The complete guide to deep well plates
The four deep well families, what each is for, and which labs live in them.
Deep well plates all look like taller microplates, but the family splits by job: holding, extracting, growing, and preparing. This guide walks the four families with their applications, then the choices every buyer makes inside them. The choosing page turns the same material into a decision sequence.
Storage plates: where libraries live
Square well polypropylene plates, usually 96 or 384, in the 1 to 2.2 mL classes, built to be sealed and frozen for months. Primary applications: compound library storage and working copies, sample archives, aliquot banks. Who uses them: compound management and biobank groups, whose deciding facts are seal integrity at -80 °C and recovery of small volumes from pyramid bottoms.
Extraction and instrument plates: molded for a machine
Plates whose well geometry, height, and skirt are specified by an instrument, most visibly the KingFisher family of magnetic bead processors, where tip combs and magnet heads dictate the plate. Primary applications: DNA and RNA extraction, bead-based cleanup, automated sample prep. Who uses them: genomics cores and diagnostics labs. The KingFisher plates page covers that fit in detail; the rule everywhere is that the instrument manual, not the catalog category, names the plate.
Growth blocks: culture at volume
Deep well plates, often 24 or 48 well for volume or 96 for throughput, used to grow bacterial cultures in the plate, sealed with breathable films that pass gas and hold liquid. Primary applications: plasmid miniprep cultures, expression screening, strain libraries. Who uses them: molecular biology and protein expression groups, whose deciding facts are working volume per well (cultures need headroom for aeration) and seal breathability.
Mixing and preparation plates: the staging area
Round well plates used ahead of an assay: diluting, mixing, neutralizing, and staging samples that will be aliquoted into assay plates. Primary applications: serial dilution series, reagent preparation, sample normalization. Who uses them: every screening and assay group, usually without thinking of them as a separate family at all, which is exactly why they get under-specified: round wells and a volume class matched to the largest dilution step are the whole decision.
Choosing inside the family
Four decisions, in order. Volume class from the largest aliquot plus headroom: freezing and shaking both punish a brim-full well. Well shape and bottom from the recovery method: pyramid bottoms for pipette recovery of small volumes, round bottoms for pelleting. Height and skirt from the hardware: stackers, grippers, and centrifuge buckets all have opinions. Sealing from the storage temperature and duration: the sealing page matches films, mats, and heat seals to jobs. Sterility is a fifth, simpler one: buy it marked, or autoclave polypropylene.
Deep well families at a glance
| Family | Typical formats | Primary use |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | 48, 96, 384 | Compound libraries and sample archives, sealed and frozen |
| Extraction / instrument | 24, 96 | Bead-based extraction on a named instrument |
| Growth | 24, 48, 96 | Bacterial culture in the plate, plasmid prep |
| Mixing / preparation | 96, 384 | Dilution, mixing, and staging ahead of an assay |
One physical plate can serve two families; the family names describe the job the plate was bought for, and the job sets the specification that matters.
Related guides
Common questions
What sizes do deep well plates come in?
Four well counts (24, 48, 96, 384) and, in 96 format, four common volume classes (0.5, 1, 2, and 2.2 mL per well). The 384 format trades volume for density, in the 100 microliter class; 24 and 48 formats hold the largest volumes per well.
Square or round wells for storage?
Square, in most cases: a square well packs more volume into the same grid, and a pyramid bottom gathers the last of it for recovery. Round wells earn their place when the plate will be mixed hard or centrifuged for pelleting.
How do I choose between 1 mL and 2 mL deep well plates?
By the largest single aliquot plus headroom. Storage aliquots and library copies usually live comfortably in 1 mL; growth cultures, extraction working volumes, and anything shaken or frozen with expansion room point to 2 mL. Buying up a class costs little; discovering a shortfall mid-run costs the run.
Are deep well plates sterile?
Both ways: plates are sold sterile and non-sterile, and the pack says which. Culture and clinical work buys sterile; compound storage usually does not need it. Polypropylene plates can be autoclaved if a non-sterile plate has to be sterilized in house.