Dräger Tubes to Buy
Some measurements call for a quick, precise answer on the spot, without setting up a full electronic gas detector. This is exactly what Dräger Tubes are built for: small glass tubes containing a chemical reagent that changes colour when the target gas is drawn through, giving you a direct reading in seconds or minutes, depending on the substance.
Sold as single-use consumables, they cover over 500 different substances, from workplace exposure checks to leak testing in tanks and confined spaces. To take a measurement you need a compatible pump or analyser, and you can simply hire that equipment from us for exactly as long as your project requires.
How Dräger Tubes work
Dräger Tubes are a simple and reliable way to measure gases and vapours on site when you need a quick, selective result. They are especially useful for spot checks, clearance measurements and short-term investigations where a full electronic setup is not necessary.
How they work
- Break off both ends of the glass tube.
- Insert the tube into a compatible pump, with the arrow pointing towards the pump.
- Draw a defined volume of air through the tube using the specified number of pump strokes.
- The target gas reacts with the indicator layer inside the tube.
- The colour change is read against the printed scale, or checked by colour comparison depending on the tube type.
- The result shows the concentration at that exact place and time, so it gives you a clear snapshot of conditions on site.
This principle has stayed reliable for decades and follows the DIN EN ISO 17621 standard for short-term detector tube systems. Depending on the substance and tube type, measuring time typically ranges from around 10 seconds to 20 minutes, with an accuracy of roughly plus or minus 15 to 25 per cent. Because every result is a snapshot for that specific place and time, tubes are best suited to one-off answers rather than ongoing monitoring.
Where they are useful
Dräger Tubes are commonly used for workplace checks, maintenance tasks, clearance measurements before entry into vessels or confined spaces, and checks after an incident. For continuous monitoring with alarms, a Multigas Detector or Area Monitoring system is usually the better choice.
Choose the right setup for your application
Classic tube systems can be used with a manual pump or an automatic tube measuring device. For very low concentrations and highly selective measurements in the ppb range, Dräger MicroTubes provide the more advanced option and are evaluated with the X-act 7000. Several pre-layers inside each MicroTube filter out other substances before they reach the reactive layer, which significantly reduces cross-sensitivities and false-positive readings, even in complex mixtures.
A practical hire option
If you only need this type of measurement occasionally, hiring the measuring device and buying only the tubes you use is a cost-effective way to stay flexible for audits, one-off checks and short-term projects. Your hired equipment arrives maintained, checked and ready to use, so you can start measuring as soon as it is delivered.
