Agilent versus Dionex HPLC

[danielbor]

Dear members





I would highly appreciate your assistance with the following issue:



Our laboratory is equipped with many Agilent systems.

At present we are considering purchasing Dionex systems.

Could someone please be kind to share his or her experience with Dionex systems in comparison to Agilent?



Thank you for your assistance.

[Chris]

You will find similar responses in many other threads but I think that most would agree you have to bear many factors in mind when choosing a vendor especially what level of support you would get in your area.

We currently use Dionex systems (Ultimate 3000) and have found them to be outstanding in terms of performance and reliability. Unless you are running specialist applications and placed HPLC systems from the major manufacturers next to each other, I doubt very much you would see a great deal of difference in performance. If you are running fairly straight forward methods and you get probelms with precision/accuracy etc it is more likely to be the result of a poor method than poor equipment.

Also to remember is no matter how much you spend on geting the right equipment it is not going to help if you don't take proper care of it.

We chose Dionex because at the time not many other vendors wold give us such a good deal, Chromeleon is the most powerful and versatile CDS I have ever used and we are located quite close to a Dionex technical centre.

[mbicking]

I have considerable experience with the Agilent systems (1100 and 1200) and ChemStation software. These are very good instruments, and are reliable, if you take good care of your instrument (as stated by the previous poster). The ChemStation software is adequate and offers some useful Diagnostic tools for troubleshooting and maintenance. The software has limited reporting capabilities if you are interested in processing many samples, unless you want to purchase the additional ChemStore program, which is an add-on database product. I can get most new users going on the software in 2 - 3 days; it is easy to use once you understand how it is organized.

I have not used the Dionex LC, but have looked at the design and seen demos. It appears to be a well-designed instrument. I see no major flaws. Chromeleon is a very powerful data system, far more powerful and flexible than ChemStation, especially for reporting. But it will require some training to get users familiar with the design. Power and flexibility also mean complexity.

In my experience (as an LC researcher and LC trainer), the biggest problem most users have is training. (Of course I'm going to say that, right?) Too many labs buy the equipment, but never budget for their people to learn how to use it effectively. The results is poor efficiency and often poor results. If you can't budget for formal training, at least budget time for the users to become familiar with the equipment before you expect them to generate reliable results. This will take a week or more, not a day.

But I think both instruments would be a good choice for your lab.

[Arodrigues1975]

Hi all.

I like chromeleon and it is easy to understand.
The most important thing is understand how it works, after that you can use without problems and explore all integration functions, etc.
Resume, to learn control hardware is easy... to learn aquisition and analises of data.. in 2 hours you are one expert. After that you have all the time to upgrade your self and optimize you system. By the way.. Dionex build Service packs updates every 1...2 mounths.. that is good because you can be all the time updated. Another thing... You can make your self your harware validation. (save lot $$)

....................Chromeleon is a very powerful data system, far more powerful and flexible than ChemStation, especially for reporting. But it will require some training to get users familiar with the design.