I'm wondering how many of you are using a blast freezer to freeze FFP prior to storage at <18C? We had been using an ultra low freezer to quick freeze our FFP since we have a relatively small batch each day (<20 units) and then moved it to a -30C freezer for storage. We just purchased a new ultra low freezer and we are having problems with it spiking temp each day when FFP is put in and then taking hours to recover (and driving us crazy with the alarm):cool:. I am curious how others handle freezing FFP. If you do use a special blast freezer for this purpose, would you mind sharing the brand name and your experience with it (good or bad). Thanks!

We tend to use upright freezers in the Blood Bank, mostly to be able to sort our products. But what helped us tremendously at another donor center where I used to work was using a small home-style chest freezer to freeze the products overnight. We'd then transfer the products the next day after labeling. Remember those days when labeling was only one day after collecting. I would still recommend the chest freezer since they keep the cold in better. We had no problem installing an alarm and chart recorder for AABB compliance.

We are using a Harris Blast freezer and have been very staisified with its performance.