Similarities and Differences between PCR Tubes and EP Tubes

Many people will be puzzled by the similarities and differences between PCR tubes and  EP tubes. Here are some brief introductions of these two products.

Differences between PCR Tube and EP Tube:

1. Material of PCR tube and EP tube:

0.2ml Single PCR Tubes PCR tubes

  • PCR tube material: a Medical PP thin-walled plastic centrifuge tube often for PCR experiments. The PCR tube volume is 0.1mL, and there are also 0.2mL.
  •  And due to PCR tube volume, people commonly used the tubes as consumables in biological experiments, and their main function is to provide containers for a polymerase chain reaction.
  • People often call a centrifuge tube an EP tube with medical PP thin-walled and used with a microcentrifuge for the separation of micro-reagents.

2. Sizes of PCR tube and EP tube:

  • According to PCR tube sizes, a common PCR tube consists of a tube body and a cover body, the tube body, and the cover body are connected together, and the cover body has a hollow cylindrical protrusion.
  • The earliest plastic centrifuge tubes were single, and the workload was heavy during batch testing, which was inconvenient to operate, so 8-connected tubes were invented, and the general PCR tube sizes are 0.1mL, and 0.2mL.
  • EP tube sizes have 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 10, 50 ml, and other specifications,  which are mainly for the centrifugation of some liquids or storage of samples.
  • Reduce the liquid adsorption residue, and the tube wall is also very clear, which is convenient for observation during experiments.

Similarities between PCR tubes and EP tubes:

 usage of PCR tubes and EP tubes:

  • Used for imported medical grade PP material, no exogenous DNA/RNA, DNase, RNase, pyrogen, endotoxin;
  • Suitable for hospital laboratory PCR laboratory, central laboratory, scientific research institutes, pharmaceutical factories, reagent manufacturers, CDC, inspection, etc.

Performance of PCR tubes and EP tubes:

  • Reagent adsorption to ensure the accuracy of the reaction system; high-temperature resistance, no deformation when heated to 125 °C.
  • All of the products with high sealing, low evaporation, and easy-to-open and close the tube cover
  • The special fitting process design of the tube cover and the tube ensures high sealing and low evaporation rate, and easily opened and closed the tube cover, making the operation easier
  • To ensure the reproducibility of the stable performance and experimental data in experiments
  • High-light transmittance caps, specially made  for PCR experiments
  • The high-polishing precision technology improves the light transmittance of the tube cover, which can be used for fluorescence quantitative PCR experiments.
  • The concave design of the tube cover effectively prevents cross-contamination and scratches on the optical surface.
  • All of the PCR tube materials have high cleanliness, low adsorption, and no deformation

Here, we also need to pay more attention to the difference between PCR tubes and microtubes, because many microcentrifuge tubes are similar in capacity to PCR tubes.

The difference is that the wall of the microcentrifuge tube is generally thicker in order to ensure the requirements of centrifugation, while the wall of the PCR tube is thinner in order to ensure the speed and uniformity of heat transfer.

There are more introduces about PCR tubes: the use of PCR tubes, what are PCR tubes about the advantages, etc.