Corrosive Cabinets

[linotas]

We have had our cabinet for going on 2 years now. All that I have in it, acid wise , is 2.5 L conc sulphuric, 2.5 L conc acetic and 3L conc hydrochloric acids. It is unducted so only vents to the room. We are getting HCL fumes precipitating around the door which I assume would be alleviated with ducted venting? but there is a huge amount of corrosion of the shelving and inside of the door. The "coating" is coming off the inside of the handle mechanism as well as around the bottom corner on the out side of the door.

I appreciate that there will be some corrosion, but this seems very excessive for the short period of time we have had it and the volumes of acids in it.

Any thoughts before I contact the supplier? (who is also the manufacturer)

[sunray18]

THAT is EXCESSIVE!
Ours only did that after 10 years! we now have a 'plastic' one so it does not corrode

[dime]

It does beg the question of why would a corrosive cabinet be made of metal in the first place. HCl is called fuming acid afterall and for very good reason. Ours is kept on open shelves in an acid bay and other equipment is stored some distance away but in the same room. Even with constant ventilation - suction fan going 24/7 - metal still rusts.
So I can imagine that a metal cabinet holding HCl with no venting has a lot of rust.

[JelJane]

One of the suppliers here recommends "A small dish of calcium carbonate in the cabinet will help to neutralise the atmosphere" - only issue I have with this is then you are not keeping acids segregated....

[curie]

I have had our corrosive cabinet for only about 8 months. I actually got a lot of chemicals disposed of this year. I was checking out the corrosive cabinet today to start the chemical stocktake, and the thing is rusting quite badly. We did have quite a few 500mL bottles of sulphuric that had the labels falling off, and I thought they might be the problem. Iv'e noticed now that my 2.5L poly bottle of HCl has left a layer of rest on the underside of the shelf above it. The lid seems to be tight, but I could still smell the acid.

The cabinet is unventilated, and under a bench, not in the chem store.

Should I try decanting this into an old glass winchester bottle? do these generally seal better?

Currently I have 2.5L of conc HCl, 500mL of conc sulphuric, 2.5L of conc nitric and various 2M and 1M bottles.And it's rusting out! I will suit up and wipe down the cabinet like some one suggested.

[dime]

HCl will fume all the time and therefore corrode. Can't stop it. I try to minimise the escape of the fumes by putting glad wrap around the cap and a plastic bag over the spout on the 20l drum. Stand your winchester bottles on ceramic dishes.

[Graham Kemp]

It does beg the question of why would a corrosive cabinet be made of metal in the first place.

I believe they were required to be metal for security, not storage.

Though I'm not sure if whoever set the standards thought things all the way through. Actually, I'm quite sure they didn't.