If you’ve had to lug a tank of gas to an experiment station and secure it in place, you know the hassle and danger involved. Many lab managers are turning to generators for convenience; cost also plays a part with labs needing to pay for the delivery of gas while the time required to change the tanks and the managerial costs of maintaining the necessary supply of tanks also hurt the bottom line.

Top 6 Questions You Should Ask When Buying a Gas Generator

1. What application do you need a supply of gas for? Depending on experiment or application you may need one or more hydrogen, nitrogen or a zero-air gas generators.

2. How many systems will your gas generator supply? There are a number of sizes of gas generator that will service one or many systems for a number of applications.

3. If you need to supply gas to more than one system, are you planning on having a central source of gas? The number of labs you need to supply will determine whether you opt for a larger, central generator or numerous, smaller generators.

4. Is space an issue in your lab? It may be that you need a smaller, stand-alone generator that can be stored or stacked away to save space.

5. What are the safety parameters that you must adhere to when using gases? A generator significantly reduces the hazardous risk that comes with on-site gas supplies, but it’s good to discuss your gas options with your safety representative.

6. What service proposition comes with the gas generator? There are a number of options when managing a generator, whether that’s getting an education in self-maintenance, knowing a service representative will be able to maintain the unit regularly or having the ability to send a unit back to the manufacturer.

The type(s) of gas generator(s) respondents to our latest survey are looking to purchase for their labs include:

Applications our readers are using or planning to use their gas generators for:

The 10 most important features/factors in our readers’ decisions to purchase a gas generator: