Hi Ray,
Your pump is probably just clogged, should be easily repairable.
Try cleaning the pump out, should not be difficult to take off
the cover(s).
The metal parts are usually of very dubious material, and very
susceptible to surface corrosion; the mix of salt water and
various cleaner and bleach vapours can be very harsh....
Even with house vacuum we had a similar problem, caused by gradual
buildup of salts &/or other grunge in a valve.
The vacuum "level" was still there, but not the air flow, so it
could not remove the fluid quickly enough.
Joseph.
At 02:35 30/11/1999, ray hester wrote:
>We have a FACSVantage and have recently been having problems with drainage
>of the center stream, i.e., after thirty minutes or an hour the drainage has
>stopped, and we then have sheath fluid overflowing the center stream
>collector and fluid filling the basin below. Since we don't have house
>vacuum, we use a small Gast pump as the vacuum source and for awhile that
>worked well until we noticed water was getting into the pump. We then
>installed a trap in between the Vantage and the pump and for awhile that
>helped but the problem eventually re-surfaced. Next we filled the trap (a
>large, Erlenmeyer flask) with Drierite and that seemed to help for awhile
>but now nothing seems to work.
>
>Does anyone have a similar situation - Vantage and no house vacuum? If so,
>please let us know what your setup is. Perhaps the pump has been damaged
>beyond repair. Although it feels as if there is sufficent vacuum, I haven't
>actually checked to see how much vacuum there is and this is one of those
>small pumps without the gauges.
>Thanks for any ideas.
>
>Ray
--
Joseph Webster
Flow Cytometry Facility
Centenary Institute
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