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Re: Cleaning Glass



>Paul writes:
>
>>  never said it was aluminum silicate.  I said it was redeposited glass.
>>  The deposit is, I am pretty sure, silicon dioxide.  It is easy to tell
the
>>  difference between glass and carbonates.  The latter are much softer and
>>  are dissolved by acid.  The former is much harder and is not dissolved
by
>>  acid. I have tried full strength, 18 molar hydrochloric acid on it, with
no
>>  effect.  Muriatic acid is only 20% hydrochloric acid.  Silicon dioxide
is
>>  the major component of glass, and it is somewhat soluble in water.  The
>>  water that condenses on the bottom of the glass plate dissolves a little
>>  bit each night, which gets redeposited during the day.  If you don't
>>  believe that silicon dioxide is slightly soluble in water, how do you
>>  explain where diatoms get their silica shells?
>
>Okay, so your chemistry is a little sharper than mine, but ow come I can
get
>the stuff off the underside of my cover?  How come the rest of us aren't
>experiencing this "redeposited glass" thing?  What's so different about
>Mississippi water that you are seeing this and I'm not?
>
>The carbonate buildup in a pot that is used to boil water is not soft, it
is
>rock hard.  Maybe your lights are baking the stuff on?  I'd still try the
>CLR, and if it comes off, it is carbonates.
>
>Bob Dixon


I have always had problems with glass tops.  Invariably, they are destroyed
by buildup of "X unknown buildup", for lack of a name.  Whatever the stuff
is, its HARD.  It won't scrape off with a razor blade, it won't come off
with CLR, it doesn't come off in vinegar, muriatic acid, or lemon juice.  I
can scrape at it with canvas, soaked with any of the above chemicals, and it
doesn't even change the pattern of the deposits on the glass.  My water is
very hard, and leaves deposits on everything it touches, including the glass
tops.  These deposits are very similar to whatever the other stuff is, but
the hard water marks come off with any of the above, while the other substan
ce remains.  It seems as hard as the glass itself, which leads me to
actually entertain the idea that maybe the glass is re-depositing  itself,
as was theorized earlier.  Whatever it is, I have never been able to put a
dent in it.  Bad stuff.

Matt