Re: HPLC systems

MSweeney (mattsweeney@earthlink.net)
Wed, 14 Apr 1999 17:14:00 -0700

Personally I love the old HP1050 (and newer HP1100). But they do have one
major flaw. The proportioning valve. I looked at the low pressure mixing
1100 and it has the same valve (sub contractor/manufacturer and appearance).
It looks virtually the same inside mechanically as the 1050. I have had
several under my control and about 50% of them develop problems with this.
They leak and fail to deliver correctly. An HP employee told me this was
one of the main failures. They were $1200 for a rebuilt (with a trade in of
the old one). They replacement is quick and easy. HP officially denied the
problem when I complained about it. They ascribed it to user error or
buffers or something. I only used methanol, acn, water, formic, acetic,
TFA, and ammonium in them. Other users have had similar experiences. But
some have not... I ended up keeping one on hand at all times for a quick
swap if problems developed. I think the glue they are held together with
gives out.

I liked the fact that they could be run from the front panel or via serial
control from my mass spec without a reboot. The 1090 requires that you
reboot the mass spec and hplc if you want to get to the super-set of the
control functions available only from the HPLC front panel. They were
always graceful in accepting commands alternately from either.

The ordering of them is complicated as you have to order from a menu of
about 100 options to get what you want (which is good I guess). The manuals
that come with them are not useful for things like seal changes and many
trouble shooting problems. You have to get the service manuals which are
about $350 more for two little loose leaf German translations (it seems).
It can be hard to find what you need even in those things. I often had to
piece together what I needed from several sections.

All in all though I find them easy to use and maintain. They are nice
units. HP always had all the parts I needed. I have even made the low
pressure system perform 75ul/min gradients with by replacing much of the
post purge valve plumbing with 0.005-0.007 ID peek tubing. I think the
stainless fittings on it make repair and maintenance difficult inside the
cramped cabinet.

I hope this is not taken as a "dis" of these, I like them. Everything has
minuses(?).

Matt Sweeney
mattsweeney@earthlink.net
Mass Spec Consulting

Training/Operations/Consulting/Method Development
LC/MS Pharmacokinetics, Peptides, Proteins, Metabolism,
Maintenance Classes, Specialist in Finnigan Equipment and Software

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael A Imbalzano <imbalzan@SAS.UPENN.edu>
To: Recipients of ABRF List <abrf@aecom.yu.edu>
Date: Wednesday, April 14, 1999 3:50 PM
Subject: HPLC systems

>I plan to buy a new HPLC system to be used primarily for
>synthetic oligo purification. I've been looking at systems from
>Beckman, Waters, and HP. I was wondering if anyone had any comments
>(good or bad) about the equipment they are currently using.
>
>I am particularly interested in feedback on the HP1100.
>I was recently told that they are not reliable.
>
>Thanks so much,
>
>Mike
>
>