A lab is experiencing a persistent drop in signal on their Agilent 6135B mass spectrometer over several months, which they have been unable to resolve through basic cleaning and tuning.

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    "summary": "A lab is experiencing a persistent drop in signal on their Agilent 6135B mass spectrometer over several months, which they have been unable to resolve through basic cleaning and tuning.",
    "category": "reliability",
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        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/massspectrometry/comments/1wnfmqe/comment/pbfvocf/",
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        "author": "pb0316",
        "excerpt": "You're fighting multiple factors that need addressing independently and systematically\n\n * How often do you tune your system? Over time, certain components degrade (EM horn) or accumulate stuff, they need to be readjusted to essentially set it back to zero. For example, the detector surface ages over time, so an EM voltage of 1200V that produced 1e5 counts before may produce 1e4 after 1 month. The",
        "posted_at": "2026-09-22T20:47:51.000Z",
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        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/massspectrometry/comments/1wnfmqe/comment/pbezmjp/",
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        "author": "viomoo",
        "excerpt": "When was the last time it had a PM? It could be something as simple as a nebulizer rebuild or it could be getting really gunked up inside.\n\n If you don’t perform routine maintenance the rough pump will eventually crap out as well, so would be worth doing that!",
        "posted_at": "2026-09-22T18:30:03.000Z",
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        "author": "No_Document_853",
        "excerpt": "I would deffo clean the dielectric capillary. That’s the bit just after the source. That’s a pretty simple instrument and if it’s massive dirty cleaning the cap should bring some sensitivity back. Also check for charging to indicate dirty optics",
        "posted_at": "2026-09-22T23:26:56.000Z",
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        "author": "esjro",
        "excerpt": "If it is only tuning with infusion from a syringe pump and not from the pressurzied calibrant bottle then your ion throughput is poor (probably due to direty optics) and you are infusing calibrant at a higher flow rate to get enough abundance for the tune algorithm to run.\n\n Since Chemstation (annoyingly) overwrites tune files, it is a good idea to save the tune reports so you can monitor the syst",
        "posted_at": "2026-09-23T01:19:52.000Z",
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        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/massspectrometry/comments/1wnfmqe/comment/pbg3ivc/",
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        "author": "TwoPuttTownie",
        "excerpt": "👋🏻 Agilent FSE here… no recert fee, send me a list of serials for the system and I’ll pitch a lead to get the sales guys after you :)",
        "posted_at": "2026-09-22T21:23:36.000Z",
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      "[post] Our lab has an agilent 6135B with a 1260 infinity II LC for general purpose reaction scouting and occasional oligo analysis. Its been working great but its MS signal has been dropping over the past few months and I am unsure of next steps.",
      "[post] I have already cleaned the source which helps and tuned it but it took multiple times for the autotune to run successfully (calibrant direct injected with syringe pump)"
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    "post_text": "Hi Everyone,Sorry if this is too broad of a question but im pretty out of depth here. Our lab has an agilent 6135B with a 1260 infinity II LC for general purpose reaction scouting and occasional oligo analysis. Its been working great but its MS signal has been dropping over the past few months and I am unsure of next steps. I have already cleaned the source which helps and tuned it but it took multiple times for the autotune to run successfully (calibrant direct injected with syringe pump) The instrument was bought used and was under a service contract with a third party but my PI didn't want to renew and now I am the one taking care of it and am pretty sure that whatever is going on is out of my depth. Obviously not an ideal situation but im working with what I got here.\n\nTwo questions:\n\nAre there any obvious diagnostic steps that I am missing to try and improve the signal on my own?\n\nDoes anyone know a good MS service in boston/if we were to turn to agilent and get this thing back under their wing would there be a recertification fee we would have to eat.\n\nThanks for your help!",
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    "subreddit": "massspectrometry",
    "post_title": "Agilent 6135B Low Signal",
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