Like you, we also have a lot of different equipment (embedding center,
coverslipper, stainer, processor) from Tissue-Tek.  I would recommend the
VIP to anyone.  Our pathologist is giving them one more chance with the
cryostat before we ask for a refund to purchase from another company.  After
we had already decided on the Cryo 2000, one of the other techs discovered
that those machines do have a problem with their condensers.   So, we will
see what happens.  Good luck!

Michelle L. Skelton
ANMC

> ----------
> From: 	Karen K. Dulany[SMTP:kkdulany@MAIL.UNMC.EDU]
> Sent: 	Thursday, November 05, 1998 6:24 AM
> To: 	mskelton@akanmc.alaska.ihs.gov; HistoNet@Pathology.swmed.edu;
> JUDI.FORD@roche.com
> Subject: 	RE: Reviews of Cryostats -Reply
>
> Item Type:  Appointment
> Start Date:  11/05/1998  09:25 am  (Thursday)
> Duration:  1 Hour
>
> To Michelle in Alaska,
> We can definitely sympathize with you about your Sakura cryostat.  We
> purchased a new Sakura cyrostat and only had it a few months or so
> when  it lost power and the refrigerant died.  It had to be sent back
> to California in the big shipping crate and they kept it for two
> weeks.  When it came back again, it only ran for about three days and
> the same thing happened again.  This time the company sent a
> repairman to our lab, and after several tests and putting in new
> parts it still would not run.  After many calls to the company, they
> agreed to send us a replacement, and our pathologist said NO.  So
> they are refunding our complete purchase price and we are going to go
> with another company, not yet decided. We have had many other
> products made by Sakura like the VIP, and our lab-tek embedding
> machines and would highly reccommend them.  There must be some little
> problem with the refrigeration in the cryostats, but I am sure they
> are currently working on the problem and I would not worry about
> buying from them again in the future as I believe they are honest
> people and will resolve your problems also.  Thanks for telling us
> that as we were beginning to wonder if we had electrical problems so
> had our engineers in with all kinds of equipment to check our
> voltage, etc.and found our lab to be OK.
> Karen Dulany HTL (ASCP)
> Marianne Osborne HTL (ASCP)
> Eppley Institute for Cancer Research
> Omaha, NE
>