Procedure to check the accuracy and repeatability of your

pipettes
Matthieu Bueche
September 20, 2011

1 Things to be prepared before...

In order to have the best control results, all the material and pipets must be put in the same room than
the balance for at least one night. In these conditions, all the material has the time to be in equilibrium
with the atmospheric conditions (principally the pressure and temperature). The material that is needed
is described below:
• Pipettes hanged vertically on a pipette-holder. It could be a necessary to clean them before. See
the instruction manual of the manufacturer for this part of the work.

• Pipette-tips that you use regularly for your most accurate pipetting
• A beaker filled with nanopure water
• A measurement vessel with the smallest possible aperture in order to avoid evaporation during the
measurement - A small gauged balloon of 25ml with it’s cap is a good solution
• A thermometer to measure the room temperature
• A trash can for used pipette tips and water

2 Control
For good calibration control, at least the smallest and the largest volume that can be pipetted must be
checked. If you want to be more accurate, you can also measure intermediate volumes. When you are
working a long time with your pipette in your hand, the outer parts will dilate a little bit due to the
heat of your hand. This dilatation will affect the volumes that are pipetted. For this reason, it’s better
to do a break between series of ten measurements for each volumes that you have planned to check. It’s
also better to begin first with the smallest volume, then do the largest ones.

1. Set the pipette exactly to the desired volume - take care to align perfectly the marks and to be in
front of the scale when you are doing this!
2. Tare the balance with the measurement vessel and its cap - In general, don’t forget to tare the
balance between each measurement
3. Set the balance to give the weight in mg
4. Pipette one volume of water in the beaker and discard it into the trash - This is intended to make
a film of water inside the pipette tips

5. Pipette 2 or 3 times as blank into the measurement vessel and wait until the weight is stabilized
- This is intended to exercise your movement in order to check if you’ve always done the same
pipetting job!!!
6. When you are ready, check the temperature and write it down on the measurement table

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 7. Pipette one volume into the measurement vessel, replace it on the balance and wait until the weight
is stabilized - For the small volumes (eg. 1-10ul) it must be necessary to wait a longer time than
the stability indicator that is given by the display of the balance
8. Don’t forget to write the given weight into a the measurement table
9. Tare the balance and make a total of 10 measures for each volumes to be checked - Don’t forget to
let the pipette cool at room temperature between each series of different volumes
10. When you have done all your measurements, you can enter your results into the excel file in order
to check the accuracy and repeatability of your pipette.
11. If your pipette is repeatable but not accurate, you can try to adjust it by turning the intended
screw - See the user manual for this part of the work - After each adjustment assay, you must do
an other complete series of checkings as described above!
12. If your pipette is not repeatable, probably nothing can be done by your own - In this case it’s
better to send it to the manufacturer in order to change some defective parts!

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3 Measurement table
Name:
Date:
Temperature:
Atmospheric pressure:

Pipette
Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4 Volume 5 Volume 6
N
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Pipette
Volume 7 Volume 8 Volume 9 Volume 10 Volume 11 Volume 12
N
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Pipette
Volume 13 Volume 14 Volume 15 Volume 16 Volume 17 Volume 18
N
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10