General Dishwasher Etiquette
There is often great demand for our dishwashers, so be especially considerate of others when using them. Only sign up for times that you need. If you have signed up for a time that you do not need, delete your reservation so someone else can use the dishwasher during that time. Do not let your run go into the next lab’s time. Unload your run promptly once completed. As you empty a dishwasher, always clean the tape and other debris often found on the five-inch-wide drains in the bottom inside of the dishwashers.
Every time the large, white dishwashing bins kept in the labs are empty, spray them clean with soap and water in the sink in Room 3084. [This would also be a good time to take care of any dry ice found of the floor near Room 3084. See Question 14, “What do I do when I see boxes of dry ice near GMB, Room 3084 (where the dry ice bin is)?” Be sure to flatten the boxes, placing them by the freight elevator. Undergraduates should never leave if dry ice is not stored correctly.]
Dishwasher Training
Do not attempt to use the dishwashers until you have been thoroughly trained by an experienced user. At the very least, watch them do a run and then have them observe you doing a run. If you are in the Strahl, Kuhlman, or Cook labs, you must then do a run with the lab manager before you are certified to use the dishwashers by yourself.
The Strahl, Kuhlman, and Cook labs use the left dishwasher’s Program Number Two, the one with the highest temperature setting. We use Virology or Agarose Gel Cycles on the right dishwasher. The bottom racks inside the dishwashers are not usually changed but the top racks should be changed to best fit your needs. For example, if you are washing test tubes use the rack with the spinning jets. Be sure to hang unused racks so that you do not put pressure on and damage the wheels.
Technical Difficulties
When an alarm appears indicating the dishwasher is out of cleaning reagent, do not attempt to replenish the fluid yourself. The soap is so concentrated that it is dangerous to handle without special training. Instead, make an equipment repair request via the departmental webpage (located at the bottom of the page) at https://www.med.unc.edu/biochem/equipment-facilities-service-request/ . You will need to login with your UNC Onyen. Select Replenish Fluids in Dishwasher. If a mechanical repair is necessary, select Core Equipment Repair and Lancer Glasswasher in the pull-down menu. In the comments section, provide details regarding the nature of the required repair.
Use the whiteboards next to the dishwashers to communicate about these machines, e.g., what problems we experience, the nature of any alarms we see, whether the office has been notified, etc. Perhaps they can also be a place where the office member handling repair request could let us know when the repair person is expected, and when repairs are completed, etc. (Sometimes when one of these machines has been down, then seems to be ready to use, we are still hesitant to use it when we have not explicitly been told the machine’s status.)