Chromatography Forum

My work sometimes is "feast or famine" with money, and right now the purse strings are getting really tight(and also the demand for data from the folks who control the purse springs for consumables is getting higher) so I'm looking for as many ways as possible to save money, and of course at times buying out of my own pocket. I'm doing everything I can to stretch, but also am trying to do things like stretch the(very) limited number of of fresh liners I have on hand to last until I can buy more-fortunately what I'm using are the Restek siltek deactivated(single taper) which seem to overall have a long life and respond well to cleaning. My samples start life as river/creek water, but have gone through SPE before getting analyzed, so at least they are fairly clean and easy on the GC.

In any case, I was hunting for replacement septa to hopefully recycle my screw-cap AS vials, but came across an appealing option.

There are several offerings on Amazon for autosampler vials at very attractive prices-around $25 or a little less for a pack of 100, or even less if you buy in bulk(~$160 for 1000). I've a few different brands, but they all seem pretty similar-9-425 screw cap with a silicone/PTFE septum, and available clear or ambler. All have .5/1/1.5mL markings and a frosted label patch. For all intents and purposes they look a lot like the Fisher or other "house" brand vials I've been buying, usually at $60-80/box.

Here's one example, although not the only one https://www.amazon.com/Autosampler-Lab- ... 161&sr=8-3

I've been looking for other vials as well, and there are a lot of options on Amazon, including headspace vials and the like.

As perhaps a bit of an unconnected question, though, it's been a while since I used 9-425 capped vials. From what I remember, the caps are relatively tall especially compared to the screw cap "GC vials" I normally use. The last time I used 9-425 vials, it was with an Agilent 7693 ALS tower only on a 6890(with a 16 position tray) under the syringe, so there's no picking up and moving involved. Now, I'll be using it with a 7673 ALS on a 6890, which of course has a robotic arm to pick up and move the vial to the turret of the sampler tower. Does the 7673 have issues with 9-425 vials? I'd think not, but would hate to buy a bunch and find that they don't work.

If you do order from Amazon, make sure it's from a supplier that has free returns if they don't fit or work for you.

I've always found that when an employer is paying the salaries of analytical chemists and having them spend time trying to save $$ on some of the least expensive consumables to go through the lab, there are far bigger issues to worry about.

It's not the question asked, but the answer is "Yes, it's time to start looking."

I worked in the analytical support lab of a large consumer products company for over 4 decades, supporting R&D and manufacturing.

I was fortunate that our department had a nice budget for supplies, so we never had to worry about buying a spare column, a chemical to try, glassware, dispensers, etc.

We also had a decent capital budget so got into benchtop GCMS as soon as HP/Agilent developed one on a Microsoft Windows software.

So by the time I became the leader, management was accustomed to that.

I've always found that when an employer is paying the salaries of analytical chemists and having them spend time trying to save $$ on some of the least expensive consumables to go through the lab, there are far bigger issues to worry about.

It's not the question asked, but the answer is "Yes, it's time to start looking."

Academia is a totally different world, especially at a small non-research-focused school and where the people actually writing the checks don't understand the ins and outs of what an analytical chemist actually does. Still, though, they want results, and they'll loosen up the money if they get them.

Of course we still have situations like that they were willing to pay $3K for a service engineer to replace the mainboard when I could have easily installed it myself for $800, plus that I was down for almost 2 months to get that scheduled when I could have been down a week. That's sometimes what happens when people who aren't analytical chemists are in charge, though, and at the end of the day I'm appreciative of them being willing to fund it.

My job is safe-this is a small part of it, but just a part I personally care about a lot.

As the supply chain chaos from China shutting down its cities for COVID demonstrated, nearly everything that is made by automated machinery comes from China. That includes the vials that the lab suppliers sell, and the vials on Amazon. The problem with Amazon is that the QC is poor to non-existent, you might get a good batch, it might be contaminated rubbish.

i use them for year without any problem