Poor performance of the new Seqstudio Flex 8

[Alicia Barroso]

I'm the lab manager of a genomics core facility. We have just acquired a Seqstudio Flex 8 in order tu replace our discontinued ABI3130xl genetic analyzer. However we are very disappointed because during these six months we are operating the new instrument we have observed a very low signal intensity compared with 3130xl performance and also a lack of reproducibility with same samples working sometimes and sometimes not. Please, is there anybody working with this instrument suffering similar problems? Just to elucidate whether the problem is the performance of the new platform in general or is a problem with our instrument.
Thank you very much for your help.

[Markiyan]

While the teething issues of the new istrument are being sorted out (after multiple aquisition(s) and usual firing of the orginal developers and engineers team, (and loss of the troubleshooting expertise), it may take a few years) do the following on the ABI3137XL:
1. Always wash old arrays with water when thinking about replacing them, and make sure they are stored with water inside (and can survive a complete dryout without bad consequences (perhaps you would want to regenerate it a decade later :-)).
2. Learn about array regeneration and regular water washes (before it starts to deliver poor data). Nimagen regen kit is to the rescue.
3. Always run your samples untill relapse peak (with all large gunk and proteins) leaves array (~20% after it passes detection cell)

On new device:
4. Check alignment of your autosampler, plates warping/fitting, check for autosample platform skew/tilt with needle gauge (ask car/robot/3d-printer mechanics for help), adjust Z calibration postition in small increments, try running diluted standards in all positions and look for any patterns...
It just takes a single good bump anytime during the delivery to bend the autosampler guide rails and skew the platform... The samples would not load if needle is pressed firmly against the bottom...

[Dejan]

I'm the lab manager of a genomics core facility. We have just acquired a Seqstudio Flex 8 in order tu replace our discontinued ABI3130xl genetic analyzer. However we are very disappointed because during these six months we are operating the new instrument we have observed a very low signal intensity compared with 3130xl performance and also a lack of reproducibility with same samples working sometimes and sometimes not. Please, is there anybody working with this instrument suffering similar problems? Just to elucidate whether the problem is the performance of the new platform in general or is a problem with our instrument.
Thank you very much for your help.

Hello, did you manage to find a solution?