and equipment don’t always betray that they are past their due date when they start to get stale. It’s challenging to discriminate between tried-and-tested workhorse gear that’s just as effective after 20 years of use as the day it was purchased and more sensitive equipment that is worse for the wear. However, there are a few signs to look for which indicate that a piece of hardware or a consumable is past its prime.

• A long-past expiration date on a consumable
• Discoloration or warping of plastic components
• Distortion on LCDs
• Tarnishing of metallic components
• Expired warranty stickers or outdated routine maintenance stickers
• Retro-aesthetic hardware
• Manually-operated equipment, assuming an automated design is the modern standard
• An instruction set that references long-obsolete laboratory techniques or obsolete hardware

Switching out old equipment is only possible when newer replacements are on hand, however. Even if a piece of equipment is unreliable or old, removing a productive piece of laboratory infrastructure can grind operations to a halt promptly if there is any delay in procuring and installing a replacement. This means that keeping a lab’s supplies and hardware in operation for as long as possible can be a tempting state of affairs even when the current equipment is manifestly flawed.

Keeping Equipment and Supplies Fresh Is Easier With The Right Supplier

While there isn’t any single rule about when to discard old equipment or consumables, laboratories seeking fresh lab supplies in Orange County or Sacramento will have a significantly easier time approaching the equipment refresh process when they work with a supplier who understands the latest challenges for laboratories in the same field.

Similarly, the best lab supply companies in Orange County have strong relationships with equipment suppliers such that they can provide both explicit guidelines on when to replace equipment and also preferable pricing for equipment when the time comes to swap out old gear.

When labs work with a lab supply company which can provide them with purchasing assistance, inventory management assistance, and advisories on when to swap out old equipment, they’ll find that their personnel spend more time being productive and less time fighting against old hardware.