Thermo Finnigan Surveyor LC System? [August 16, 2004]

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By Pippin24 on Monday, August 16, 2004 - 01:05 pm:

Hello,

My lab is purchasing our first HPLC system, and I am caught in the same situation as other LC beginners would face...which system is best suitable for our needs: Waters, Agilent or Thermo Finnigan?

Waters is on the top of the list, but their price is also on the top. Agilent is the 2nd, but it seems their service does not match their product (poor service, at least what I heard ...anyone can offer me info on Agilent service in West Chester, PA, area?)

And then Thermo Finnigan seems to come the 3rd on our list. But since I have never used the system before, I don't know how reliable their products are (hardware, software).

Since we are small lab, and we need the system to be able to handle multiple tasks...HPLC and GPC. Can anyone give me info whether Finnigan is a good system to go for?

Thank you very much.

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By David Blais on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 05:24 am:

Pippin24,

We have Agilent 1100s as well as Waters Alliance systems. The price on the 1100s is better and my personal experience has been that they are the better machine. In this area, neither the Agilent rep nor the Waters rep is that good. In fact, we use an outside service to perform maintenance on all our systems (our lab is in Berwyn, PA, just up 202 from WC).

I have no experience with the Thermo Finnigan short of the old Thermo Separations models from years ago. Those older instruments were good workhorses but not nearly as sensitive as the Alliance or 1100. But, their newer instruments may be better.

Regards,
David

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By Andy on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 05:33 am:

We have Agilent 1100s and have found them very easy to maintain and service. The instrument manuals are well written and the the maintainance procedures are easy to follow.

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By pippin24 on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 05:46 am:

David and Andy,

Thank you very much for your input! I heard mixed feedbacks from my friends, some like you guys, are satisfied with Agilent 1100; but some seems just hate it (hardware, customer service)

Question to David...what is the outside service your lab has for maintenance?

Thanks!

Best regards,
-Xinyin

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By David Blais on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 07:24 am:

Xinyin,

We use HI Scientific Services. They are located out of Exton.

1-800-344-4752

-David

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By pippin24 on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 10:41 am:

David,

Thank you very much for the info!

Regards,
-Xinyin

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By lee on Thursday, August 26, 2004 - 02:45 am:

Thermo Finnigan Surveyor HPLC system - may be okay, I use the older Spectra systems, they are not okay. Initially cheap to buy but when figuring in spares and downtime probably more expensive than competitor systems.
Chromquest data system -
doesn't protect it's own files
Extremely difficult to make it in any way GMP compliant
Cannot easily calculate mean concentrations from duplicate injections
Limited reporting capabilities
Almost non-existent software support

[pippin24]

Lee,

Thanks for the helpful input! The Finnigan LC system is indeed the least expensive one I quoted for now. But just like you said, I doubt their software capabilities since I was told that their software was not that great. Your reply confirmed that. Thank you very much!