Has anyone used the Sahara III plasma thawer by Sarstedt? It uses convection heat and a warming plate to thaw the plasma. It includes a sensor that lets you know when the plasma is free of ice.

 

I had it demo'ed in Oct. of last year and fell in love with it. The unit is small, easy to clean and I love the concept. I called 3 references and they were very complimentary, so I ordered one for a new facility that we are opening.

 

The unit was shipped promptly...so far, so good, right?

Now that we are testing, I'm not so happy.  Despite the fact that the manual says that it should take 15 min. to thaw 1 unit of plasma, we are finding that it takes 30 to 40 min! To thaw 2 at a time takes 40 to 50 min! I am very unhappy with it's performance. Additionally, sometimes the audible beep alarms when the plasma unit is free of ice and sometimes it doesn't.

 

I am very interested to know if anyone else has experience with this peice of equipment. I'm beginning to wonder if we are doing something wrong. Thanks, Amelia

No experience with this instrument, but 30-40 minutes to thaw a unit of ffp is a bit excessive in my opinion.  I use a helmer dh8, it thaws 8 units in about 20 minutes.

Call the company's tech support, maybe they can help you. Otherwise your sales person has some 'splaining to do.

I used the Saharas and they are quite tempermental. If you have the plate that holds 4 units take it out and switch it for the one that holds 2; it offers better circulation. You will need to thaw label down, set a timer for ~10 gently mash the unit finger tips to loosen up any ice and disperse it, swap the units positions, and set for another 10minutes. We found that worked, but yes you are right you can not just set it and forget it. For large volumes we still used our water bath. I hope that helps. Sorry. They are so pretty and less up keep, but finicky.