Waters 717 autosampler

[chromeleon]

anyone familar with this?

if so, couple of things...
- the sep pak calibration: should this be done every day?
- when I run the needle wash, I should see solvent waste coming out of the yellow line. Instead all I get is air. any idea what could be wrong?

thanks
:)

[danko]

I assume you mean the “seal packâ€

[juddc]

These are excellent workhorse autosamplers. I've been running one continuously since 1994 or so.

In answer to your questions:

1. Calibration of the seal pack should only be done after the instrument (specifically the seal pack) is serviced. Once done, you should be able to leave it alone.

2. Is there solvent in the needle wash reservoir (green line)? If so, are you sure it's connected to the wash pump and there is no obstruction in the green line? You may need to run the needle wash prime once or twice if the reservoir has run dry. You can also give the prime a little help with a ~20 ml disposable syringe and a 200-ul pipette tip cut down to fit the leur tip in the syringe. Use care with this approach and don't put too much pressure on the syringe, but that usually does it pretty well.

Good luck!

[chromeleon]

thanks guys, and yes I meant seal pak... :oops:

also, zeroing the pressure transducer... how often should this be done?
the manuals don't say anything about frequency

what is your daily routine?

[Hollow]

what is your daily routine?

startup, place the vials and start the sequence
from time to time, fill up the needle wash reservoir

anything else, annually at routine maintenance or in case of something is faulty

[juddc]

I don't know if I have ever needed to zero the pressure transducer and I don't generally pay any attention to it.

My Monday startup routine goes something like this:

1. Prepare mobile phases as needed, flush solvent lines, and prime the pump.

2. Top up the needle wash reservoir and prime the wash pump as needed. (Use a solvent that is stronger than your starting MP - I usually use neat MeOH)

3. Run the pump at a typical flow rate for a few minutes with a union in place of the column in order expel air.

4. Purge the injector for 5-10 min @ 1 ml/min.

5. Decrease the pump flow rate to ~0.1 ml/min (or whatever is an appropriate trickle flow for your column) & install column inlet, leaving the outlet open and vertical if possible to ensure constant, bubble free flow from the column outlet.

6 . Once constant flow is established at the column outlet, install the line from the column to the detector, place column in the column oven and allow it to come to desired temperature with a reduced MP flow, usually 0.5 ml/min of a 4.6mm ID column.

7. Once the column is at temperature, equilibrate for ~ 5 system volumes at a normal flow rate, longer for any ion-paired or normal phase methods.

8. Condition the column if using a gradient, re-equilibrate as needed, run the system suitability, then calibrate and quantitate with wild abandon.

Hope this helps!