ICPMS Purchase

The lab that I work in is in the process of purchasing a new ICPMS.  I  would like the  opinion of ICPMS users.  Which ICPMS instrument(s) do you have?  If you own instruments by more than one manufacture or more than one model from the same manufacturer, which instrument do you like the most .  What do you like the most and the least about the instrument.  I am analyzing tobacco samples.  Thank you so much for your help. 

MAT

Hi Mat,
My lab is environmental  and we have two Elan 9000's (from Perkin Elmer). They are solid instuments, although they are a bit out dated. Hate some things and love others....

Are you looking at new or used instuments?

What elements are of interest in tobacoo analysis?

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.  I am pretty sure we are looking for a new instrument.  We will need an instrument that can remove interferences with As, Se and Cd.  Some of the other elements includes: V, Be, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo, Ba, Tl, and Pb.

Thanks again,

MAT   

I have actually given this some thought because I may have this decision to make soon. If I could pick a new mass spec. I think I would go with the Agilent 7700. This mass spec. can dean with most interferences and I have heard great things about analysis! You should narrow it down to 2 or 3 instruments and go visit these companies with your own methods, standards, MDL and PE studies, and your best and worst samples...see what data is the most acceptable to your application. Good luck!

Great advice.  We have narrowed our options down to PE, Agilent and Thermo.  

Please let me know your final decision and why...my company will soon be faced with the same decision and every input helps!

I sure will.

Hi Mat,

We have an Elan 6100DRCe from May 2010.

My lab is environmental too.  We do not have problems with interferences. There are a lot of equation that you can set in your method in order to eliminate those. For AG and SB we use HCl digestion and after runing these samples or nasty soils, we clean the cones and change the tubes and everything is fine.
We have DOD samples and we never have had a complain about our results.
Sometimes we work 12 hours on it and so far, the instrument is working wonderful.

Hi Micky, 

We also have the ElanDRCe.  It works great.  We are looking to see if there have been any great strides in the technology that we would be overlooking by not considering other ICP-MS instruments. 

Thanks,

MAT

We just purchased ICP optima 8300. So far, I can not give details because I do not know very good Winlab32 software. I'll be in Chicago next month for training.  

Hi,

i have 2 new 7700x from Agilent new Masshunter software is ok but i have  trouble with the equipment it is not the same like old 7500 version,7500 is more better than 7700 serie.

 

Thanks for your reply.  We should be making a decision soon.

would love to know your final decision and why....

I would go with Perkin Elmer all the way.  The new Nexion is the instrument to get!!  I have been working with ICP-MS for over ten years and did not have good experiences with Agilent.  You have to consider not just the instrument itself but also the customer support.  These instruments require a lot of attention and you will need to call on a service engineer now and again (depending on how much you use it) and when it comes to service, Perkin Elmer is the best.  Remeber that they were the first ones to produce ICP-MS instruments commercially and have therefore been making them longer than any other manufacturer.  The other thing I would point out is the longevity.  I go into labs all of the time and see old Perkin Elmer Elan 6000s still in use pumping out high quality data.  In fact along with our new PE Nexion and Elan DRCII and 9000, my clinical lab still uses two 6000s to this day both of which run over a thousand samples each day!  They are both over 15 years old and still going strong.  My environmental lab also still uses an Elan 6000 as well which is over 15 years old also.  I have never seen an Agilent or any other model that is still working well at that age.  So that is a big thing to remember because these instruments are one of the pricier ones to purchase, so you want to make sure the investment lasts as long as possible.

Good luck!

I totally agree with Tox on customer support and service being very important factors, but we should be aware that the support is variable with geographic area. This factor is very dependant on the service engineer and the workload at the time of needed service (i have not had the greatest interactions with PE). PE has no service contract that ensures attention within a certain time period, agilent and thermo both have this option.

All that being said, I love my elan 9000's from perkin elmer and rarely need service. IF they have retained that kind of quality, they would be a viable option.

I will be looking at Agilent, PE and Thermo when I make this decision. I will give analyze the data of my own standards and samples and weigh cost and service into the final decision.

No instrument is perfect and the all have positives and negatives; the key is finding the right fit for your application.