Agilent 5975 vs. Varian 2200 GC-MS

[akthmps]

We recently acquired an Agilent 6890 with 5975 MSD in our laboratory. We also have an Agilent 6890 with 5973 MSD. Does anyone have any comments on the stability/sensitivity/functionality of the 5975 compared to the 5973? So far we've had several issues with the 5975. The latest being the lack of baseline, negative peaks, etc. Agilent is supposed to come for yet another service call.

The decision to obtain a 5975 was very political. I advocated extensively to purchase a Varian 2200 GC-MS system as this is what I have used previously. In my experience, it was a much better system overall. More stable, less maintenance issues, significantly more sensitive, etc. Just because the sensitivity check for both systems at installation is 1 picogram of OFN, Agilent tried to argue that the 5975 is as sensitive as modern ion trap systems. I certainly do not believe this to be the case. Anyone have any comments about this?

-Aaron

[GOM]

I have both the 5973 (4years)and a 5975 (6months). I have not found any issues with reliability, stability etc. As for sensitivity I would suspect that, in SIM, Agilent are correct.

Regards,

Ralph

[chhubert]

Is there any newbie from Varian 2200 GCMS as I always think that ion trap MS is very bad in analysing dirty samples when compared to quadrupole one, like Agilent 597x MSD ?

[WK]

I'll throw my "penny's" worth in.
I am considering the MSD against our Saturn 2000 Trap. Its really difficult to compare since they are different designs. The trap always suffers from overload and the spectra therefore change through the peak.
The trap is easy to clean but then the MSD seems to be too.
I can't see how AMDIS could work on a trap spectra if the ion ratios change through the peak for large components. I can see how it works with MSD.
I can't comment on the 2200 Trap though.
Retention time locking would be very important to me.
Regards
WK