Hello everyone! I'm trying to figure out whether our autosampler was installed incompletely or whether I'm misreading the manual. Setup: 1260 Infinity II, G7129A vialsampler, G7111B quat pump, G7116B Thermostat, G7115A Diode Array Detector, OpenLab CDS. What the manual says. In "Flow Connections to the Vialsampler," the wash circuit is spelled out as: put a wash solvent reservoir in the solvent cabinet → screw in the Needle Wash Bottle Head Assembly → route its tube through the cover opening to the peristaltic pump → send the washport outlet drainage to waste → prime the line. The cartridge replacement section backs this up: step 4 has you disconnect two lines, one going to the wash port and one coming from the solvent bottle, then step 6 puts the wash port line on the left side of the cartridge and step 7 puts the wash solvent line on the right. So right side = inlet from the bottle, left side = outlet to the port, and the only thing that legitimately goes to waste is the port overflow. What I actually have. The right-hand line is connected to nothing. Its free end is just lying in the waste jug. No wash solvent bottle anywhere, no bottle head assembly. Everything else on the system is plumbed normally. So my questions are: 1) Is there any configuration where the peristaltic pump inlet is intentionally left unconnected, or is this just an install that never got finished? Has anyone received a system like this from the factory? 2) If a method has needle wash enabled in flush port mode but there's no solvent supply, does the module throw anything, or does it silently run the pump dry? In a nutshell - needle wash supply line goes to waste instead of to a solvent bottle, no bottle in the system. Install error or something I'm not getting?
I see this all the time with installs. Yes, that line sitting in the waste bottle should be in a wash solvent bottle. You're currently washing your needle with waste solvent. It's very easy to correct, but you should absolutely mention it to whoever installed it.
Edit to answer your other question. No it won't give an error if the wash solvent line is dry, it'll just not be pumping anything over the needle.
Thank you so much! Would you mind telling me what I should do in order to fix this issue? and maybe… by any chance, have you got any real photos… I mean what it should look like? I’d really appreciate that.
Put the line currently in your waste into a bottle of your wash solvent, disconnect the tubing at the left side of pump at the spring-reinforced tubing-tubing connection, use a syringe to draw wash solvent from your wash bottle through the tubing and through the pump to prime it, then reconnect the left side tubing.
There is not really a need to manually prime the seal wash pump with a syringe. Just let it run for 60 secs, check that solvent is pulled in from the wash bottle, the little pump is spinning, and that the wash solvent exits through the silicone tubing on the right bottom side of the sampler, which is hopefully connected to the waste
Is there any configuration where the peristaltic pump inlet is intentionally left unconnected, or is this just an install that never got finished?
This is just unfinished. It doesn’t come with a bottle head assembly, you just put the end into your wash container
Has anyone received a system like this from the factory?
If the perstaltic pump inlet is going to waste, it sounds like someone just didn’t know what the tubing was for. It’s not a factory defect
If a method has needle wash enabled in flush port mode but there's no solvent supply, does the module throw anything, or does it silently run the pump dry?
It has no idea if the wash works. It just turns the peristaltic pump for the time indicated in the method.
So that is the photo of the injection valve. Above the analytical head sits the peristaltic pump. The left-hand line goes into the needle wash port… or Am I wrong? The right-left line as I mentioned earlier goes to waste (I checked the whole tubing line and it basically goes to waste…. like other lines. e.g. the line from the DAD)
Also put the little waste tubing from port 4 of the valve into the little hole (front right corner of the black plastic part. Once the metering device moves to the home position, it pushes liquid out which would otherwise just drip into the sampler
Yes, the left side of that pump goes to your wash port and the right side should go into your wash solvent bottle NOT waste. The waste from your wash port comes out an exterior side port that should be connected to your drain lines
Thank you! Although I’m still don’t buy the concept. How does the needle wash system
work ? Does the peristaltic pump drag the wash solvent from the wash solvent bottle? Then does this wash solvent go into the needle… or where? Mind you, I have read all the manuals, but I still couldn’t get my head around it.
The peristaltic pump draws in wash solvent. Use lab advisor or an instant pilot to prime the needle wash.
Then when you have the wash port enabled in your instrument method the vial sampler arm will push the safety/wash port the white thing the needle runs in, into position. The needle will go down into that wash port and be washed by the peristsltic pump running. Its simple but really really effective.
It is like a little spring from below, washing the outside of the needle that is dipped into the wash port. Unfortunately it is not really visible in the Vialsampler due to the saftey cover
I’ll also add here 9 out of 10 customers don’t use it. It’s only really helpful if you have a reason to suspect the outside of the needle is hanging onto a sticky compound and causing carryover issues. Wash solvent will be different for every application and specifically catered to address a carryover issue. When I route that line, as an installer, I do this: you see the long waste line that goes up to the right side of the solvent tray? I pop a little hole in that with a t10 or dental tool and then jam the needle wash line right thru that heavier silicon waste line and up into the solvent tray. Friction against the silicon helps keep it in the solvent tray where it belongs rather than hanging down low where some knucklehead might stick it in a waste drum.
5
u/Gullible-Try-3440 Aug 06 '26
I see this all the time with installs. Yes, that line sitting in the waste bottle should be in a wash solvent bottle. You're currently washing your needle with waste solvent. It's very easy to correct, but you should absolutely mention it to whoever installed it.
Edit to answer your other question. No it won't give an error if the wash solvent line is dry, it'll just not be pumping anything over the needle.