Out of curiosity, do people generally cool plates on the ODTC when finished with their protocol or do you move the plate to a chilled location? The reason I ask is I did a comparison between the ODTC and a bench top thermocycler and observed that when going from 57 degrees to 10 degrees the ODTC took ~75 seconds due to changes in max slopes during cooling at the set limit temperatures, the same range in temperatures took ~20 seconds off deck. I would think that cooling speed requirements would be workflow specific but does anyone need to move the plate from the ODTC to a chilled position for rapid cooling?
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I would generally leave the plate in the ODTC, mainly because it creates a tight seal that prevents evaporation, dust infiltration, etc. I was mainly automating genetics protocols where the final product was purified DNA, so the temperature didn’t matter much. The plate would have been fine overnight at ambient temperature.
The only situation I’d really want to avoid is a loosely-sealed plate that’s creating condensation on its lid. That feels like it could cause cross-contamination. Or I guess any loosely-sealed plate that will be left potentially evaporating for several hours.