What Goes on a Cryopreservation Equipment List, Category by Category

If you are specifying a new cryopreservation facility, or expanding an existing one, this is the shape of the full equipment list rather than the three lines that usually reach procurement first.

Storage vessels

Size on projected inventory, not current inventory. Since 1 July 2022 UK patients can store eggs, sperm and embryos for up to 55 years provided they reconsent every ten years, per the HFEA, so samples now leave storage far more slowly than under the previous ten year limit. A vessel sized to today's numbers tends to be full within a couple of years.

Ask two things of every quotation: the static evaporation rate, and what that means as a weekly nitrogen order. If it is not on the specification sheet, request it in writing.

Nitrogen supply and refill equipment

A storage vessel is only as good as its refill routine, and the equipment differs by volume.

Bench decanting is safest with a non pressurised dispensing dewar and a foot pump, because there is no gas pressure to manage while pouring. Higher throughput sites push liquid through a hose from a larger dispensing vessel directly into storage tanks. Both are separate purchases from the storage vessel and both get forgotten.

Freezing equipment

This one branches. For embryos and oocytes, ASRM's 2021 Practice Committee opinion recommends vitrification as standard of care, so what you are buying is a kit, carriers and a bench dewar rather than a machine.

Sperm, and a good deal of tissue and cell banking work, still use slow programmable freezing, which needs a controlled rate freezer. Match chamber size to batch size. A small andrology unit does not need a large chamber, and a tissue bank will outgrow a small one quickly.

Consumables and sample organisation

Settle this before ordering tank furniture, not after. Straw format determines goblet choice, which determines canister layout.

The list runs to straws in the relevant volumes, sealers with one per freezing station plus spares, goblets and visotubes, canes and sleeves, and identification: a label printer rated for cryogenic exposure, cryomarkers and colour coded tabs.

A useful rule to apply before signing anything: every straw format in the laboratory should have a documented path to a specific canister position.

Monitoring and alarms

ESHRE's 2026 good practice recommendations state that cryostorage tanks should be continuously monitored with alarm systems that detect and log any out of range temperature or LN2 level.

Larger vessels are often supplied with level, temperature and power alarms and a remote alarm output. Smaller ones usually need monitoring added separately. A dipstick remains the simplest daily manual check and needs no power.

Budget for the relay to a building management system or an autodialler. A tank alarm sounding in an empty laboratory at two in the morning has told nobody anything.

Protective equipment

Liquid nitrogen causes cold burns on contact and displaces oxygen as it boils. BCGA Code of Practice 30 notes that asphyxia due to oxygen deficiency is often rapid with no prior warning, and records the HSE recommendation that workplace oxygen be kept above 19.5 per cent.

Gloves, face protection, apron and oxygen monitoring are not a line to trim at sign off.

Full guide: https://cryolab.co.uk/cryopreservation-equipment-procurement-guide/