A 20-litre liquid nitrogen dewar is one of the most widely used vessel sizes in UK laboratories, IVF units, and veterinary practices. Its popularity stems from the balance it strikes between storage capacity, portability, static hold time, and physical footprint. For many small to mid-sized facilities, a 20-litre unit provides everything needed for day-to-day cryogenic storage without the complexity or cost of a larger floor-standing vessel.
In IVF and fertility settings, a 20-litre dewar is typically suited to clinics with a modest patient load, clinics using it as a secondary or working vessel alongside a larger primary store, or facilities that carry out relatively frequent liquid nitrogen top-ups as part of routine practice. It can accommodate three to six canisters depending on the model, each holding multiple goblets of vitrified embryos, oocytes, or sperm. For a busy IVF unit banking large numbers of patients material, a 20-litre unit may prove insufficient as a primary store and a 35 to 50-litre vessel may be more appropriate.
In veterinary practice, a 20-litre dewar is often used to store straws of bovine or equine semen for use in artificial insemination programmes. The capacity is generally adequate for practices operating at a moderate scale, though large commercial AI centres with high-volume inventories will typically use 50 to 100-litre vessels or larger.
Key specifications to compare are the static hold time, the number and configuration of canisters, the empty weight, and compatibility with standard canister and inventory systems. Browse our CryoCan 30-6 and CryoCan 47-6 liquid nitrogen dewars and compare specifications to find the right model for your facility.
