GC/MS Purchase

[Razorfans64]

Hey Guys,

New to this site. I have been running GC/MS for 25 years. I am well versed with the Agilent and now "deceased", Varian GC/MS instrumentation. The lab I work for is going to purchase a new GC/MS system. The system will be used to run semi-volatiles, EPA 8270 and EPA 625. We are considering Agilent, Shimatzu and Thermo. Can anyone tell me what your likes and dislikes are with these instruments. Thanks

[cell]

We have only Agilent (for GC department) and I think that have the best GC for robustness and technology.
I know that also shimadzu has good instruments but in my country the real big problem is the assistance.

[James_Ball]

I have only ever ran Agilent and for the last 25 years they have served us well. Since we started using the newer generation units (5973,5975) I believe we have had to replace one turbo pump, one side board, and one interface since 1998. We currently have four 5973, two 5975 and one 7000 and most of them are over ten years old except for one 5975 and the 7000.

The only thing I don't like is Agilent moving to the MassHunter software, but you can still get the MSDChemstation data analysis which for our work is a little easier to work with. MassHunter is definitely powerful, and written for more modern operating systems, but just seems a little clunky for day to day operation in the environmental labs. Having the Qual and Quant in separate programs is what I dislike the most.

[MSCHemist]

I've only ever used Agilent. I've tried Mass Hunter and it has its plusses. I like that when you are doing manual integration of chromatograms with large numbers of analytes you can integrate the same analyte on each chomratograms vs doing each analyte on the chromatogram then moving to the next chromatogram.

[sav]

I vote for Agilent

Shimadzu is good, but Agilent is better (especially on long distance). On the other hand, i like more Shimadzu software.

[markf]

The only thing I don't like is Agilent moving to the MassHunter software, but you can still get the MSDChemstation data analysis which for our work is a little easier to work with. MassHunter is definitely powerful, and written for more modern operating systems, but just seems a little clunky for day to day operation in the environmental labs. Having the Qual and Quant in separate programs is what I dislike the most.

THIS! Exactly!

I'm working in an environmental lab, and especially nowadays when I'm trying to expand our analyte list I'm pulling hairs from frustration on working with Masshunter.

I have a question about this in the following thread:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=36691