Selecting a triple quad LC/MS system

[vishal_aes]

I am looking to procure a triple quad LC/MS system mainly for the analysis of food and environmental samples upto levels of eu regulations. Due to the continuos dropping of teh MRLs, I would require a system that would have more sensititivity than required to meet current MRLs, but again he same is limited due to the price factor.

I have shortlited 3 models namely API 3200, Agilent 6410 and Water TQD.

I have had discussions with all the three companies and am now very confused as to which system is good for my purpose. If any one can help me decide on this matter it would be a great help for me.

[jh1]

Ship out a couple difficult samples to each company and request detection of a couple dozen compounds with a short run time using only 1 method and see what kind of detection limits, recoveries, linearity, etc. they can provide you with.



Also since Waters and AP have been making triple quads for a while you might ask if they have any refurbished or demo units available, this can cut down on your cost significantly.

[Loekie]

why didn't you include Thermo?

[vishal_aes]

why didn't you include Thermo?

I am based in India, where thermo has just begun operations, and I do not think they have any installations in India yet.

[Loekie]

Thermo is operating in the Indian market for several years from a Thermo office already. Before the Thermo office there was a dealer representing Thermo instruments in India.

I know for a fact that Thermo has been installing triples for several years in India. They have the instruments and the experience to do this.

I think you should give Thermo a possibility to show you the instruments and capabilities.

Indian office tel. number is +91 22 6742 9434
email: analyze.in@thermo.com

[Ken]

Hi there, I've had tests conducted on bioequivalence studies and the Applied Biosystems API 3200 turned out to be more sensitive than the Agilent's 6410 even with the same tests conducted on an improved version of the 6410 ( extra turbopump ). Not so sure about Thermo and Waters though; but I'm definitely happy with the API3200's performance.

Cheers,
Ken

[vishal_aes]

Thanks Ken for the feedback, but I am stilll in talks with both the companies and your feedback will really help. One issue is also a large price gap (50K) between the systems, I am not sure whether the sensitivity issue is worth the difference, especially in context to our type of analysis (drug & pesticide residues)

[Ken]

No worry, hope to give you some insights on your decision making.

With lower sensitivity, I guess you will be able to achieve more with a system that is capable of performance; for us, sometimes, we tested on pesticides and drugs as well; and I can safely say that the capability of the system to perform is way important if you're looking at long term wise.

As mentioned, we're doing new development of methods on the API3200; not on the 6410 due to performance difference; just sticking with older method on the lesser sensitive 6410.

Cheers !!!

[Loekie]

Why not give Thermo a call and ask what they can do for you. nothing lost and it might be worth the try.

[jusuom]

Waters has just recently introduce their new "premium" triple-quad, Xevo. It might be that they are now getting rid of their Quattro Premier XEs (which was replaced by Xevo) used in demos. I would suggest you to contact Waters and ask if there are used XEs available at an affordable price. That instrument should be more than enough for you.

[giacomo56]

WOW...you are getting opinions from people that have no clue on how to buy a LC/MS......

Send a well defined sample, representative of your future samples to each of the vendors...it also might help to include a chromatographic method that is well characterized....ask them to test their intrument on, linearity, sensativity and then push the envelope on detectability. You are testing the equipment NOT the operators. If everybody did this ...then opinions count .....otherwise they are all worthless.

BUT then this is my opinion and it might be also worthless.

[jusuom]

When we purchased an LC-MS instrument, we had to take a slight "risk" when an affordable demo instument (Quattro Premier) was available (we had to make the decision quickly). Earlier we had tested a cheaper instrument (Quattro Micro) for our samples.

So always theory and practice don't meet when purchasing instruments - at least not in academia with very limited budgets .

[sindhu]

Vishal,

I have been working in Food safety applications lab for a long time and in our lab we are using API 3200T for analysing pesticides & antibiotics.We are very happy with its performance. ABI systems are very rugged and thier after sales support is truely amazing.

We are comfortable with thier Analyst software as it is user friendly. You can have 300 pesticide method developments with thier Cliquid software which is basically for food satety applications.

Even waters sales persons do visit our lab but they have not sold TQD anywhere for this applications. Also their after sales support is really a major worry. The same case is with Agilent and Thermo as well.

I sincerely advice you to buy system from ABI and I am confident your decision will not be questioned once you start analysing samples.

[richa_malhotra]

Hi,

I do agree with sindhu and I strongly recommend you to go for ABI.

Best of Luck

[wuwei_online]

Hi all, in our Lab, we have 2*API 5000, 4*API 4000, and we have installed a set of API 3200, and found the sensitivity is about 5% to 10% to API 4000. We have installed Agilent 6410 this year, and found the sensitivity is sbout 50% to 80% to API 4000. I though Agilent 6410's sensitivity is 3~5 times than API 3200.

For Agilent 6410's noise is very low, even 100 cps's peak will have a SN more than 30.

But Agilnet 6410 couldn't connect to Waston LIMS, that very pity, we could use 6410 for Non-GLP study.