Your Flow Analyzer Shouldn’t Hold Your Lab Back—Upgrade It with FIAlab
From faster throughput and flexible method configurations to modern software and accessible components, FIAlab gives laboratories a practical path forward from discontinued flow analyzers.
For years, instruments such as the Lachat QuikChem 8000 and 8500 helped wastewater, environmental, and agricultural laboratories automate essential wet-chemistry analyses. But even dependable instruments eventually become difficult to maintain. With Lachat halting sales of the QuikChem Series of flow injection analyzers (QC8000, QC8500 Series I and Series II) in 2020 and the end of service and support in 2025, labs using Hach’s unsupported technology are left searching for a more dependable equivalent.
Stay with proven flow injection technology
Replacing your Lachat should not require abandoning a proven analytical technique. The FIAlyzer-1000 and FIAlyzer-FLEX are true flow injection analyzers, making them natural successors to legacy Lachat flow injection systems. FIAlab analyzers follow identical compliance and methodologies to the instrument your lab is already approved for.
Moving from FIA to segmented-flow technology introduces a different fluidic architecture and additional operating variables. Segmented-flow systems require consistent air segmentation and precise coordination among multiple liquid streams, tubing dimensions, flow rates, and reaction times. Changes in any of these factors can affect baseline stability, peak shape, and reproducibility while making troubleshooting more involved. By retaining a streamlined FIA workflow, FIAlab reduces the number of interdependent fluidic variables, helping laboratories simplify operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting while easing the transition from their existing Lachat platform.
For labs transitioning from SFA, moving appropriate methods to FIA can eliminate the need for air segmentation, increase peak sensitivity, and reduce the number of interdependent fluidic variables, simplifying daily operation and troubleshooting while preserving the benefits of automated wet-chemistry analysis.
Flexible options that fit your laboratory
A replacement does not have to be a one-size-fits-all instrument. FIAlab systems are modular, allowing a laboratory to configure its analyzer around the methods it performs.
The FIA-1000 is an excellent replacement for a dedicated QuikChem channel used for routine, high-volume analysis. Each channel incorporates its own peristaltic pump, injection valve, light source, and full-array spectrometer. Multiple modules can be combined for simultaneous analysis when the laboratory needs to analyze several parameters from the same sample set.
For laboratories that frequently change methods or perform more complicated chemistries, the FIA-FLEX provides additional reagent capacity, interchangeable assay manifolds, and support for in-line preparation. FLEX modules can be combined into systems with as many as four channels for simultaneous multi-analyte testing. Modules can easily be integrated into existing FLEX systems later down the road if new analytes are required, just like purchasing a new channel board for a Lachat.
Increase throughput without sacrificing flexibility
Hach described the QuikChem 8500 Series 2 as typically processing 60 to 120 samples per hour, depending on the method. FIAlab’s FIA-1000 can analyze up to 200 samples per hour, per channel. Actual throughput depends on the chemistry, reaction time, washing requirements and QC schedule, but the platform gives high-volume laboratories substantial processing capacity.
The FIAlyzer-1000 is designed for channels that remain dedicated to one or two related methods. The FIAlyzer-FLEX addresses the opposite need: laboratories that require rapid transitions between different assays.
FLEX assay manifolds hold method-specific fluidic configurations, allowing operators to exchange the analytical setup without reconstructing the entire manifold one tube and fitting at a time. Its universal-manifold concept keeps much of the setup consistent between methods, making changeovers quicker and less complicated.
Eliminate the limitations of physical wavelength filters
Each FIAlyzer channel uses a full-array spectrometer rather than relying on a physical wavelength-selection filter. Wavelength selection is handled through the software.
For the laboratory, this means:
No collection of method-specific filters to store and maintain
No physical filter replacement when changing wavelengths
Greater flexibility during method development
More spectral information for troubleshooting
Fewer specialized optical components that may become difficult to source
When replacing an obsolete analyzer, eliminating dependence on aging or proprietary filters can be just as important as replacing the instrument itself.
FIAlyzers also introduce the ability to measure non-colorimetric methods, such as the EPA-approved FIAlab100 method for Ammonia and TKN Determination by Fluorometric Detection and Cyanide by Amperometric Detection (In-line Distillation Total CN, Post-Distillation Total CN, Free CN, WAD CN, Available CN).
Automate more of the workflow
Both FIAlyzer platforms provide abilities beyond basic sample measurement. FIAlab systems with an autodilutor can automate pre-dilutions, post-dilutions, and the rerunning of over-range samples. The FIAlyzer-FLEX can also support automated in-line digestion or distillation for applicable methods.
FIAsoft brings instrument control, sample management and results processing into one modern software environment. It supports Windows 10 and 11, QC monitoring, sample-list importing, data export, and LIMS integration. The software is developed in-house by FIAlab PhD chemists and receives regular updates.
Instead of relying on an obsolete analyzer connected to aging software and computer hardware, laboratories receive a platform designed for current data-management and operating-system requirements.
Continue running the methods that matter
FIAlab flow analyzers support the core nutrient and environmental analyses historically associated with automated flow analysis, including:
Ammonia and TKN
Nitrate (Nitrate+Nitrite) and Nitrite
Orthophosphate and Total Phosphorus
Cyanide
Total Nitrogen
Chloride and Sulfate
Phenol and other environmental parameters
Available methods are aligned with commonly used USEPA, APHA Standard Methods, ASTM, and ISO references. Examples include EPA 350.1 for ammonia, EPA 353.2 for nitrate and nitrite, EPA 365.1 for phosphorus and EPA 420.1 or 420.4 for phenol. See our full methods list here.
As with any new analytical platform, laboratories verify the selected method in their own matrix and complete the required calibration, detection-limit, and quality-control studies before reporting regulated results. But moving to FIAlab does not mean starting over with an unfamiliar category of analysis and full overhaul of existing SOPs and accreditation. With a FIAlab installation your service engineer will help with comparison samples and even initial MDLs and IDCs during your installation.
Make maintenance easier and downtime less disruptive
FIAlab flow analyzers are designed with accessible components and transparent fluidic pathways that help operators identify problems and perform routine maintenance. The modular architecture also prevents the entire analytical workload from being permanently tied to one central instrument chassis.
Each FIAlyzer channel has its own critical analytical components. Laboratories can dedicate channels to high-priority methods, add capacity when needed, and service individual modules without redesigning the entire system.
That creates a more resilient laboratory: one built around manageable channels instead of a single aging platform that places every method at risk when a critical component fails.
Replace obsolescence with a platform that can grow
A continuous flow analyzer is a long-term investment. Its value depends not only on what it can measure today, but also on whether its software, components, and support will remain available tomorrow.
FIAlab combines proven flow injection chemistry with modern spectrometer-based detection, actively maintained software, and modular hardware and configurations tailored to the laboratory’s methods and needs. The FIAlyzer-1000 delivers compact, high-throughput performance for routine assays, while the FIAlyzer-FLEX provides the capacity and adaptability needed for complex methods and frequent changeovers.
For laboratories facing the limitations of discontinued Lachat QuikChem systems, or any aging nutrient analyzer, FIAlab offers more than a replacement. It offers an opportunity to reduce obsolescence risk, simplify daily operation, and build a flow-analysis platform around the laboratory’s future.
Learn more about the FIAlab solution and how we can benefit your lab operations today. Fill out the form below to request information from your local representative, or request a virtual demonstration to see the instrument in action.
