Let them dance!

Yep! I usually end up saying this most to Operations/Estates/contractors.

Simple transfer of 190ul into a 3mm tube took my robot almost exactly one minute for one sample, including the clean step.

If it would help, I can find out the time per sample for a specific method e.g. straight transfer of 600ul per sample to a tube?

If you're regularly prepping 96 well plates with the same or similar methods then I think a prep robot is well worth it. It may not be quicker overall than hand prep (though it can be pretty efficient with non-viscous liquids) but you'll get more reliable ergonomic prep with less hands-on time.

I've also found that they have a very limited selection of plate configurations. A student came to me with the well plates she was using for UV, but the needle didn't go down deep enough into the well and the safeguards won't let me create a minus Z-axis offset.

In theory we can use an Excel sheet to submit jobs to the queue, which is incredibly helpful when we have varieties of volumes to transfer or a complicated sequence of transfers. Unfortunately their macro has broken on my computer and they haven't figured out how to fix it. I think they've given up.

We've got one! We've been using it to prep fragment cocktails for our screening service. It's good in that it works well, but there are caveats. Switching between solvents is a huge faff, for example.

I have 'acquired' one that's no longer wanted and am keeping it as a souvenir / using it as office decor 😁