Why we got rid of our Cyan-ADP

Basically, we were having lots of problems with it, and it was always going to be (at least for the foreseeable future) a 9-color instrument

Some of the issues we experienced included:
• Constant clogging; It seemed like every single person who ran the instrument got a clog...but only on the Cyan
• Constant need of alignment; The red diode and violet laser needed constant alignment, typically many times/day. I am aware that the red laser and the violet laser are now newer, and that the red laser mount is much better, but that wasn't the case for our instrument
• Poor Sensitivity; Especially in the far red detectors, PECy5.5 and PECy7. Also, APC, and APCCy7 were not too great either
• Terrible Service; In Chicago, we didn't even have a local service rep even though almost every institution in the area has either a moflo, a cyan, or both. Every time we needed service we had to pay to have someone fly out from Ft. Collins (since we were not on service contract).
• Sub-par Software; Now, I can't come down too hard on this one since no instrument manufacturer can make good acquisition software. They spend so much time trying to put everything in there, that they mess up the basics. However, Summit seemed more like it was designed and engineered by hobby developers, and always had a 'beta' feel to it.

I will say that many, if not all of these problems should be handled much better now that Beckman Coulter has bought the flow cytometry division of Dako. Hopefully they realize the many flaws of the cyan, learn from it, and then make a great, flexible, multicolor platform