Karl Fischer titrator glassware; what’s the deal?
I got a call the other day from an upset customer. They needed to order a complete new set of glassware for one of their coulometric karl fisher titrators but could not swallow the price they were being given. Why is it so expensive? Well, I don’t know how to answer this exactly, but I can start by listing out what all coulometric Karl Fisher titrators require:
Let’s see,
- a vessel
- a generator electrode (aka inner buret)
- a detector electrode
- caps and seals or glass plugs
- septas
- stirrer bar
- dessicator
I guess that covers it. So what’s the deal and which of these items are driving the costs? Generally speaking, the generator electrode is the most expensive with the vessel itself and the detector electrode next. These three pieces of glass can easily exceed $2,000.00 I’ve seen several brands and talked with different manufacturers and everyone has prices for complete sets of glassware that ranges from the low $2,600 up to and over $4,000.00. “Welding” platinum to glass apparently is an art and requires handmade techniques. And have you seen the cost of platinum lately? Over the past 6 years platinum has gone from around US$500.00 an ounce up to US$2,000.00 an ounce earlier last year and is now settled around US$1,000.00 an ounce. Now, I am not an economist, but I do think these prices have affected some of the costs lately. Will prices improve? Can they? Do prices every go back down? I think and hope so. As of this post I am going to begin collecting data on as many manufacturers as I can and pull together a report to share. Keep in mind we will also need to discuss quatlity at some point because not all glassware is manufactured the same way. Some glassware is actually better than others. If your reading this and have bought any glassware lately and would like to share it with me I would be grateful.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Hank Levi
