For those writing in with H&E staining problems,

Our pathologists were complaining about muddy staining, no crisp staining 
some areas and/or the entire slide.  We use a Sakura DRS-60 with deionized 
water.  At the time we purchased the instrument, the salesman said that the 
dryer was not effective, and that if we had a dependable dryer, keep on 
using it, and load on the stainer for just staining.  However....years later 
and double the amount of techs....we got complaints, and discovered that the 
slides, loaded horizontally, and packed every slide per slot, were not 
drying enough.  The patches were wet areas still under the paraffin.  We 
started using the dryer on the stainer, which loads vertically, and voila!  
No more muddy staining!  We proved it once more, when we recently tried a 
Varistain Gemini demo.  This model did not have the drying capacity, so we 
dried the slides the old fashioned way, horizontally.  The muddy artifact 
was ba-a-a-ack.  Then we loaded the slides in the Sakura drying chamber, the 
slides vertical, and the staining was great.  Our sales rep is relieved to 
know he will be given a second chance - bringing back a demo that has the 
drying feature.
Note:  draining the slides upright before loading into the staining rack to 
be dried would be ideal.  It is very difficult to do that at our lab, with 
extremely crowded conditions.  Ideally each tech should have four feet of 
microtoming space.  Ours have three.  Very hard to find some place to drain 
those slides.  Trust me!

Bec the Tec



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