[Histonet] Precipitate

[Morken, Timothy]

Matt, we have seen that in one of our VIP5's and we do weekly hot-water rinse of the first 4 stations. It is the oldest  processor, at about 7 years. That processor had frequent pump-in pump-out errors randomly in the first 3 stations. Finally the service tech decided to "get to the bottom of it" and he found the steel tubing clogged with "sand." It took a whole day to clean it all out. It did not look like formalin salts, but did look like the kind of deposits that you see with hard water in pipes. 

Since then, no problems at all. 

Tim Morken
Supervisor, Histology, IPOX
UCSF Medical Center
San Francisco, CA, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu [mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Matt Mincer
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2012 5:57 PM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] Precipitate

Hey Histonet,

We have a client who is having an odd problem with their processor. They are getting "sandy" clogs in station 3. The original thought was that it was formalin salts but the texture and color was wrong. Also, station 3 is 70% which should be weak enough. One of the techs mentioned in passing that the water quality in their town was really bad. I think that the problem is that, like formalin, the alcohol is causing dissolved minerals to be released from the tap water they use to mix their 70%. Has anyone seen this before or am I chasing a harebrained theory? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Matt

--
Matthew Mincer
Tech One Biomedical Services
159 N Marion Street, PMB163
Oak Park, IL 60301
(708) 383-6040 X 10
fax (708) 383-6045
cell (708) 822-3738


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