How often do you have to clean water bath and circulator? With or without using - (Jun/09/2013 )

I read somewhere that talks about the need to clean circulator more often than water bath. Just wonder if anyone can share experience with circulator and water baths... which one get dirty faster? Thx.

By circulator I presume you mean one attached to a waterbath?

If so - they are linked, they should be cleaned fully at the same time as each-other. If they aren't, then they will just contaminate each-other and you will have to clean more often.

Oops.. sorry for not being clear. I meant to compare between a humidifier tray in an incubator and a circulating bath. Is it true if I put the same solution (contains the same algaecide) in humidifier tray and in circulating bath, the circulating bath will get contaminate faster? How often do you have to clean either one of them? Thanks.

Both should be cleaned regularly anyway. It depends on how often each is opened as to how quickly they will become contaminated. In our lab they are done weekly.

BioBot on Sun Jun 9 21:48:15 2013 said:

We are a small start up company. We didn't make the product, we redistribute the product. I asked this question because there are so many products out there, each lab has their own way of dealing with water. Some prefer using water products and some may mixed the methods/similar product to fix some issue etc. Some wants to dilute the product down. I'm just trying to see what work and what not. For Bob's lab, the clean the water out every week, I presume he doesn't use any water product. My interest is to see when product got dilute down or mixed with ethanol what other issues arise.

For cell culture incubators, most manufacturers recommend that nothing is added to the water tray as this can interfere with evaporation rates and hence the humidity. There is also the possibility that the substance will have a volatile and water soluble component that will affect the cells in the incubator.

Thanks for sharing, and you are right. Many of the substances are volatile and too much additives will affect the cells. That's why it's important to find the right balance for your environment and determine if there is an effective concentration that will also not affect the cells. There is a trade-off however, you may find yourself changing the water more often to prevent a toxic build up of additives.