[Andreia Verissimo]

Hello

In my core we are struggling to find disposable flasks for cell culture, in particular, for larger volumes.
I have been wondering if I could just purchase new non baffled glass flasks (the ones I have I use for bacterial cultures) and use them for transfections of HEK 293 cells. Does anyone has experience using reusable flasks? What are the procedures for proper cleaning?

I would really appreciate the feedback of the community.

Best regards,

Andreia

[Nick Berrow]

Hi Andreia,
We re-use all of the larger size flasks up to 5 or 6 times.
If there are ‘tide’ lines on the flasks after use we give them a scrub with acid if necessary then the flasks go through the dishwasher and the lids are just rinsed with UHQ water.
After washing we re-rinse the flasks with UHQ water and send them for autoclaving in bags with their lids off. Make sure the bags are not too tightly sealed or the flasks collapse when the pressure is released at the end of the cycle.
You can also buy extra filter caps for most size flasks as they don’t re-use as well as the flasks.
We are also having supply problems with the flasks and we are re-considering the reagent bottles (see other forum posts for the discussion on bottles).
Good luck!
Nick

[Mikael Andersson]

We use the following “Optimum Growth™ Flasks” for our HEK293F and CHO-S transient transfections.

https://htslabs.com/og/

They work very well but they are onetime use, unless you empty it and refill it with the same stuff for another batch immidiately after, something which we have never done.

Also, Nick, what type of semireusable bottles do you use, is it the same as we do, have we been wasting good honest plastic all this time?

[Nick Berrow]

Hi Mikael,
We use the 3l Corning Erlenmeyer and the 125ml to 1000ml TriForest flasks (BD used to re-brand these) all of which are PC or PPCO(?). They can be re-used many times with care and although the filter caps are not as resilient they are available to buy separately (at least for the 3l Erlenmeyer).
Our biggest problem with recycling is making sure the
autoclave bags for the 3l flasks are vented correctly.
Hope that helps
Cue angry sales reps…

P.S. if you cant find spare filter caps then just use breathable plate seals-for convenience you can also just use a small piece of a plate seal to replace the filters on the screw caps.

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 2 days ago by Nick Berrow.

[Simona Rizzi]

Hi Andreia! How are you?

Also in my lab, we re-use plastic flasks of the larger size:
we wash the flasks in a dishwasher, then we dry them in a dryer and in the end we add a tinfoil cap and autoclave them. We normally utilize the Corning flasks, because the Thomson ones cannot stand the passage in the autoclave.

We also utilize glass flasks which can undergo more washing cycles: we use the same washing protocol than the plastic flasks.

Simona

[Kim Remans]

Hi Andreia,

We also use glass flasks sometimes for our HEK293F cultures. After usage, we incubate them first with 5-10% acetic acid and afterwards rinse them well with distilled water. The flasks are then washed in the dishwasher (without detergent) and autoclaved twice (once with distilled water and once dry).

Cheers, Kim

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