Chromatography Forum

Has anybody tried the Agilent seal wash pump? I presume it is a small peristaltic pump. Can it be switched off automatically? Does it actually work. I have tried asking Agilent but they don't seem to know a lot about it!!!

We normally use the gravity system but I was wondering if there might be some advantage in using a pump to give a more controllable flow.


GCguy

I use it on a regular basis. It is a small peristaltic pump that can be controlled from a drop down menu within the 1100 pump control. It can be used for a single wash but you can also specify a period and an "on-time" (e.g. turn the pump on every 60 minutes for 45 sec). The main advantage over the gravity feed system is that you can recycle the wash solvent, so no more bottles running empty. I use 20% 2-propanol/80% water and replace it about once or twice a month.
So far no problems (in about 1.5 years).

cheers

As Robert notes, it's a small peristaltic pump, and it works very well. I just recycle the wash through a 2 litre resevoir that get replaced monthly.

It can be purchased as an accessory kit and added, which I did. No big issues, but you have to be reasonably confident about adding plunger seals and putting the pump cable onto the pins on the printed circuit board.

I purchased the Active Seal Wash kit for iso/quat pumps, as you get all the seals and detailed instructions. Mine had the part number G1311-68711.

Note that some Agilent software apparently doesn't support it, and it also apparently requires a certain level of the pump firmware to be visible to some software ( which isn't mentioned ). Only the latest version of Cerity supports it, and I've heard that EZChrom doesn't.

Bruce Hamilton

Thanks for the info. Not sure if I will go ahead with it, most of our eluents do not give problems with the buffers coming out of solution. We get away with squirting some wash past the seals every so often.

GCguy