Autosampler thermostat verification

[mojo]

We have recently purchased Agilent 1200 thermostatted autosamplers and are updating out SOP to include a temp verification. We were going to measure the thermosat temp at 4 and 20 oC at 5 points in the tray. Does anyone else perform a similar verification?

[Alfred88]

Dear mojo:
We never do any temp verification for the autosampler. If the instrument is located in a temp-controlled environment, it is not needed.
Alfred.

[Bruce Hamilton]

We used a small temperature probe that fitted inside uncapped vials filled with water and tested at our standard temperature, 4, 10, 20C. I think we only tested one corner and the centre, as it takes a while to reach thermal equilibrium after opening the door and moving the probe.

As most of our methods were developed before we had thermostated autosamplers, we also set quite large acceptance tolerances for any methods that specify temperatures other than ambient. That's because if we filled the tray with vials, it takes a while for the contents to stabilise, unless the vials were precooled in a fridge.

Bruce Hamilton