Sameer,
I purchased a Restek (model 28500) He leak detector to test the
connections in my He recovery system. I've been using it for 2 years and
it works great.
I did some calibrations with a fancier in-line flow meter I have (Omega
FMA-1606A) and found that a slow leak of 0.0006±0.0002 SLPM of He gas was
detected as 3 LED lights on the Restek readout. A leak this slow would be
~860 mL of He gas over the course of a day or about 1.1 mL of liquid He per
day. That's less than 1/2 L of LHe over the course of a year, so the
sensitivity is certainly enough for our needs.
Like all detectors of this type, the only annoyance is how easy it is to
flood the detector with too high a concentration of He or with moist air,
etc. It's easy to recalibrate, but it can take a couple minutes and you
have to move the inlet far enough away that it's not affected by any He gas
from the leak, etc.
Another nice aspect of this Restek detector is you can detect N2 leaks
as well. I haven't used that feature nearly as much as the He detection,
but there are certainly times when that's useful.
-Scott
On Wed, Aug 23, 2023 at 11:04 AM Sameer Al-Abdul-Wahid <s.wahid_at_uoguelph.ca>
wrote:
> Dear Spinlanders,
>
>
>
> Has anyone had successes (or failures) using one of the handheld helium
> thermal conductivity detectors designed for gas chromatography? They
> typically detect down to 1E-5 cc/sec and have a ~1 m long detection hose,
> allowing us to place the unit outside the 5 G line.
>
>
>
> Some examples:
>
> https://www.restek.com/ca/p/28500
>
> https://www.gow-mac.com/index.php/leak-detector/
>
>
> https://www.glsciences.com/product/plumbing_accessories/gas_leak_product/01585.html
>
>
>
> We're hoping to find a low-cost alternative to the mass-spec helium
> detector on campus (which takes ~2 hours to setup), and the MRI-friendly
> options (e.g., Gascheck Tesla or Panther Pro, about 3-4x the cost of the
> above).
>
> I will post the usual anonymized summary!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Sameer
>
> --
>
> *Sameer Al-Abdul-Wahid*, Ph.D. *|* Manager
> Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Centre *|* University of Guelph
> 50 Stone Rd E *|* Guelph, ON *|* N1G 2W1 *|* CANADA
> 519-824-4120 Ext. 58914 *|* s.wahid_at_uoguelph.ca
>
>
>
> http://nmr.uoguelph.ca/
>
>
--
Dr. Scott Burt
Professor
NMR Facility Manager
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Brigham Young University
C414 BNSN / C008A BNSN
Provo, Utah 84602-5700
Phone: (801) 422-2404
Fax: (801) 422-0153
chembio.byu.edu/nmr-facility/
email: scott_burt_at_byu.edu
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Received on Wed Aug 23 2023 - 11:48:08 MST