Cleaning of cuvettes (spectrophotometer) for RNA measurement - (Jan/23/2014 )

Hi People.

I have always just been measuring concentrations on a nanodrop so never really thought about doing it on the spec. However at my current location I have to measure this in a spec. So my question is for you who have experience in this, how much cleaning between samples are needed? There is only two cuvettes accesable for RNA/DNA measurements. And what solution do you use for cleaning? EtOH? NaOH,Tris-, EDTA combi?

Are you attempting to recover samples after the reading or not?

are you using plastic or glass or quartz cuvettes?

do you have a cuvette cleaner (connected to vacuum, with a side-arm flask)?

how (and how often) do you clean the nanodrop head?

(btw- just because i'm a nitpicker- the nanodrop is a spectrophotometer, just doesn't use cuvettes).

No, im not trying to recover the samples. I use quartz, dont have a cuvette cleaner. And true that, and must admit I have never cleaned it, I wasnt responsible for maintaining it, so i have basically just been wiping it between uses with water.

you may want to purchase a cuvette cleaner (here's one place).

we flush with water then dry by flushing with ethanol (95%) or acetone and allowing to dry on the cleaner.

I just rinse a few times with sterile water (fill, give a good flick of the wrist to empty).  I was taught never use EtOH on the quartz since it can precipitate DNA onto the glass.  

after flushing with water there should be no dna to precipitate. the ethanol (or acetone) are to speed drying.

all above are obsession.

once rinsing with water is enough.