Trouble with Waters UPLC guard filter

[bunnahabhain]

Dears

Together with our Acquity system came a couple of these guard filters:
http://www.waters.com/waters/partDetail ... =205000343
and at least 10 replacement frits.
Trouble is: I had to tighten the filter so much that the frit cannot be removed from the nut any more (ultrasonic for hours did not help), this happened for three of these filters now. In my eyes this is a single-use product and the frits are worthless.
=> Any idea what I can try to remove the frit, additionally to ultrasonic?
=> Any experience/pointers for a similar product?

Thanks a lot
Jörg

[EmpowersBane]

The product is fine, we use them every single day in work. The problem is that you are tightening the fitting too much! A simple quarter turn when you feel resistance is more than enough. They are very robust parts, its your technique that is the problem here.

[bunnahabhain]

The product is fine, we use them every single day in work. The problem is that you are tightening the fitting too much! A simple quarter turn when you feel resistance is more than enough. They are very robust parts, its your technique that is the problem here.

Sorry, but a simple quarter turn is not enough when it is still leaking. I have to turn further until the thing does not leak any more.

[EmpowersBane]

The product is fine, we use them every single day in work. The problem is that you are tightening the fitting too much! A simple quarter turn when you feel resistance is more than enough. They are very robust parts, its your technique that is the problem here.

Sorry, but a simple quarter turn is not enough when it is still leaking. I have to turn further until the thing does not leak any more.

Why is it leaking though? Do you have the two pieces that make up this part connected together properly? There are instructions which come with this part that explains how to use a union or column to fit the parts together, it sounds like the ferrule is slipping and leaking is occurring. As I said, we use this part almost every day and there are no leaks. Tighten it until you meet some resistance but not so much that you cant separate it.

[bunnahabhain]

Why is it leaking though?

This is a good question

Do you have the two pieces that make up this part connected together properly? There are instructions which come with this part that explains how to use a union or column to fit the parts together, it sounds like the ferrule is slipping and leaking is occurring.

I am not a complete novice in assembling HPLC components and yes, I did read the instructions. I also know from experience that a slipped ferrule results in leakage at a different place (i.e.: the part where it is screwed into the column) while the leak I observed is locate at the place where the two parts from this filter are fit together. Tightening at this place ficed leaking, while it would not have fixed the leak caused by a slipped ferrule.

As I said, we use this part almost every day and there are no leaks. Tighten it until you meet some resistance but not so much that you cant separate it.

It is nice to hear that it works for you, It does not work for me, though.
BTW I don't seem to be the only one having this problem. Why else would Waters sell a kit containing 5 filters and nuts? This would not be necessary if people did not lose quite a lot of irreversibly tightened nuts.
http://www.waters.com/waters/partDetail ... =700002775

Kind regards
Jörg

[Gaetan Glauser]

Hi,

We have sometimes had leaking issues with this part, but not so often though. And I indeed recall having problems removing the filter from the holder too. Maybe as a last resort you could try to drill it with a very small bit and take care not to touch the holder?

Actually we decided to use guard columns instead of these inlet filters for most applications as we find them more convenient and they protect the column better. We still use the filters with some special columns for uncommon applications because we cannot afford guard columns with all column types.