Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) is a widely used technique in protein separations. In this study, the effects of pre‐electrophoresis (i.e., exposing polyacrylamide gels to an electrical field prior to loading samples) on the separation of a mixture of 10 standard proteins was investigated. Three different gel concentrations (based on amounts of acrylamide and bis‐acrylamide, always at a 37.5:1 ratio) relative to the volume of the gel solution were tested: 6%, 9%, and 12%. For each concentration, multiple slab gels were subjected to pre‐electrophoresis prior to separation of proteins, while multiple other (i.e., companion) slab gels were used but without applying the pre‐electrophoresis technique. Separation results were investigated, showing that the application of the pre‐electrophoresis technique had a significant effect on separations particularly for 6% and 9% gels.