Self packing of HPLC column

[yohuang]

Dear Chromotographers,

I wonder if packing HPLC columns by myself makes sense. Rostech sells a pump kit for packing HPLC columns and several companies sell all kinds of HPLC silica types, normal and reversed phase. My questions are:

1. Can I pack the column as good as the commercial one?
Is packing HPLC column as easy as it is descirbed in the instruction? I have not packed HPLC column by myself before.

2. Does it make economical sense to pack the column by myself. I am in an academic position, so minimizing cost is a big concern for running my lab. The HPLC packing station costs about $7000. i have two HPLC systems (Agilent 1200) in my lab and do go through 5 to 6 columns a year.

Thanks for you help,

Yongsong

[tom jupille]

1. Can I pack the column as good as the commercial one?

Yes, but only with a tremendous expenditure of time and effort.

Is packing HPLC column as easy as it is descirbed in the instruction?

No. The details must be optimized for each type of packing, and must often be "tweaked" for each lot. In a past life I was involved with packing columns commercially. For each new lot of packing material, we packed a dozen test columns (2 each under 6 different time/pressure profiles) to get the conditions optimized.