Should just suck the material out of your rotovape with a little bit of ethanol left. no handling a huge flask and no mess since it had a little solvent left. For big flasks you could soak them in a cleaning bin full of ethanol
Sorry, the link you want is on this page https://www.justmanbrush.com/catalog/plugins/lineitems/browse.asp
under flask and bottle brushes, then you want to click the “double ended tuft” type brushes, it wont let me link directly to the page for some reason. I find these hinged brushes essential for keeping the inside of flasks clean. the 24" handle should allow you to clean a 22L flask. Be careful not to put “kinks” in the metal handle or you may find it hard to re-straighten.
Hello all!
New guy here! This is similar to what I do on a much smaller scale.
I use warm 99% alcohol, pea sized and smaller rock salt, and 3 pieces of twine on a wooden dowel attached to my cordless drill. Twine length variable as needed.
Natural fibers attract the sticky stuff.
A Thin slurry that slowly runs down the walls of the glass container is best.
I havent met a resin or carbon that can best me yet!
A flexible plastic dowel might provide better action in larger glass with a tight opening.
Works for me!
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Oh Hey!
Maybe theres an invention there!
somewhat like this?
I read through all of the cleaning threads on here, but wanted to clarify before I ruin my glass.
We have a 20L RBF used for SPD. We ran some material that was super waxy (lesson learned about running that without a better winterization!), but it is now caked on around the bottom and lower sides. Acetone reflux got a large amount off, but this stuff won’t dissolve. We tried a degreaser, but that didn’t do anything.
I have had success using base baths for caked on polymers in the past, but that glass was not used under vacuum. I know the base bath removes some glass. Will a KOH/EtOH base bath damage my glass and make it unusable for SPD? Thanks!
I’ve got some pretty gnarly burnt waxes/sugar/water solubles from warm extracted ethanol crude off my 20l boiling flask using a bunch of rock salt and acetone or ethanol.
I put stoppers in all holes of the boiling flask and then roll it back and forth on the ground rottating the flask to a new section once I have one section completely clean.
This can take quite some time depending on how bad the burnt material is. Last time it took me almost an hour.
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Try carboy brushes from a brewery store or anazon there flexible and coarse. Its what i use when i clean my glass. I decarb in the roto so what ever oil is left,you only use it once. It was about 30 grams in a 20l
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For roto flasks that have caked up shit I use sponges. The kind with the coarse scrubbing side. Cut it up in to little 3/4" squares pour in some acetone or etoh, and let it spin! Works like a dream, just have to rinse well.
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NaOH can be used, but be sure you know the dangers, its exothermic so be mindful of that but that should remove almost everything nasty.
Remember too, that some times after removing things with solvents and/or NaOH good old soap and water will remove things that EtOH and acetone won’t.
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I made up a little bucket cleaner (see my post) and run the 50L flask in it with great results.
Give it a try!
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For a roto flask transferring the material into the 22L flask is going to be easiest under vacuum. Add some additional PTFE tubing to the addition inlet tube. If long enough it should arc down into the evaporating flask. It’s not going to get all of it but will get out enough to make the flask somewhat more manageable.
To clean just place some coarse rock salt in the flask with some solvent and let it heat and rotate for a while and will clean itself.
For distillation flasks with burnt crude bake out as much as you can in an oven upside down at like 400°F (use aluminum foil boat to catch)
Let cool but when still pretty hot add limonene and rock salt and agitate it. Rinse and repeat until clean.
Finish with a soapy water wash. If still dirty use a base bath, the repeat water wash.
If that doesn’t work then you want want to repeat some steps, but if all else fails send it in and we can burn it off in the oven.
i have seen a wizard use two stir bars to scrub inside big flasks you can’t get a wrist into. one inside, one outside. you can even put one inside a ss scrubbie.
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This is my solution to transferring out of the RotoVap
An adaptor from #45/50 Rotovis end (as used in summit research hochstrom) to a 65/40 ball end to suit our boiling flasks.
No vessel in between
R&D Glass Products & Equipment in Berkeley did it for us and did a great job for <$200
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Exactly what I was thinking. A full-sized version of a Buddy magnetic bong cleaner.
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