I am wondering typical lifetimes of filaments used in GC/MS. Our last filament assembly was replaced in February; the first filament blew the end of June and the second, the beginning of August. Any suggestions as to why the second filament might have blown so suddenly would be most appreciated.

We have one Agilent 5971 and one 5972 GCMS. We use ours daily, and my estimate is over one year for filament life, we've had some last considerably longer. Judicious use of "solvent delay" time is important. The 5971 had both replaced Dec. 1997 and is on the second filament now. The 5972 hasn't had filaments replaced in over four years.