Chromatography Forum

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to get a general idea of on average, how long your columns last...

I have a Luna C18 that I use daily for sunscreen analysis with an 85:15 MeOH:0.1% TFA MP. It appears to have reached its end, rather suddenly I might add. This is my second column and the performance is very good. But I was just curious to know the column lives for some of you out there.

Obviously the life is dependent on the type of sample, mobile phase, etc., but I wanted to see what lengths of time of usage some of you are getting, so I could compare.

Thanks!

Redzilla

All other things being equal, my experience is that
C18>C8>CN>Phe>SCX columns. That said, it more greatly depends on your samples. Poorly cleaned biological samples will almost certainly plug a column way faster than well filtered pharmaceutical (or other "clean") samples. Other ways to shorten column life are to run near or beyond its rated pH range at elevated temperatures, fail to flush buffers after runs, store them in excessively aggressive solvent mixtures, drop them (not the problem it used to be, but I still cringe when I hear one hit the deck), or fail to use guard columns (especially when you have messy samples or phases that tend to eat the packing, as is commonly the case w/ SCX).

My personal best ::drum roll:: >7000 injections before experiencing marginal tailing & resolution. I've also had a couple of old Phe columns crap out after only a few injections.

I've had a Waters Symmetry C8 go for >>5K injections. By the way, I use it for sunscreen analysis, too. It's a good column with excellent batch to batch reproducibility, at least in my experience. I am a bit compulsive about MP particulates, rinsing the system of salts, and sampling procedures and I'm in a 1-chemist lab, so I usually don't have too many problems with columns dying quickly, but the Symmetry seems exceptionally rugged.