Glass and Plastic Washing Protocols
The following protocol is to be used for washing plastic and glass bottles, flasks, beakers, and graduated cylinders.
-
Check the dirty area by the sink for any dishes that need to be washed. This includes the cart in Room 230.
-
Place all of the dirty dishes into a plastic tub on a cart to transport over to the autoclave/washing room (Room 210). The dish washer is the "Lancer Washer".
-
Load the glassware onto the washing racks. There are two racks, one with smaller pegs and one with larger pegs and larger spaces between pegs.
-
The rack with smaller pegs holds smaller glassware (small graduated cylinders, flasks, bottles, etc.).
-
The rack with larger pegs holds large glassware (2/4/6 L flasks, 1 L or larger glass/plastic bottles, 500 mL or larger graduated cylinders, etc.).
-
If doing a wash cycle with very large glassware (6 L flask), then you will only be able to use the large rack rather than both the small and large rack.
-
-
Stir bars, spatulas, scoops, and bottle caps go into one of the metal wire pans on the top of the Lancer Washer. These metal pans fit in between the pegs.
-
Turn on the power of the washer once all lab ware is loaded and the door is closed.
-
Press "1" for normal use and press "4" for glassware with agar that needs to be removed. Then press "START" to initiate the wash cycle. Each cycle is about ~2 hr.
Note: Liquid detergent and acid rinse are pumping into the machine from bottles in the drawer at the bottom of the washer. When the bottles have 2 inches or less of fluid, make more:
-
Liquid detergent: Pour most of 1 gallon of Super Q water (in Room 210, ask for assistance from a lab member) in the container, add 70 mL Contrad 70, and add the rest of the Super Q water (to avoid foaming).
-
Acid rinse: Fill acid clean jug with 3 liters of Super Q water, then add 2 liters of glacial acetic acid.
-
These materials are located in labeled drawers in Room 210.
-
Adding liquid detergent and acid is generally done by William.
-
-
Once washing is complete, prepare the necessary glassware for autoclaving:
-
Put aluminum foil completely over the mouths of glass flasks, graduated cylinders, beakers, etc. Wrap spatulas and scoops in aluminum foil if needed.
-
Place autoclave tape (Room 210) on all aluminum foil, caps of bottles, and somewhere on anything that will be autoclaved.