Glassware and cleaning

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bengie84

Active member
Joined
Apr 16, 2019
Messages
40
Hi all over the past year or so I been trying to get my lab wear/beakers,flasks est clean I have tried numerous cleaners and detergents still with no luck always ends up gold sticking all round my beakers
So what is everyone using and how do they use it ?
This question is mainly for the UK members as somethings we can’t get but all info is welcome
 
bengie84 said:
Hi all over the past year or so I been trying to get my lab wear/beakers,flasks est clean I have tried numerous cleaners and detergents still with no luck always ends up gold sticking all round my beakers
So what is everyone using and how do they use it ?
This question is mainly for the UK members as somethings we can’t get but all info is welcome
Click to expand...
Some of the 'cleaners' are part of the problem. Fine abrasives in the cleaners cause micro scratches that are difficult to see, but give the Gold a point to begin the precipitation.
I spoke to the glass artist at the University where I worked and his solution was to place the glass in the annealing oven and heat it to about 525 deg C. This annealed the glassware and burned off any organic contamination on the surface.
 
anachronism said:
Hot soapy water for most of it with a cloth.

I use Ammonia for caked on stuff. Never had an issue otherwise.

I don't use abrasives.
Click to expand...

I agree.
I also used the cleaning brush below (Dollar store). I found that it worked great on all lab glass, and especially well in erlenmyers, when used as anachronism recommended.
 

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Dawn dish soap, the concentrated type and the sponge from the same source as Johnny5. I will occasionally use the soft scrub pads with a lot of soap for anything really tough such as iron. Like the other suggest, don't use anything abrasive. I used to use Barkeeps Friend, but the concentrated dish detergent works as well or better. AR can be used on some of the tough stains as well.
 
I use acetone for regular cleaning, mostly because I don’t have runny water in my garage.

And I do all my clean drops from the same flask.
 
Old school was to use Potassium dichromate or Chromic Acid in Concentrated Sulphuric Acid. I can still remember getting Ulcers on my hands from the Hexavalent Chromium. Nasty Stuff, and we used to pour the residue down the drain. I bet the environmental folks would have a seizure if you did that Today. :mrgreen:
 

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