Hello,

We have one of those old-fashioned glass distillers in our lab to provide distilled water (the one that looks like a big round-bottom flask). It's getting a bit grubby now, and I wondered if anyone knows what cleaning procedure(s) are used to get the gunk out? Thanks in advance for any replies.

We usually clean ours with HCl.

get a product called "Wink". It will amaze you the stains and deposites wil "float of the walls pour enough to cover all the walls when you swirl then while swirling heat over a burner rinse and repeat

Or use chromerge nasty stuff tho hexavalent chrome & sufuric acid recipe is in many Chem books or just google "Chromerge"


post how you do

Pipn

p.s.

Wink is sold at most ace hardwares its for removing deposite in shower

Thanks for that info.

Forget the Chromerge. It is too toxic and difficult to dispose of.

Soak the glassware an acid bath (HCl is easiest) for several hours or overnight. If everything hasn't dissolved move it to a base bath (NaOH) for a similar period of time. Soak the glassware in Distilled water overnight as a last step.

If you use the base bath you will need to soak the glassware in the acid bath for a couple of hours before rinsing it and moving it to the water bath.