What's the best LC-MS you've ever used?

[Incitor]

The company I work for is looking to buy a new or refurbished LC-MS system. I'm talking to sales people, but I feel like there's no way to tell which instruments are the best except to ask on a place like this.

What we're looking for is qualitative and quantitative analysis of raw and finished products in our bio-fuels creation process. We don't care about trace analysis and sometimes our samples are dirty, meaning they have 5 micron sized solids that can't be removed very easily. Fast analysis time is also a bonus.

Any recommendations? Thanks in advance, this forum is awesome.

[JGK]

The best way is to evaluate the sales material and select 2 or 3 of the best possibilities then:

Have each supplier set up the analysis on their equipment and you visit the site and take some typical samples with you. that way you can see how they trouble shoot the issues as they fine tune the method.

If you do this for each supplier you select, you can get a direct comparison between systems.

It may seem costly initially (travel, time etc), but it's better than blowing several hunrdred thousand on the wrong choice.

[Incitor]

The best way is to evaluate the sales material and select 2 or 3 of the best possibilities then:

Have each supplier set up the analysis on their equipment and you visit the site and take some typical samples with you. that way you can see how they trouble shoot the issues as they fine tune the method.

If you do this for each supplier you select, you can get a direct comparison between systems.

It may seem costly initially (travel, time etc), but it's better than blowing several hunrdred thousand on the wrong choice.

Good idea, also might be a good excuse to do some traveling : )

[Klaus I.]

The best way is to evaluate the sales material and select 2 or 3 of the best possibilities then:

Have each supplier set up the analysis on their equipment and you visit the site and take some typical samples with you. that way you can see how they trouble shoot the issues as they fine tune the method.

If you do this for each supplier you select, you can get a direct comparison between systems.

If I have interpreted the requirements correctly, the robustness of the interface will be also critical. I am not sure if every demo-lab will be happy to make long-term test with very dirty sampels

My personal experience is, that Agilent lc/ms interfaces are working fine also with rugged conditions. Of course this is only my personal experience and please be aware: I have never analyzed fuels. Also my personal experience is limited to mass spectrometers from Agilent, Thermo, Varian and Waters/Micromass (alphabetical order ).

[lmh]

Unremoveable 5 micron solids are going to be a very serious problem if you really want to do LC-MS. What sort of column do you have in mind? With an unusual sample like that you are definitely going to have to work with the manufacturers, getting demo-chemists' opinions, and running trials.