The default, and for good reason. PVC has excellent mechanical memory, which matters in a peristaltic pump: the tubing is occluded and released several times a second, and it needs to spring back to the same internal diameter every time. PVC does that reliably and cheaply.
Use it for aqueous samples, buffers, dilute acids and dilute bases. Avoid it for ketones, chlorinated solvents and aromatic hydrocarbons, which will plasticise and soften the wall.
Same base polymer, tighter manufacturing tolerance. If you're feeding an ICP-OES, ICP-MS or autoanalyser, this is the grade you want, because analytical-grade tubing is held to closer I.D. control and lower extractables. When your internal standard has to stay flat across a 200-sample run, bore tolerance isn't a detail. It's the whole game.
Individually flow-tested tubing, available in standard and long lengths and with flared ends. Worth the premium where you need reproducible delivery between tubes rather than just within one tube: multichannel work, method validation, and anywhere a flow discrepancy between channels turns into a data question you have to answer later.
The compromise grade. Better resistance to organic solvents than standard PVC while keeping most of the flexibility and pump life. Reach for it when you've got moderate solvent exposure but the run times don't justify a fluoroelastomer.
The fluoroelastomer option. Outstanding resistance to aggressive solvents, oils, concentrated acids and high temperatures. The trade-off is stiffness: Viton needs more torque, and it doesn't have the same fatigue life under continuous occlusion as PVC. Specify it when chemistry rules everything else out, not as a general upgrade.
Thermoplastic elastomer with very low extractables and excellent resistance to acids, bases and aqueous chemistry. This is the grade for pharmaceutical, biotech and any application where leachables into the sample stream are a validation problem. It also handles sterilisation and a wide temperature range.
Pump tubing is a consumable, and it's priced like one when you buy it from a specialist. Our collared tubing starts at £41 for a pack of 12, across every material family and every I.D. from 0.13mm to 3.18mm. If you're paying instrument-manufacturer prices for what is fundamentally an extruded polymer tube with two plastic collars on it, you're funding somebody's branding budget.
High-quality consumables at unrivalled prices. Request a free sample of any tubing in the range and try it on your own pump before you commit to a box.
Browse the full collared tubing range or request a free sample.