okay so here is my list from worst to best (with figures for people who are not as intimately familiar with tubes as me)
9: Axygen 1.5mL Tube: Why does this tube suck so much. I always called these "generic eppendorfs" until I realized they were an actual brand that people order on purpose, not just because they can't afford eppendorfs. The lip of the cap is sharp enough that when you are trying to open them one-handed all day it starts to hurt your thumb. Sometimes they open so sharply it flings liquid everywhere. Sometimes when you close them they grab a bit of your glove.
8. 0.2mL PCR Strip tube with domed cap: I'm convinced people only buy the domed-cap PCR tubes on accident and then since they bought like 500 of them everyone has to slowly work through the shitty domed-cap tubes before they can order more. They almost never come in fun colors and, more importantly, I can't write labels on a dome!! I can only write labels on the side of the tube and if I'm actually using them for PCR there's a chance the heat will just end up removing part of what I wrote. These tubes are stupid. Stop buying them on accident.
7. 15mL Falcon Tube: The 50mL Falcon's younger, skinnier, shittier cousin. Sure, it fits in most centrifuges and it has accurate volume markings. Whatever. It's narrow enough that it's hard to open one handed, hold the cap between your thumb and forefinger, and then close one handed - the little cap slips out of your hands, bounces off the bench, and starts rolling to the other side of the lab. You can't get a p20 or a p200 all the way to the bottom without touching the sides. Anything this tube can do, the 50mL Falcon tube can do better.
6. Eppendorf 0.5mL Tube: I have pretty much only used this little guy for when I'm trying to scale down things that usually happen in a 1.5mL tube. It doesn't have a ton of utility - if I'm aliquoting anything under 0.2mL I'm using a PCR tube because that comes in strips. If I'm aliquoting anything over 0.2mL a 1.5mL works just fine. They're small enough that they're hard to open, and very few tube racks fit them. But they're kind of bitty and cute, so I'm not actively hostile towards them.
5. 0.2mL PCR Strip tube with flat cap: Technically these are for PCR but they're useful for a lot of other things. If you multi-channel pipette small volumes at all these guys are great for when a 96-well plate feels like overkill. Kind of annoying to open. You can use the different colors to differentiate between samples OR just always take the purple ones bc you like them best. If you have a nice set of PCR tube racks then you'd better keep them hidden because those things are an even hotter commodity than fine-point sharpies in a lab and they WILL disappear. Flat cap is absolutely necessary for writing labels on them.
4. Eppendorf 2.0mL tube: It honestly pains me to rank the 2.0mL under the 1.5mL because truthfully the 2.0 is like, a little sexier than the 1.5mL? It's mysterious because you don't always know if you have them. It's round. It's friendly. It's not just utilitarian. Sometimes you calculate a master mix and it's 1.7mL and you're like fuuuck but then the 2.0mL eppendorf is there for you, saying "aren't you glad I'm not a 15mL falcon tube?" However, the 2.0mL seems to have slightly worse retention when centrifuging cell pellets for FACS and that has been annoying me right now at this moment in my life, so it's getting demoted.
3. Eppendorf 1.5mL tube: This tube is pretty much the bedrock of biochemistry research, at least if you have enough funding to buy name brand 1.5mL tubes. Making a PCR master mix? 1.5mL tube. Aliquoting reagents into single use volumes? 1.5mL tube. Capturing the elution from a DNA miniprep? 1.5mL tube. It has the range! The conical bottom makes it very easy to work with tiny volumes of reagents as well as larger ones. The rough plastic on the top and side make it easy to write on with a marker. The volume measurements are hard to read but over time you can usually just eyeball it.
2. 50mL Falcon Tube: This is a great tube. I love this tube. You would love this tube if you worked in a lab. It's wide enough that you can easily open it one-handed, and narrow enough that you can keep a whole rack of them at your bench to hold small volumes of buffers. You can get any pipette all the way to the bottom without touching the sides. It has a big white area to write labels on, the volume measurements are surprisingly accurate, and it is compatible with most centrifuges. It's nice to hold. This is THE science tube. I use this tube so much that I know off the top of my head it weighs almost exactly 16g every time which means if you're weighing cell pellets you don't need to pre-weigh each tube you just subtract 16g. It's blue! (Also it's roughly the same volume as a shot so you can use them for irresponsible partying)
1.Eppendorf 5.0 mL Safelock Tube: These tubes are not super common and that means that every time someone sees them for the first time they are delighted by them. It's a 1.5mL tube but comically large! Look at it! It's so cute! They also come in clutch for when you are working with a volume between 2.0 and 10mL, because I sure as fuck am not using a 15mL Falcon for that. Does not fit into most centrifuges or tube racks or freezer boxes but look at ittttt it's so chunky!! I love it. The first time I saw these in person I took one home just because I wanted to have it.
