When Costech installed our replacement ECS4010, they said that  
lowering the reaction temp to 1000C (previously we had run at 1060C at  
their reccomendation) helped with the ash trap removal issue. It  
certainly has. I have little trouble getting the trap out without  
breaking now. I also get about 200-250 runs out of a trap before  
needing to clean it out, and I can reuse them unless I break it during  
cleaning.
-- 
Charlotte Lehmann
Research Technician
Bates College
Department of Geology
206A Carnegie Science Building
44 Campus Avenue
Lewiston, ME 04240
Phone: 207-786-6485
FAX: 207-786-8334


Quoting Armand Krueger <[log in to unmask]>:

> Hi all,
> I know I am not the only one having  a problem getting the inserts   
> removed from the
> combustion tube after using 2 or 3 inserts in a prepacked reactor. I  
>  pull the inserts after
> every days run about 70 to 100 tissue samples or 50 to 60 soil   
> samples. The first or second
> removal on a new reactor seems to work OK but beyond that no luck,   
> any fixes would be
> very helpful.
>
> Thanks
> Armand
>
>