Anyone have experience with ESA Coulochem II electrochemical detector? How useful, how reliable, they claim "maintenance-free".

I used an ESA Coulochem II while pursuing
my PhD in biochemistry (protein chemistry).
Everything (and I repeat everything) must
be tweaked just right. I spent nearly two
months (working with the Colouchem II)
getting everything just right to analyze
for the presence of oxytocin in cell media
supernatants. The water had to be ultrapure
and polished by a special procedure and the
system had (I repeat "had") to be run over-
night to equilibrate before running standards
or samples. This is not a system that you
turn on and "go" with. It required a lot of
tedious up-front work and preparation!

In contrast, I also had access to a BAS
amperometric detector (LC-4B) which we had
before we bought the Coulochem II (thanks to
a slick talking ESA salesman). Ultimately
we reverted to the BAS detector for analyses
because it was easier, less cumbersome and
required less equilibration time. ESA
tech support was of some help but I felt
like I was pulling teeth each time I called.
They DON'T have an 800# phone number so you
must spend YOUR time, money and effort to
get answers. In this day and age, any company
that doesn't have a 800# phone number and 800#
fax number doesn't get my business!

BTW: If you still decide to buy one of those
ESA Coulochem II detector, DON'T buy the Model
580 dual piston pump that they will also try
to sell you. This pump is a constant maintenance
nightmare. This pump goes thru plungers and
seals like nothing I have ever seen before. We
cast this Model 580 aside and used a rugged
and reliable Beckman HPLC pump instead.

I guess the net of all of this is that the
ESA Coulochem II is not "maintenance-free."


p.s. BAS has a website but I don't know the URL

Agreed....The BAS amperometric detector
is a more reliable and better performing
instrument that the ESA Coulochem II detector!

The URL for BAS is www.bioanalytical.com

The private labelled ESA Model 580 HPLC
pump is made by Shimadzu Scientific....
that should tell you all you need to know!

Need more info: Go to www.deja.com and
do a "power search" for "shimadzu."