Transferpette update: the battery situation

4 March 2026 Tags: NiMH batteries laboratory sustainability LEAF battery replacement lab equipment dispensing pipettes environmental impact equipment recommendations Brand transferpette electronic micropipettes

Update February 2026

Back in September 2025, I wrote about our Brand Transferpette electronic micropipettes. The dispensing function remains excellent. The short funnels remain annoying. And the NiMH batteries?

Well, they have died again. Both of them. Within a few months of each other.

I have now purchased replacement batteries for both the 2–20 µL and 20–200 µL models. Again. To be fair, the lab has shrunk somewhat, so usage is lower than before. But I have been watching the charging situation more carefully, trying to prevent the well-intentioned overnight top-ups that likely contributed to the first battery failures. It has not helped.

The fact that both batteries failed in close succession, again!, suggests this is not just user error or bad luck. There appears to be a more systematic issue with NiMH battery technology in this application – hardly surprising, I suppose, given that NiMH batteries are famously prone to memory effect and overcharging damage in precisely the kind of intermittent-use scenario these pipettes experience.

The environmental problem

Here's where this stops being merely annoying and becomes actively problematic. Laboratories are finally waking up to sustainability. Our department recently joined LEAF (the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework), implementing substantial waste reduction measures. We are recycling plastics, reducing volumes, routing materials to specialist facilities.

And then we are stuck with electronic pipettes that require battery replacements every 18–24 months because the manufacturer insists on using battery technology from the previous century.

It is 2026. Lithium-ion batteries are standard in essentially everything electronic. They do not suffer memory effect. They handle intermittent charging without degrading catastrophically. They last longer. The technology is mature, widely available, and demonstrably superior for this exact use case.

Brand's continued use of NiMH batteries in the Transferpettes is not just inconvenient. It has become environmentally indefensible. Each premature battery failure generates avoidable waste and undermines the sustainability efforts laboratories are working hard to implement.

The revised verdict

The Transferpettes still perform their core dispensing function well. For high-throughput applications, they remain useful tools. But unless Brand has addressed the battery technology in more current models (they might have, I have no idea!), I cannot recommend purchasing these units.

The short funnels are a design annoyance. The NiMH batteries are a sustainability failure. In an era where we are genuinely trying to reduce laboratory environmental impact, equipment that requires frequent battery replacements due to outdated technology is simply not fit for purpose.

If you are considering electronic micropipettes, I would strongly suggest keeping an eye out for models with lithium-ion batteries. If anyone has recommendations for dispensing pipettes that do not require battery babysitting and premature replacement, I would be very interested to hear about them.

Because at this point, I'm less interested in writing product reviews and more interested in finding equipment that actually works for longer than two years.