Hi Tatiana and other Bruker users,
I did receive a lot of useful information from Bruker users and also from Bruker sale representative. I appreciated those who replied my email and shared their experiences with me. Here I post messages I received per Tatiana's request, which may help other NMR facility director/manager to make decision as which way to go under current tight budget situation.
Thank you very much for sharing information.
Regards,
Weidong
Information from Susan Janeiro in Bruker:
The cryo probe repairs can sometimes reach $10,000.00. We do offer a onetime check up on the cryoplatform for $12,500.00 (One time check up means the one time maintenance)
Beverly Ostrowski [ostro016_at_umn.edu]:
We had one repair on a 700 cryoprobe that ran $17k. This was a few years ago though.
banghao chen [chen_at_chem.fsu.edu]:
Our very latest one is $4000, waiting for 3 months.
Dr. Gerd Gemmecker [Gerd.Gemmecker_at_ch.tum.de]:
Hu, Weidong schrieb:
> Dear Bruker Cryoprobe users:
>
> We usually pay the annual maintenance contract to Bruker for the
> annual cryoprobe maintenance. But right now, the budget is very tight,
> and we try to cut down this part of the budget. I am wondering actually how long the cryoplatform need to be cleaned up even the Bruker suggests it should be maintained every 10,000 hours.
The limit for the probe reached is when the heater power for coil or preamp reaches 0 %, i.e., the cooling capacity is now so low that it can barely hold the temp., let alone regulate and stabilize it (with the heaters).
Then you would normally do a "warm up - cool down" cycle, which would solve the problem for some time ... the time intervals between subsequent cycles typically getting shorter and shorter. At some point either you habe to "cycle" every
1 - 2 weeks, or you might even encounter a serious (mechanical) defect of the moving parts of the unit - bad luck! ... and high time for a "service".
Depending on the performance of your specific system, this could be significantly longer (or shorter) than "1 year" (or 10000 h). On a well performing system you might be able to stretch the service period quite a bit - e.g., to 1 1/2 years.
Like with a regular inspection of a car, don't stretch it too much - you might also increase the risk of a more serious (and costly) damage.
So: yes, you can stretch it a bit - but don't expect wonders!
With the annual maintenance, we cleaned it up once a year.
> The other question is how much Bruker usually charge for repairing a cryoprobe.
This would very much depend on the specific sort of damage - and sort of repair required.
Ciao,
gg
Hu, Weidong schrieb:
> Dear Gerd,
>
> Thank you very much for your informative explanation and sharing your experience.
> The warm up sign should be a good indication that we need maintenance as soon as possible then.
A warm-up is not necessarily a sign for immediate maintenance.
Our first Bruker cryoprobes (ca. 10 yrs. ago) generally needed a warm-up cycle every 4-8 weeks, and these periods got shorter and shorter every time, so at a certain point (ca. 1 yr.) it was time to get a real maintenance.
The newer generation probes sometimes run a whole year without warm-up (unless enforced by probe change, power outage etc.). After a warm-up you should observe the heater power values. If start going back to zero much faster than before, they next warm-up will be needed sooner, due to decreasing performance of the whole system. Then you know it's time to think about scheduling a maintenance data sooner or later.
But I'm sure you can usually stretch it quite a bit over the rather generals 1 yr. / 10000 h recommendation.
We now have 3 systems with cryoprobes (+ 1 more off campus), so we normally try to choose a date when either the Bruker engineer is coming anyway because of some other things, or so that he can do 2 or 3 cryo maintenances at the same time.
Greetings,
gg
A.Meissner_at_lumc.nl:
Dear Hu,
The cryo service is not concerning the actual probe head, but the coldhead in the cryobay (the box next to the magnet). This part needs to be exchanged at regular intervals because of wear and tear. I don't know how much damage can be caused if you do not exchange the coldhead and how much the potential related repair would cost, We usually service our system every 15 Months which is slightly over the recommended service interval, but so far we have not experienced any problems with it. I guess it is possible to stretch the service intervals even further, but I assume eventually it will stop working (best case scenario it will just request repeated warmup cycles and not get cold again). Since the required parts usually need to be ordered in advance this could mean a longer downtime of the system since immediate repair / intervention might not be possible. If more extensive repair is required even longer down times have to be considered - of course if you have a RT probe you can use it in the meantime.
I would not recommend completely abandoning a regular cryoservice, but it might be worth inquiring how much an individual cryoservice costs in comparison with a yearly maintenance contract.
Best regards,
Axel
From: Tatiana Agback [mailto:tatiana.agback_at_medivir.com]
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 4:00 AM
To: Hu, Weidong; ammrl_at_ammrl.org
Subject: RE: Bruker cryoprobe system maintenance fee
Hi
This is interesting question for all.
Could people give an answer for all member?
Regards
Tatiana
---------------------------------------
Tatiana Agback
Medivir AB
Direct +46 8 5468 3172, Mobile +46 70 223 59 93
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From: Hu, Weidong [mailto:WHu_at_coh.org]
Sent: den 11 juli 2012 00:07
To: ammrl_at_ammrl.org
Subject: AMMRL: Bruker cryoprobe system maintenance fee
Dear Bruker Cryoprobe users:
We usually pay the annual maintenance contract to Bruker for the annual cryoprobe maintenance. But right now, the budget is very tight, and we try to cut down this part of the budget. I am wondering actually how long the cryoplatform need to be cleaned up even the Bruker suggests it should be maintained every 10,000 hours. With the annual maintenance, we cleaned it up once a year. The other question is how much Bruker usually charge for repairing a cryoprobe.
Thank you very much.
Dr. Weidong Hu, Research Professor
Immunology Division, City of Hope National Medicial Center
Tel: 626 359 8111, Ext 63416
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Received on Mon Jul 16 2012 - 06:54:16 MST