ali-Q™ aliquoting pipet controller by VistaLab Technologies

"One of the uses of the ali-Q is to pipet tissue holding media for flow samples. We aliquot 4 ml of media/tube. Setting the pipette to deliver a specified amount makes it much easier to perform this task."

"Used year after year."

"This is a good product, and recommended."

"Easy to use, long battery life and the aliquoting feature is really handy."

"ali-Q controllers combine two very essential functions for tissue culture applications. Controllable aspiration and ejection coupled to repeat dispensing. Great and valuable tool!"

"I love the features of this pipette. The aliquoting function is very helpful, especially when working with multiple cell cultures. The design makes it easy to hold for long periods of time. "

"In this world of labortory products where offerings are limitless, the ali-Q funnels many needs and wants into a unique pipette that is reasonably priced for any size lab, takes seconds to grasp and adapt to any protocol and is well supported should any questions arise."

"This pipette controller has made all of the difference in the world for me. It cuts my prep time in half because instead of loading individual serological pipets and having to pay attention to how much I'm aliquoting - all I have to do with this one is set it and forget it. I can aliquot at least a dozen tubes in roughly 5 minutes, when I would have spent 15-20 minutes making sure I have the correct amount in each tube. I've not found a repeating pipette with this same ease of use. The only downside I have found, and this could be more user error than the pipette, is that when I use a 50 mL serological pipette, the pipette does leak as you move from tube to tube. However, I just use a smaller pipette and it works great. The accessories that come with the product, such as a magnetic holder and attachable stand, have made keeping my bench area clean a snap. The pipette controller is put away but easily accessible. The stand has made it easier to grab when I set it down in between samples. Overall, this is one of the best purchases I have made that has helped decrease my overall sample prep time."

"A solid pipette that can aliquot! Love the repeatability, and battery life is fantastic. Use it pretty much every day, multiple times a day running experiments."

"This product really streamlines our process, when we need to aliquot a set volume of alk lysis buffer or collagenase for tissue processing. We often processe a large number of sample (>100) - we need our tools to accurate and consistent, ali-Q aliquoting pipette controller is essentials for aiding us in our work."

"We ordered a VistaLab Ali-Q2 in May 2020 and it has worked pretty well for a while. Then one day it stopped working suddenly. After contacting the customer support, we got a replacement in 24 hrs, which is super fast. The replacement works, so far so good."

"Good product, easy to use. delivers accurate amounts of sample."

"Easy to use; accurate volumes; no problems in purchasing."

"When doing repetitive pipetting of fixed volumes, this pipette cannot be beat. I have checked the accuracy and precision and found it to be quite good."

"This product meets a need that was lacking. It allows me to make accurate aliquots quickly without having to go back into my source container for each aliquot."

"We had some charging issues with our two original controllers, but VistaLabs were happy to replace both of them free-of-charge. One of the new controllers developed another strange charging issue a couple of months after we received it, but again, VistaLabs technical support helped us through the problem. The controller itself works great. We are able to easily control the pipetting speeds, and the automatic aliquotting feature is very useful when making a large amount of aliquots."

"We love the ease of use and excellent control when trying to slowly pipette while layering on ficol. We have other sero pipette controllers in the lab, but this one is always the favorite because of the fine control. The aliquoting feature is especially nice when doing washes or working with a lot of tubes."

"Well made product that fills a need. More cost effective than pipetors with disposable tips and easier to use."

"Super easy to use. Makes life so much better with quick and reliable aliquoting of 3 mL volumes. Really great customer service helped us get one ASAP as well as giving much appreciated after-sales support. Highly recommend."

"This pipette aide makes prepping tubes for serial dilution so much easier. So far, the battery life has not been an issue. Will definitely buy again."

"This product is great, the auto aliquot feature saves a lot of time both during procedural work and during the maintenance of reagents in the lab. It also helps to maintain exact amounts of reagents throughout an experiment, which aids in cutting down variance and human error. Love it! Would definitely recommend."

"This is a neat piece of equipment to have. It has good ergonomics, especially for accurate repetition. It would be nice to have different speeds, which I am told the next generation has. The after sales service was really good. We had a small issue with the charger and the company sent us a brand-new unit, including pipette and extras within a few days. We have had no further problems. "

"I found it was quite easy to use overall. The mechanism is different from most other pipette aids I have used, in that when drawing up or dispensing liquid, the motor/pump doesn't always run exactly when you push the buttons, even though it begins moving the liquid immediately. This can be disconcerting at first, but overall I find the ali-Q operation to be the smoothest of any pipette aid I've ever used, as the buttons are very responsive to differing levels of pressure. While other pipette aids are full blast when drawing or dispensing liquids, varying levels of pressure with the ali-Q give very precise corresponding speeds of drawing or dispensing. As far as the aliquoting function, I would say this is hands down the best part. It makes very quick work of repetitive tasks, like dispensing media into multiple 12-well tissue culture plates."

"I really like this product. It is a little heavier than some other controllers, but not much. You do need to find the right angle (pretty much vertical, as steep angle promotes splashing) for dispensing if you don't want it to splash, especially if you have a model without variable aspiration/dispensing speed."

"This pipettor is very easy to use. Upon receiving this pipettor I checked the calibration and found it extremely accurate. Made reconstituting controls and other reagents much more streamlined. Very happy with this product."

"Everyone that has used the pipette loves it. We have not had any trouble with it at all. I love that it stands up on its own. It is very easy to use. We use a different brand of serological pipette and they work well."

"The instrument has been a needed addition to our daily laboratory process. The dispensing mode made our work more efficient and reproducible. Time between charge is phenomenal (I charge mine approximately once every other week). It's ergonomic, not too heavy, and beautiful. I love it."

"I originally loved this product because I frequently layer blood over a lymphoprep gradient and have to do it slowly. The Alli-Q is far better at this than our other Drummonds! However, I also often have to pipet blood to cryovials and for some reason, maybe because of the density of the blood, sometimes once you start to pipet, it continues to pipet even after releasing the trigger. I then have to very quickly recover to the original source or I have a mess in my ice bath! We have also had problems with the charging port falling in, but that was all replaced at no charge with all four pipettes - excellent customer service. Some of the lab members do not like that it will frequently make charging sounds when not in use, but this does not bother me. I also enjoy the ability to set the volume of dispensing up to 5 ml, would even prefer up to 6 ml if an updated version 2 is made. If I could only figure out the blood pipetting issue, I would give this 5 stars!"

"Fantastic pipette. Saves work from repeated pipetting work, helps me aliquot my samples precisely and dispense equivalent amounts when I need exact experimental conditions between my groups."

"Very easy to use - set the volume up to 5mL and go. Very accurate as well at all volumes. Our first one was faulty unfortunately so a replacement was sent. The replacement also stopped working after 3 months even though we only use it twice a week to fill 200 test tubes. I would try to fix it, but someone stole its charging cable."

"Extremely easy to use and time-saving for dispensing media and reagents for chemical assays!"

"I performed the purchase when the laboratory was starting 3 years ago. While other equipment has to be sent to repair or calibrate, Our Ovation ali-Q pipette is still working like the very first day. I have been working in several laboratories worldwide including Spain, United Kingdom, Ecuador, and USA; and these are the best pipettes that I have used. I had already recommended them to other users and I will definitely buy more when I start my own lab in the near future."

"It is easy to use. very good for plating 24 or 6 well plates."

"I love the aliquot feature of this pipette. Especially when I'm transfecting or boosting my cultures, the aliquot saves me a bunch of effort and time. We purchased one at first, but the whole lab is setting aside our old pipettes and shifting to the ali-Q. In addition to the aliquot feature, we tried the wobble free pipette tips and we also love these. First, less 'drip'. Second, takes a lot less force and effort to put on and off. We highly recommend this product!"

"The result is good and reproducible, the liquid flow is well controlled through the pipette. The only thing which may not be perfect I think, is the balance of weight distribution, especially if you're pipetting for a long time."

"Demoed the model for routine lab pipetting. Very impressed by its advanced ergonomics and the feel of the product. Very comfortable, even after long periods of use."

"Very ergonomic and easy to use. The idea of designing a pipetting device that can stand is extremely useful, especially in a biosafety cabinet environment"

"This is a great instrument, ergonomic in design, useful in the biosafety hood, helps decrease hand fatigue, accurate in multi dispensing or aliquoting, easy to use, enabled high throughput accuracy in a shorter amount of time, would certainly recommend to others!"

"The Ovation ali-Q has become instrumental for performing high throughput pre-clinical and clinical cell based assays in our lab. Aliquotting media into hundreds of tubes has become easier. Because the technology is based on a familiar platform of serological pipette dispenser, it is very easy to use and its small footprint makes it versatile to use inside the biosafety cabinet or the benchtop. Dispensing volumes are accurate and the price is reasonable."

"The Ali-Q has quickly become a lab favorite. It has proven to be accurate, reliable and very easy to use. It's a huge help in our lab because we no longer have to watch the volume dispensed while making sure the tip doesn't touch any part of the flask, well or plate. We can feed the maximum number of flasks with a single larger volume pipette."

"We do a great deal of aliquoting media into cryovial tubes. The ease of the dial to set the amount and quick dispensing ability has made this task extremely more efficient."

"This is the first pipette controller I have seen that has an intuitive method of dispensing precise aliquots. Following the Ovation pipette, the engineers at VistaLab continue their outstanding record of combining elegant design with instinctive functionality."

"Sample Prep has become a much easier step thanks to the VistaLab Technologies' Ovation® ali-Q™."

"Great for dispensing the same amount repeatedly. It aliquots certain amounts (between 0.5 ml and 5.0 ml) from the pipette of your choice. It has standard up and down buttons the same as other pipettes plus the aliquot button which dispenses the selected amount. You can combine both functions so dispensing 1.5 ml x 10 plus 10 ml x 1ml can be done with one 25 ml pipette. You can concentrate on the tip of the pipette and the culture plates because you don't have to watch the graduations on the pipette."

"Very effective for our use, yielding highly reproducible results and very easy to use."

"This unit is easy to use, fast, reliable, and accurate"

"In general this product is great and a brilliant idea. In practice, it generally works, however the device is fairly heavy and the purple dispensing button is occasionally sticky. Also the aliquotting is in general fairly accurate, however I find that it ends up dispensing just slightly more than what I list. Also another area of improvement is that the dial is not the most accurate and could be locked in. In general a great product."

"This pipette filler is the same price as many others on the market. However, I like it better for a few reasons: 1) it stands on it own. It doesn't need a separate stand, but it does come with one if you choose. 2) it can be used as a regular pipette filler and the buttons are sensitive enough that you can adjust the speed of fill and dispense. 3) it has a feature that allows you to set a volume to dispense (calibrated) and a separate button you push to repeat this. It is easy to set and easy to use."

"I like to use it and recommended to my co-worker. Easy to use."

"Great! Easy to use and consistent results. Aliquoting is a nice function."

"According to the person who calibrates the device, the results are reproducible."

"This product saves us a great deal of time when performing large aliquotting jobs and does it more accurately than the average bench tech."