Xevo TQ-XS Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer by Waters

"Very effective especially with the Acquity UHPLC I class system, I also have PDA detector for it. Mass Lynx is great software, nicely enginered and crafted, at first glance there are a lot of windows, but I could get used to it quickly. Optimization can be a bit tricky if you would like to optimize a lot of compounds from a mix, but thats usually an uncommon thing to do. For Pharma its superb. For research its also great, I just liked the Sciex way of optimizing better. Very robust machine, won't punish you for smaller mistakes, and ESI source is good, but you can also do EsCI wth it (kinda like the mix of ESI and APCI) or you can also do UniSpray. What I love is that for most molecules its even unnecesarry to optimize for cone voltage (Sciex call it declustering potential) because it will work at max sensitivity for most molecules around a certain setting, this means less in source fragmentation which is a good thing for most users (for some applications however it's a disadvantage if you want to make in source fragments by increasing the cone voltage - you will have to apply really high levels). Unispray is just great, I had several comparisons for a lot of compound classes UNISPRAY VS ESI and it will increase your sensitivity by a factor of 3-14 and S/N ratio by 3-5 times compared to ESI! It does better in positive mode, but also at least 2.5-3 times enhancements in negative mode also! I've tested this so far only for small molecules, not for proteomics. In the stepwave it's good to use, soft transmission can help you with labile compounds. Instrument uses argon as collision gas, can help with fragmenting stuff thats sometimes not fragmentable with nitrogen, however argon has the disatvantage that it can fairly easily make fragments with low collision energies. In source fragmentation can be limited, also cone gas is great. You can increase it to high levels to protect your instrument and you cannot decrease it below 150 L/H for the protection of your instrument. Source cleaning is fairly fast and easy. I managed to go down to femtogram sometimes even attogram on one column and still detect quantitatively! This can vary from compound to compund. For pesticides its very sensitive, does good for hormones. I have had the instrument for 1 year but I managed to acquire a contract form Waters for a 3 year total warranty and total service and OQ PQ at the end of the 3rd year so thats great. Of course the price was high but no price is high for a very trustworthy LC-MS. Waters has the best customer support at least in Hungary."