Does anybody know of any companies still making microarray hybridisation and wash stations ? there seems to be several manyfacturers of spotters and scanners, hybridisation and washing not so much. thanks in advance
You should still get hybridization chambers from Agilent (https://www.agilent.com/cs/library/usermanuals/Public/G2534-90004_HybridizationChamber_User.pdf). You can mount them in any standard hybridization oven with a rotor (no need for specialized equipment!). Pros: It's flexible regarding the slides (you don't need Agilent slides), low-cost and works very well (very good and homogeneous hybridization). Cons: it's not automatable (robotics).
I used the Tecan system, too. Believe me, the Agilent system is much, much better. It is way more robust and less fiddly. The manual washing is easy, quick and clean - you just need another oven to preheat the wash buffers.
Disclaimer: I am not working for Agilent nor am I payed in any way by Agilent. I am just a customer.
You can get a Tecan HS 400 Pro on ebay for about $ 900...