Cleaning the glass chamber

There are at least three fundamentally different kind of contaminations that can accumulate in the measuring chamber of the oxygraph and cause problems. All of them have to be treated in different ways:

• Biological contamination: The ideal counter agent is 70% Ethanol with 30% water (NOT 100% Ethanol).
• Protein contamination and other macroscopic deposits. After long use a whitish deposit can form at the glass walls of the chamber. Additionally, small glass splinters (difficult to see) may become embedded in such a deposit. This will be detected by a jumping stirring bar or a stirring bar getting stuck. In this case the glass chamber should be removed from the oxygraph and treated with concentrated hydrochloric acid at least over night. Additionally the stirring bar should be cleaned.
• Contamination by hydrophobic inhibitors: The ideal counter agent for this case is pure Ethanol (NOT 70% ethanol).

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