As we all have read in the Torch and Fusion user manuals, it is very important to change the water supply daily. Many of us are guilty of neglecting or even intentionally skipping over this seemingly inconsequential task. It’s not the most exciting part of your day... Empty, rinse the bottle, refill; repeat tomorrow… sigh. But the next time you’re tempted to leave the water unchanged, perhaps you’ll be motivated by the sound principles behind this simple task.
So, WHY is it so important to change the water daily? The reasoning may not be as straight-forward as you assume. The core argument for changing the water is to minimize contamination from dust, organic carbon, and inorganic carbon from the laboratory’s environment. These contaminants contribute to higher values of TOC, when the reservoir water is used in instrument functions.
Contaminants in the reservoir water directly affect the purity of the instrument during cleaning and rinsing functions, including injection line rinses, run cleans, and needle rinses. The same contaminants cause additional headaches when using the Torch or Fusion’s dilution option. Stock standards (to make calibration curves), check standards and samples are all diluted with reservoir water. Water used for dilution cannot contain more than 0.1 ppm of carbon, and maintaining fresh reservoir water ensures the calibration is correct and accurate for the results generated, and the sample matrix is intact.
Now, I’m not slapping anyone on the wrist for neglecting reservoir water changes, myself included. Just let these reasons provide added incentive to maintain clean reservoir water in the future. Your results will reflect it!
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