I’ve used both the OP lightlab 1 and a few SRI GC’s and I’d go with the GC any day for the extra thousand or two I think the difference was back then.
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For the price of a new Sri 310-mm you can get a refurbished Agilent 1100.
The Sri is likely the better tool for the average user on this forum.
The Agilent is the tool to get if you have access to someone who can run it and want to identify acidics in a single test, or are doing process r&d and don’t want to manually bang samples every 7-15 minutes.
I don’t know anyone who has used a real GC or HPLC that would recommend a gemmacert or lightlab or any of the other similar tools that are marketed to this industry.
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couldnt agree more with this statement. I bought a new sri gc for 10k and a used but 100% refurbished still sealed agilient 1100 for 12k. and have seen used ones go for around 7k a few times.
The agilent requires a lot more knowledge and time to dial in your methods and trouble shooting is vastly more complex.
The SRI GC is easy to self teach and you can get usable results the first day you get it with no training.
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id like to get a gcms sooner than later. i enjoyed the SRI and once you get almost robotic with the injection… you can get accurate results on certain things… i really didnt like the fact thats its such a process to test thca and other acids.
the nice part about the sri is the supplies are dirt cheap and you can pretty much dial in your process inside 8 hrs just watching a few youtube videos.
they are pretty easy to get on the phone as well. especially if you break something and need a part overnighted.
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Turns out some monkeys make better robots than others too…
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you’ll still have the same issue testing acidics with a GC/MS. You gotta go to a liquid mobile phase vs a gas mobile phase to not have to use a derivative.
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So does anyone actually have any feedback on the lightlab 3? I need something that can test d9/d8/acetates and it seems like it’s a good route for in house analytics to atleast test distillate as it comes in the door before it ends up in carts.
Meh. Check out how many have been offered for sale.
Almost certain it won’t manage “acetates”…
Searching for either orange photonics or lightlab should get you more than enough information to draw your own conclusions.
You know, I started down that path but all I could find are for sale posts. Basically I’m looking for a semi-reliable way to test in house for sub 20k. That, or we need to find a semi-local lab in NJ that can actually turn stuff around in 1-2 days.
Trichome analytical in Mt laurel does good (and fast) work.
Either a SRI 310-MM GC or a used Agilent 1100 HPLC should cost well under 20k and I believe either would get you where you want to go.
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What do all those “for sale” ads tell you about the devices utility?
Only opinion you could find was folks wanted the damn thing gone and their money back…
I’ve not used one. Poked at them at trade shows. Might keep one in my car if it was gifted to me.
There are folks who use(d) them and found them worthwhile. That has not been the majority experience…
Unless they now generate a chromatogram it’s of little use for converted product. I would recommend an SRI GC-fid as far as bang for your buck.
What do you need to test for in house?
Distyless+ terps on an SRI 310.
Haven’t put names to many of the “terpenes” yet. Still playing with the method.
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Honestly? Our biggest need is for D9, D8 and D8-THCO
Which the light lab cannot give you. The SRI can
And yeah, I encourage you to lie while asking for help 
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The SRI also looks to have a better price point and come with training. I think that’s the route we will go.
And the “honestly” I feel is like a nuance of verbal communication that probably doesn’t transfer well to text…haha
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There have definitely been folks show up looking for help that seemed to go out of their way to obsfucate their goals. …
@srihugh1 also shows up here occasionally as well.
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Shimadzu has all the capability of agilent, GC FID or GCMS for terps and reisdual solvents. HPLC or UHPLC for potency with a pda or UV ditector.
I would recommend anyone who is attempting to do in house analytics to integrate internal standards to avoid any sample prep errors to allow for a less trained personnel to perform the analysis while maintaining adequate precision and accuracy.
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I know this post os old but im interested in info on current labs that offer testing for kratom alks.
And also info on HPLC methods.
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I just bumped i to this post. Trichome does kratom testing?
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I dont believe so