New Pump

[Jim 78]

I'm looking into buying a new gradient HPLC pump for the lab and have a few questions.
We're looking into waters (breeze or alliance), agilent (1100), Eldex (micro pump) and Hitachi.
1. Is there another company that we're leaving out?
2. The waters breeze is ~20k and the agilent is ~13k. why the huge price difference. I always thought the 1100 was a standard excellent pump (hopefully I'm not confusing quality with price).

Thanks
Jim

[andy]

The 1100 Series HPLC systems use a lot of the same component among the different modules. For example the same piston is used both in the pump and as the sampling piston in the autosampler. I would believe that this type of commonality would reduce the costs because they have to carry less parts in inventory.

[Mark]

Jim,

Our lab uses Waters Aliance, HP1100, and I have a Varian Prostar with a ternary gradient pump. They all work fairly well and seem to have very good reliability. Hard to choose between them, they all perform very well for us, we do a lot of method development work on them. I'm sure I didn't make the choice any easier but I think you will not go too far wrong with any of these units.

Regards,
Mark

[Uwe Neue]

I usually do not get involved in discussions of the best vendor. However, here is a generic recommendation:

Write down all the things that you expect your HPLC system to do! Write down how much you want to spend! Then give the list of requirements to the sales reps of several companies and let them specify a system that suits your needs!

There may be some limitations that one system has compared to another. There also may be price differences, but I do not expect them to be large, if everybody is working from the same specifications.

In real life, the service contract may play a big role in your decision. Check with each vendor what is included in the purchase or a service contract!

With all the relevant information in your hand, you now can make an informed decision.

[MG]

Is there another company that we're leaving out?

Perkin-Elmer is another. I am not affiliated with that company but we do have their LCs in our lab.

http://las.perkinelmer.com/catalog/Cate ... LC+Systems

[bert]

In real life, the service contract may play a big role in your decision. Check with each vendor what is included in the purchase or a service contract!

In my opinion it is even more important to find out how the vendors handle their service contracts. What is the service level and what are the skills of the people who come to help you when you're in trouble. This can differ from vendor to vendor and even from country to country.

Jim, try to find out and ask nearby colleagues.

Good luck, Bert