MrGC wrote:
Dear all,
how do I prime an Agilent HPLC that has not been used for a month?
The manual says the following:
"Use a syringe to draw enough solvent for completely filling the
tubings to the pump inlet before continuing to prime with the pump."
Is it thus correct to draw solvent through the degasser? Is the degasser supposed to be turned on in the meantime?
Sorry if my questions sounds a bit stupid.
If it is empty or has a lot of air in the system I disconnect the line going into the inlet valve at the bottom of the pump and attach a syringe there and slowly draw the solvent through from the bottle until I don't get any more air bubbles exiting the degasser. Depending on the degasser it can be up to 20ml dead volume. If you have the micro degasser, you have to pull slowly, 10ml/minute or less, the old large volume degasser you can pull as fast as it will flow through.
You want to remove as much air as possible so the pump is operating dry as little as possible since that can cause wear on the seals. Once you get flow down past the degasser you can either continue to pull with the syringe or let gravity pull solvent through until the bubbles disappear. The degasser can be on the whole time.