Thermo Scientific™ Q Exactive™ HF Hybrid Quadrupole-Orbitrap™ Mass Spectrometer by Thermo Fisher Scientific

"I have been using the Q Exactive-HF coupled to a Thermo Vanquish LC system for about 2.5 years and have developed two screens (one in urine and one in blood). The urine drug screen is used to analyze samples from hospital emergency departments whereas the blood drug screen is used for the analysis of post-mortem blood samples. I also look at new psychoactive substances retrospectively to figure at what new drugs should be added to the screens for monitoring. This is the function of the instrument that has always excited me the most, being able to go back to acquired data and retrospectively and interrogate it further. I have found many new NPS using this technique. The QE-HF has been extremely stable for the past 2.5 years. Both LC and MS require very little maintenance. Calibration is done once a week and the mass accuracy hardly shifts, despite our lab temperature fluctuating quite a bit. Other than the PM, we hardly see the Thermo engineers. The instrument is used continuously (I would say that we are at 90% capacity right now) and gives us little trouble. The application scientists at Thermo were wonderful when we started and continue to help us every time we have a question. Although I am in Canada, I had specialists from Germany helping out on a particular problem. Their whole team is truly available for you. The reason why I didn't give them 5 stars is that it takes time to get the instrument fixed if it goes down. There is no warehouse in Vancouver or Canada. Everything comes from the States and if there is a snowstorm or another weather event, the delivery of parts takes a long time. If it comes from Europe it is longer. I wish Thermo had a small warehouse in Canada. As for the value for money, I truly think we have it. The instrument delivers on all accounts for us: sensitivity, reproducibility, robustness, ease of use (Tracefinder is a very well-designed software). I will always value a robust instrument that doesn't break down. I have used Q Exactive Plus in the past, coupled with a Dionex 3000 and had the same wonderful experience. Highly reliable instruments. All in all, my favourite instrument in the lab."

"The software is intuitive and robust. The hardware can take significant abuse before charging effects become noticeable. Tuning is simple and quick. One of Thermo's best Orbitrap instruments."

"I cannot rave about this mass spectrometer enough: It's easy to use; robust; reliable; and, having trained two technicians who had zero experience in mass spectrometry on it, I can say it could not be more intuitive or user friendly. I have used it for all sorts of applications looking at small molecules: Metabolomics, Lipidomics, PKPD, DNA/RNA modifications. It has never failed to deliver. Money well spent indeed! The only reason for not giving the after-sales care a five-star review is because their field service engineers are too few and their escalation processes too rigid, which causes repairs - especially complex ones - to last longer than they should. Otherwise, I have nothing but good things to say about Thermo Fisher Scientific products and assistance."

"It's a very reliable and sturdy product. I am very happy with the service too."

"Orbitrap from Thermo Scientific has a user-friendly design. They developed a fairly un-complicated software to run the machine. It has so far produced very reliable data and we were able to compare our data with different labs. I highly recommend this machine to new users for proteomics and metabolomics. Capturing of high-quality MS data and reflecting also low abundant analytes is an important strength of the instrument."

"Instrument easy to use, good results, instrument calibration is straight forward. Il highly recommend this instrument for day to day running."

"User friendly. In metabolomic applications it enables the detection and the identification of new compounds."

"I am getting high quality results. Will recommend to others."