Citric Acid or Muriatic Acid

[member 99594]

First off, I am guilty!! I was using tap water to rinse my cuvettes. I have a feeling there is phosphate and calcium residue on the cuvettes and it is throwing my readings off.

I have heard that it is a good idea to clean your cuvettes every so often anyway and I wanted to know if I should use Citric or Muriatic Acid for this?

Cheers!!

 

[Sleepydoc]

I just use white vinegar. Cheap, easy to get and safe. It should readily dissolve any residue of concern.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I do the same thing. Vinegar bath and then good rinse in 0 tds ro/di water.

 

[member 99594]

Thanks guys I will give this a shot.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

Soaking overnight in vinegar will definitely remove any precipitated calcium carbonate, but just rinsing it in vinegar might not. I typically use dilute hydrochloric acid to clean glassware and plastic, but do use vinegar to clean equipment that has metallic components (such as pump impellers and the like). To speed up the vinegar process, I heat the vinegar in the microwave to cup-of-coffee hot (i.e., not boiling). This cuts the time required to dissolve calcium carbonate deposits from hours-long to as little as 5 minutes, depending on how encrusted the equipment is.

If you're cleaning glass cuvettes, you might consider doing the same (heating the vinegar).

 

[member 99594]

Soaking overnight in vinegar will definitely remove any precipitated calcium carbonate, but just rinsing it in vinegar might not. I typically use dilute hydrochloric acid to clean glassware and plastic, but do use vinegar to clean equipment that has metallic components (such as pump impellers and the like). To speed up the vinegar process, I heat the vinegar in the microwave to cup-of-coffee hot (i.e., not boiling). This cuts the time required to dissolve calcium carbonate deposits from hours-long to as little as 5 minutes, depending on how encrusted the equipment is.

If you're cleaning glass cuvettes, you might consider doing the same (heating the vinegar).

I just let them soak in the vinegar overnight. Rinsed with ro.

Thanks for the heating tip.