Know How

How to Reverse Pipette

Know How

Reverse Pipetting Is Aspirating a Little Extra in Order to Dispense the Right Amount

How to reverse pipette.
How to reverse pipette.

Reverse pipetting is handy when pipetting viscous, foaming, high vapor pressure or low surface tension liquids.

A positive displacement pipette is an ideal instrument to precisely and accurately transfer these types of liquids. However, reverse pipetting provides an effective workaround when using a regular air-displacement pipette.

  1. Set the pipette to the desired volume.
  2. Depress the plunger completely – past the first stop to the second (blowout) stop.
  3. Immerse the tip in the liquid, and slowly release the plunger to full extension.
  4. Dispense by pressing to the first stop.
  5. A small volume of liquid will remain in the tip. Blow out this residual volume into a separate container and properly dispose of the used tip.

Note: Reverse pipetting can reduce accuracy, and precision is user-dependent.

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