Troubleshooting Clogged HPLC Systems: A Detailed Guide 🛠️

Greetings, laboratory professionals! Today, we delve into the process of troubleshooting clogged High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) systems. This guide will provide you with a step-by-step walkthrough, ensuring you have a thorough understanding of the process. Let's begin.

Identifying a Clogged System 🚧

A clogged system can be identified when you try to start up the pumps and the pressure increases significantly, leading to error messages. It's important not to randomly try to figure out where the clog is. Instead, a systematic approach is required.

Step 1: Disconnecting the Line from the Column to the Detector 🔍

The first thing you want to do is disconnect the line going from the column to the detector. If you disconnect that line and the pressure goes down, then you probably have a clog in the flow cell or something inside the detector.

Step 2: Disconnecting the Column 🧪

The next step is to disconnect the column. If you disconnect the column and the pressure is still high, the most common culprit is the line going from the six-port valve into the column.

Step 3: Disconnecting the Line from the Six-Port Valve to the Column 🚰

You want to disconnect the line going from the six-port valve into the column and see if the pressure goes down. If the pressure goes down, then it's that line. Instead of replacing that line, you could simply turn around that line and plug the other end into the six-port valve and blow the clog out the front.

Step 4: Disconnecting the Injection Loop 💉

If that line is still clogged, you should disconnect the injection loop and see if the pressure goes down. If the injection loop is the culprit, then you want to just change that whole loop.

Step 5: Disconnecting the Needle 🪡

If it's not the injection loop, then it's probably the needle. You can disconnect the needle and check that. If it's not the needle, then it's going to be the lines from the pumps to the mixer and the mixer back to the six-point valve.

Final Considerations 📌

You want to disconnect those lines and see if the pressure goes down. Most likely, you would have already found the clog by then. But now you're going all the way back up to the pump. There's really not much else where you can go. The mobile phases are right there, and most likely, you would have found your clog by then.

And that's it, laboratory professionals! You're now equipped to troubleshoot clogged HPLC systems. For a visual guide, don't forget to check out our video tutorial. Until next time, stay precise and efficient in your lab work! 🛠️