Dear HPLC users
My company is experiencing a shortage of gradient HPLC's and have an oportunity to purchase second hand Shimadzu equipment .Since our laboratory is solely a WATER's lab,we have little or no experience with Shimadzu equipment . Can anybody give me there thoughts regarding the quality ,reliability ,service support etc for Shimadzu equipment . I wellcome all positive and negative feedback.
Much thanks in advance for your time ,thoughts and efforts. Garry D

i haven't ever used Shimadzu (we use Agilent) but if your lab uses Waters and is OK with that, I'd stick with Waters, don't go just for cheap, you'll regret it. Staying with Waters eliminates training, fewer spare parts to stock. Going second hand/refurbished is not necessarily bad, though, we purchased a refurbished Agilent HPLC last fall and it's been fine.

Garry;

I work in a place where we use mostly Agilent and Perkin Elmer. From time to time we evaluate other instruments just to keep current with other possible choices.

Our evaluation of Shimadzu was good in terms of hardware, I remember the autosampler had no carry-over even in the most rigorous conditions.

The problems with Shimadzu and similar brands is the product and customer support. I feel there is always a communication problem when technology is generated in some remote places, such as Europe or Japan, and it comes to the user through several intermediaries that in many cases are not very familiar with the hardware or not properly trained.

I agree with the opinion above. If you are happy with what you use, continue with them. Low cost is not necessarily good.

Benjamin

Our entire lab uses Shimadzu instruments and their service is as good as anybody else's. But if cost is not a compelling factor, stay with the ones you have experience with.