Carbon goodness.
Thank you to any for the time.
I like to soak the head in straight ethanol.
While the head is soaking i pour out as much of the goo as i can from the BF then place the BF back into the mantle at 65c with the temp probe still connected and fill with about a cup of ethanol with stir bar on (in well ventilated area).
Once ethanol gets dark, pour out dirty eth and replace with clean eth until BF is clean. It helps to clean as soon as possible after every finished run.
If the fumes are of concern or if you dont want to waste your ethanol then you could just keep all of the glassware together and distill the ethanol out through your cold condenser into a jar or flask. This is a safer method.
Acetone is also an option, I just dont like the smell of the stuff.
Good luck and be safe
A good soak with some hot Alconox solution usually helps to loosen up the sludge. Repeat if necessary. Once most the thick stuff comes off, a wash with Karnak followed by a few rinses with ethanol should polish it up nicely.
Acetone
What @Slabby said
I use hand cleaner with grit in it. Like GOJO. I tried soaking in ethanol, acetone etc. Nothing worked. I almost went and picked up some really strong acid just to eat it up.
I finish up with Alconox in an ultrasonic cleaner and it came out nice.
Dont put glass you use under vac in an aultrasonic cleaner. my man
Dissolve KOH in water until it reaches max saturation and stops dissolving more KOH.
Do this very, very slowly- a good deal of heat is generated, always add KOH to water not other way around.
This will dissolve anything, including every part of your body- so wear protection.
Otherwise ultrasonic bath is cheap on ebay
So they say, but my glassware was contaminated, so it was either try to get it off or throw it away. Going forward I’m never running this type of crude again.
For residue that won’t dissolve, I use stainless steel wool. Break it into smaller pieces that will fit into the boiling flask, add iso and cap. Then a shaking method which uses the momentum of the iso to move the steel wool around the inside of the flask breaking free the residue. Drain the iso and residue, repeat as necessary. Then acetone afterward.
Take what the shake weight has taught you, but go a little more circular and you’ll get the hang of it.