Perform Leak Checks on 5014i and 5030i Monitors

Answer

For  Thermo Scientific™ 5014i Beta Continuous Ambient Particulate Monitor and the Model 5030i SHARP Monitor, it's good practice to perform leak checks every time you audit the unit’s performance. At the very least, the leak check should be performed once a month.  You don’t want to be collecting data that you need to invalidate because the flow is off.

One symptom of a leak in your system can appear when you perform a flow audit.  When the flow reported by the standard is more than ±2.5% from the flow that is being displayed by the instrument, you may have a leak.

Before attempting a leak check, you should first perform a flow calibration. If you are unable to calibrate the flow or your flow calibration constantly drifts, than this is a sign that you might have a leak.

To perform a leak check, you will need a NIST flow standard such as a BGI Delta Cal (Figure 1) or Streamline Pro.  You will also need  the flow audit adapter (Figure 2) sometimes referred to as a leak check adapter (PN.110524-00) that came with your instrument.