[Histonet] linear stainer hematoxylin staining issues

[Sophia Lin]

We have the Hacker linear stainer, and for the past two weeks we had clean,
crisp H&E staining. However, last Friday, something happened and our H&E
stains no longer look crisp, but instead have a hazy, unreadable look.
Nothing different has been done, and we have troubleshot for every possible
scenario. After a clean set up, we noticed that the hematoxylin is not
staining very well. We have it set for 2 minutes with agitation for a
uniform staining. Hematoxylin is Harris Special (mercury free) from MCC and
the eosin is with phloxine b from AMT. After the hematoxylin (2 buckets for
total of 4.5 minutes), we use 1.5% acetic acid. It seems that the
hematoxylin is not staining well.

Any tips? We may need to consider increasing a bucket for hematoxylin?

Thanks,

Sophia