Between wildfire smoke, peak ozone, agricultural drift, and a rotating fleet of rental units, this summer put more hours on air monitoring equipment than a typical season usually does. That's good for your data set. It's also exactly the kind of stretch that quietly wears down calibration accuracy, long before anyone notices a problem.
Annual recertification is a regulatory requirement for a reason. Flow measurement paths drift. Orifices wear. Seals degrade. None of it happens dramatically, and none of it shows up until a QA/QC review, an audit, or a compliance submission asks a question your documentation can't answer. Below is what actually causes drift after a heavy-use season, what happens if it goes unaddressed, and what the recertification process looks like when you send equipment to our lab in Cleves, Ohio.
Why Calibration Drifts After a Season Like This One
Drift isn't a defect. It's a predictable outcome of use, and it accelerates under exactly the conditions this summer created: extended sampling runs, high particulate loading, and equipment that moved between sites more than usual. Here's where it actually comes from.
Mechanical wear on the flow measurement path
Heavier filter loading changes pressure dynamics
Rental rotation adds handling and transit stress
Seal and gasket degradation from heat exposure
What Happens If It Goes Unaddressed
None of this stops equipment from running. It keeps collecting samples and reporting flow rates as if nothing has changed. The problem surfaces later, usually at a worse time than now.
What an expired or drifted calibration actually costs you
- Samples collected outside acceptable flow tolerance can be flagged as invalid during data review
- Compliance submissions built on undocumented calibration status face added scrutiny or rejection
- A rental unit returned without a current calibration record puts the next customer's data at risk too
- Re-collecting a full sampling run costs far more in time and labor than a routine recertification
- Auditors and regulatory reviewers treat a documentation gap the same as a failed check
Recertification Quick Reference
Every Tisch high-volume, low-volume, and reference method sampler pairs with a specific calibration kit for annual recertification. Here's the current lineup.
| Instrument | Recert Interval | Calibration Kit |
|---|---|---|
| TE-5170V TSP Sampler | Annual | TE-5028 |
| TE-6070V PM10 / PM2.5 | Annual | TE-5028 |
| TE-1000 PUF Sampler | Annual | TE-5040 |
| PUF PLUS sVOC Sampler | Annual | TE-5040PP |
| TE-WILBUR2.5 FRM System | Annual | FRM-CAL |
Process: How It Works
Three straightforward steps. Our team handles the technical work and ships back with full documentation.
Step 01: Contact & Ship Your Calibrator
Submit a request online or contact our calibration team. Ship your calibrator to our Cleves, Ohio lab. We accept all Tisch calibrators and compatible orifice sets.
Speed things up: if you have a PO number for your internal records, a UPS collect account number if you'd like the unit shipped back on your account, and your return address ready when you send your unit in, our team can process the order without waiting to hear back from you. The quicker we have that information, the quicker your calibrator comes home.
Step 02: Full Diagnostic & Certification
Our employee-owner technicians perform complete functional testing, diagnostics, deep cleaning, and NIST-traceable flow verification, performed by the original equipment manufacturer.
Step 03: Return with Digital Records
Your calibrator ships back within 1 to 2 business days with full NIST-traceable documentation and direct access to our technical engineers for any follow-up questions.
If you're not sure whether a specific instrument needs recertification, or you're trying to track down the status of a rental unit, our calibration department can look up the record and let you know where things stand.