Not all of the colums leak, but when they do it sometimes leads to
low trityl readings and the dreaded "total trityl yield failure"
which shuts down the instrument. This is particularly upsetting when
the machine stops at 2am after synthesizing only 6 of 16 oligos.
The leaks are always on the bottom or inlet side of the column.
It seems that the columns are not crimped properly and can be fixed with
a standard 11mm crimping tool.
The columns are from PE Biosystems (Perseptive/Millipore/Milligen-Biosearch)
Lot# 9806001. Perkin-Elmer will replace any "bad" columns but you might as
well recrimp them yourself and use them.
Mike Imbalzano
UPENN