In response to your survey......
1) Heating method used is always microwave

2)Average "real" heat time is 25 minutes.

3)Cooling period..usually don't use one, but depends on antigen ie.25 min steam
with 15 min cool for Bcl-2

4)We do both manual and automated IHC

5)We purchase our retrieval solution from Dako but in the past have made our own
citrate buffer.

6)We definitely  use the Dako solution more if only for the sake of convenience.

Hope this helps you.

Sincerely yours,
Christine Klein
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, Tx.