Filling Instructions
To avoid damage to your LOCATOR or LOCATOR Plus
cryogenic storage vessel which may result in premature
vacuum loss, it is important that the following procedure
be used when adding liquid nitrogen to a warm vessel:
1. Add only a small amount of liquid nitrogen (5-10
liters) to a new or warm vessel.
2. Allow this small amount of liquid nitrogen to sit
in the covered vessel for a minimum of 2 hours.
This will limit stress caused by the sudden tem-
perature change associated with adding liquid
nitrogen to a warm vessel.
3. Add an additional 15 liters of liquid nitrogen to
the vessel.
4. Allow vessel to sit for 48 hours and monitor liq-
uid nitrogen consumption with a wooden yard-
stick or Level Monitor.
5. Fill LOCATOR or LOCATOR Plus as indicated.
(See Caution on this page.) Remember to allow
for displacement of liquid nitrogen when racks
and boxes are inserted.
6. Insert and remove racks slowly. Allow liquid
nitrogen to run out of boxes and off of racks.
Measuring Liquid Nitrogen
Quantity
1. Use a wooden yardstick to measure liquid nitro-
gen level. Never use a hollow tube or plastic
dipstick to measure the liquid nitrogen level.
2. Level will be indicated by frost line which devel-
ops when dipstick is removed.
3. Level Monitor can be used for constant meas-
urements.
7
Operation
Caution
•
Never overfill your LOCA-
TOR or LOCATOR Plus ves-
sel with liquid nitrogen. The
liquid nitrogen level in your
tank (with racks inserted)
should never be above 20
inches (50 cm) for LOCATOR
4 and LOCATOR 8, 10 inch-
es (25 cm) for LOCATOR Jr.,
22 inches (55.8 cm) for
LOCATOR 4, 6 and 8 Plus
and 12 inches for LOCATOR
Jr. Plus. Filling the tank up to
or above the bottom of the
neck tube may cause imme-
diate or premature vacuum
failure to occur.
•
When inserting or removing
racks, be careful not to come
in contact with the neck tube
area of the vessel. Remove
or insert racks slowly in a
vertical manner. Scratches
on the neck tube area can
cause premature vacuum
failure.
•
Do not spill liquid nitrogen on
vacuum port (covered by a
black plastic cap on side of
vessel) - this can cause vac-
uum failure.
