RCS Air sampler
I've been poking around trying to find a small, simple air sampler that hopefully doesn't cost multiple thousands of dollars. I've come across this RCS Standard by EMD Millipore but of course no price is listed. You need to sign up and basically halfway commit to buying before they'll reveal (I get it, sales people, I just don't like it). We currently don't have an air sampling program at all and so I wanted to implement something that I could do on perhaps a bi-weekly or monthly basis. Does anyone have any other suggestions for a little air sampler? Alternately: does anyone know how much this one costs, or a similar one? I figure I may sign up and commit enough to find a price, chat with the company a bit if they perhaps are able to suggest anything else (if this item specifically ends up being no good).
https://www.emdmilli...ing-information
Alternately alternately: I was thinking perhaps there is somewhere that companies will sell their used equipment? I did find this LabX site that does but a lot of the equipment looks in pretty rough shape. Maybe Kijiji has some?
When I need to do air samples, I get an entire kit from a certified lab. The price of the analysis is included and was about $175
Why do you want to buy one?
We do dry spice blending. The dust in the air and generally the idea of transfer of anything through the air is something I'm wanting to look at more closely over the next few months and I feel like eventually having a regular air monitoring system could be beneficial. Buying gives a bit more longevity and gives the whole "it will be cheaper over time." It may take a while, but even doing a monthly test would be $2100 per year if I found your same deal. I saw a similar model sampler to the one above was listed for $4100. So that plus a 50pk of the agar strips would be ~$4250, so after two years of monthly tests, I'd be "making money." ... Except my brain just realized that was PROBABLY USD, which is just cruel to Canadians right now... But anyways. I guess I just like the idea of buying it, having it, being able to do tests when I want, where I want. Convenience and flexibility.
Invest in technology for once; contact your local vendor sources and get few quotations and select one afforadable and apropriate for you! Air sampler gives you not only better results as compared to settle plate technique but also it quantifies the amount of air sampled in a minute. It is really good for environment studies of production facilities.
Ecolab and Maxxim both will sell units, but unfortunately you're going to have to sell your soul to get a price!
I would still call local labs and see if you could get a "deal" on a 1 year contract.....then you can extrapolate the data and see if purchase is required? Maybe an easier sell to management then
Look for it online and be patient. I was lucky enough to find one used online, Ebay, for less than $200. I thought I might need to replace the bearings or turbine, but it was perfectly fine. The seller didn't know what he had, apparently.
At any rate, Ebay, LabX, or other online shops.
I did a search on LabX and there are a number of them available for decent pricing. Keep in mind, there isn't really much that fails on these units aside from the bearings or turbine. If you have to replace both of those that'll set you back about $500 USD, but if taking proper care of the unit you would never need to replace again.
BTW...auditors and inspectors love to see you quantify you air quality results. We just had a USDA inspection to export our milk products to China and the inspectors were very impressed with our air quality data. I did find it odd the Chinese are really strict with environmental air quality.
If you do not have the funds to buy the Air Sampler at this time or to give you time to find a used one you might look at 3M. They have a method for air sampling using their Petrifilm plates. Never used it so I can not give any advice or feedback, I just remember seeing it on their instruction manual for different types of plating. http://multimedia.3m...res-article.pdf