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- Posts: 478
- Joined: Fri Jun 02, 2017 11:10 pm
- Location: Western Colorado
I just talked to Agilent tech support and they tell me there is no official paper for how to protect a GC-MS from power drops and surges. He did note that many customers put a UPS on their MS (but not the GC because they simply draw too much power). He said the most important thing was to be sure the backflow valve on the roughing pump was working to prevent air at room pressure from suddenly flowing into the turbopump outlet.
I have an APC NS1350 UPS running my PC, network switch, a new Edwards RV3 backing pump and my 5973inert MS. Typical power draw is 500VA with periodic short spikes to ~700VA. No backup for the 6890N GC because it pulls too many amps. I also have my Archon and Tekmar 3000 P&T setup on the surge protected but not battery backed part of the UPS. This gives me maybe 10 minutes of backup which is enough for the occasional drop/surge.
When I walked in this morning the system was down and the UPS battery was drained and shut itself off. It all fired back up when I restarted the UPS and was a little wonky about finding the GC on the network.
What sort of backup are the rest of you using to protect your most sensitive equipment?