TechNotes

Q. What is the best way to clean LC/MS glassware?
A. We have published a whitepaper on the formal LC/MS glassware cleaning procedure. Contact us at cleaning@alconox.com for a copy.

Read the full story

Find answers to questions such as: What is ultrasonic tank cleaning? Which industries employ? What Alconox brands are ideal for ultrasonic tank cleaning?

Read the full story

See Alconox, Inc. at Pittcon, Orlando, FL, February 26 – March 1, 2018. Stop by booth #2705 to receive our unique gifts, expert technical support for your critical cleaning applications, and detergent samples.

Our critical cleaning detergents remove an array of soils while leaving no interfering residues on laboratory equipment, glassware and instruments. To learn more about the specific cleaning applications we can take on in the lab, click over to the Laboratory Cleaning section of our website.

Read the full story

Q: Is there a benefit to filtering the rinse water or the detergent solution in an ultrasonic system? Is it even advisable? If so, can you recommend a filter size (10 micron) when using Alconox detergent? This is for a new bath setup in a new piece of equipment. 

A: My short answer would be, it cannot hurt but would likely be of limited assistance.

Read the full story

Q. White spots appear on our stainless steel parts the day after cleaning with Alconox. Right after we clean them, they are dry and visually clean. So, is this next-day residue from the Alconox detergent? If not, can you tell us why this is happening? A. It is fairly unlikely that visually clean parts have Alconox residues suddenly appearing the next day.  In addition to Alconox being free rinsing, any residue that did not get rinsed for whatever reason, would be visible fairly immediately.

Most people in similar situations, even though the parts appear “dry and visually clean,” find that the spots are from water.

Read the full story

Q: We understand from your literature, that pre-soaking in a solution prior to washing is a good idea.  We are washing pipettes in a syphon washer using your Alcotabs.  Can we create an Alcotabs solution for the pre-soak?  A 1%?  How many tablets? A: Thanks for the inquiry.  Often times, a minor re-purpose of an […]

Read the full story

Q:  You recently sent a sample of Tergazyme detergent for a tough cleaning challenge and it worked better than anything we had previously tried. I realize this must be due to the enzyme component. What information can you provide me on how enzyme detergents work, so I can share it with our decision makers / executives who want to better understand why this detergent got such different results?

Read the full story

Q. It appears that the Solujet is leaving a ring on some of the labware that cannot be removed. What is this ring (sodium silicate?)? How do we remove it? The labware has not been completely submerged. We have just added the Solujet soak for some labware that may have stubborn organics. We have been giving the labware a 4 hour soak in 1% Solujet, followed by warm tap water rinse then wash with Liquinox followed by 3x DI rinse.

Click for the Answer.

Read the full story

Q. We have glassware that contains adhesive and API dissolved in organic solvents. If we do not do additional organic rinses prior to the aqueous rinses we have issues. Is there any way we can avoid the organic rinses?
A. To avoid organic rinses, you can soak in a high emulsifying cleaner such as a 1% Alconox solution (1.25 oz/gal or 10 g/L) prior to aqueous rinsing. Ideally soak in a warm or hot solution for fastest and most reliable results. The emulsifiers in Alconox will emulsify the solvents and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). Be sure to rinse at the same temperature you are soaking at so you do not break the emulsion and redeposit the API or solvents. If you soak hot . . .

Read the full story

My question is related to a minimum detergent concentration.  We manually wash labware of all sizes in 0.3% Liquinox solution. We also pre-wash or pre-rinse the labware and control our parts load.  We rarely have failures. We want to change our protocol to extend the wash water use for one day instead of based on a numerical parts load.  Do you think a 0.3% Liquinox concentration is sufficient detergent capacity to go an entire day?

Read the full story