Chromatography Forum

I am looking for a leak detector to trouble shoot our gc system. We use helium carrier with hydrogen for the detector. Could you guy recommend any brands/models?

Thank you!

A bottle of IPA with a pipette.



I have not found a good detector (in my humble opinion) for helium in air in a lab that was awash with helium from several GCs.

A single unit with a good ventilation system, maybe.

Good luck,

Rod

Rod makes a good point, while all the small hand-held leak seekers from the instrument companies and the independents (e.g. Supelco, Restek) are pretty similar in performance, they are all vulnerable to fluctuating background levels of the gasses that they are supposed to be detecting. If I am checking for small leaks I always check each spot multiple times to avoid false positives and false negatives.

Peter

I have never had good luck with electronic leak detectors either, unless I already knew where the leak was.

I use hand held leak detectors on a regular basis. I do not expect them to be stable over long periods of time - and use the re-zero button ocasionally. I make it a practice to check fittings from the gas cylinder to the back of the instrument when I change a bottle of gas or move the plumbing around for any reason and I check around the inlet and any press fits whenever doing maintanance in the oven.

And, I pass the probe over the split vent or septum purge vent when done to be sure the leak detector will respond to a leak. I've had a leak detector fail, finding no leaks - including the septum purge. Just like you check the calibration on the GC, check your other measuring tools!

Thank you for the replies guys, I appreciate them!