Best storage containers up to 5 litres for developer etc

[Trask]

I’m running a replenished developer, so need to be able to pour in and out, so wine bladders won’t work. I’m using an impermeable bottle filled as much as possible, and adding a squirt of argon wine preservative which, being heavier than air, creates a layer of argon on the developer surface. It’s disconcerting to pay money for a pressurized bottle that feels like it’s empty!

 

[Sirius Glass]

I use four one liter Jobo bottles and an accordion bottle. It took a while to find an accordion bottle that did not leak. FreeStyle recommended that I test bottles in the store until I found one that did not leak. One of these days I will get a wine bladder to do the job.

 

[removed account4]

some suggest pharmacies have large amber bottles.
you can also get them at wine making shops, they cost under 10$
and are re-usable, easily cleaned and won't leak like plastic bottles.
you can also get a wine food keeper ( one of those vacuum pumps ) they cost
a few dollars and will exit all the air from your bottle...
ive bought gallon jugs from wine shops ...but i have never gone to the
pharma or used vacuum pumps ( or marbles )
to preserve developer, im regurgitating stuff other people have posted.
good luck !

 

[harlequin]

Get the 5Litre Black Bottles from Freestyle Sales $2.99 each.

End of Thread.
In use throughout Canada, USA and even Iceland....


Harlequin

 

[pentaxuser]

Get the 5Litre Black Bottles from Freestyle Sales $2.99 each.

End of Thread.
In use throughout Canada, USA and even Iceland....


Harlequin

Are these likely to be available in Gibraltar which is where the OP is or just over the border in Spain. The USA, Canada and even Iceland is a long way away. If they are available how good are they at keeping air out once you start to use the contents? Really the first question is: Exactly what is a black bottle?

pentaxuser

 

[harlequin]

Go to Dead Link Removed and you will find under chemical accessories a 5litre black Poly bottle with really good sealing lid
and well constructed. They ship around the world, my friend in Alicante Spain even uses them for 5L mixes of Xtol....

Also has a thin line on side to let you know quantity of chemical left, similar to synthetic motor oil bottles, except jet black.


Good Luck....
Harlequin

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Go to Dead Link Removed and you will find under chemical accessories a 5litre black Poly bottle with really good sealing lid
and well constructed. They ship around the world, my friend in Alicante Spain even uses them for 5L mixes of Xtol....

Also has a thin line on side to let you know quantity of chemical left, similar to synthetic motor oil bottles, except jet black.


Good Luck....
Harlequin

Still not good for developers as they are made of soft plastic that is permeable to oxygen. Use PET or glass for developers. BTW the color of the bottle is irrelevant as developer solutions are not light sensitive.

 

[destroya]

best thing I found and use are 3L and 5L empty wines bags for box of wine. I have kept XTOL in one for 2 years, using it as replenisher stock and its as good as new. Also keep C41 developer in 3 as it gets mixed up in 20 liter batches and same results, fresh as mixed. They are cheap and easy to use. you can squeeze all the air out when you fill em up, seal them and thenn use the taps to dispense. and each bag is less than $2

https://www.amazon.com/Astropaq-Win...F8&qid=1519094463&sr=8-2&keywords=5l+wine+bag

 

[chris77]

Go to Dead Link Removed and you will find under chemical accessories a 5litre black Poly bottle with really good sealing lid
and well constructed. They ship around the world, my friend in Alicante Spain even uses them for 5L mixes of Xtol....

Also has a thin line on side to let you know quantity of chemical left, similar to synthetic motor oil bottles, except jet black.


Good Luck....
Harlequin

to order a plastic bottle (that was most likely produced in china) from the u.s. to be shipped to gibraltar doesnt seem right. especially as better suited pet bottles are in every supermarket.. no?

 

[sperera]

to order a plastic bottle (that was most likely produced in china) from the u.s. to be shipped to gibraltar doesnt seem right. especially as better suited pet bottles are in every supermarket.. no?

do you mean this one???
https://www.freestylephoto.biz/6875-Arista-Black-Storage-Bottle-5-Liters

 

[rpavich]

do you mean this one???
https://www.freestylephoto.biz/6875-Arista-Black-Storage-Bottle-5-Liters

I think that he does but the problem I have with this is that once you begin to use the chems inside, you now have to deal with air gaps. Using soda bottles in different sizes eliminates that issue and to me, that's most important. I haven't had a problem with waste ever since using 3 soda bottle sizes. I threw away all of my big containers, they were less secure sealing and they were only good until the first use.

 

[harlequin]

Yes Sperrera that is the bottle in heavy usage in Los Angeles, San Antonio, Canada and elsewhere.

They are not soft plastic per M. Koch, they have PET and delta triangle stamped in bottom of bottle, if you look closely at Freestyle
ARISTA developers, they ship in the same vessel, around the world..... I have a lot of commercial darkroom hours, and this is the best
storage media, with the exception of old brown glass 1 gallon Root Beer jugs from A+W circa 1975....

2.99 each. They are light to ship, hold 5 L and are well constructed and take vinyl lettering for labels.....


Harlequin.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Yes Sperrera that is the bottle in heavy usage in Los Angeles, San Antonio, Canada and elsewhere.

They are not soft plastic per M. Koch, they have PET and delta triangle stamped in bottom of bottle, if you look closely at Freestyle
ARISTA developers, they ship in the same vessel, around the world..... I have a lot of commercial darkroom hours, and this is the best
storage media, with the exception of old brown glass 1 gallon Root Beer jugs from A+W circa 1975....

2.99 each. They are light to ship, hold 5 L and are well constructed and take vinyl lettering for labels.....


Harlequin.

I cannot see anything in Freestyle's literature that these jugs are PET plastic. But will take your word.

As for Freestyle using these jugs to shop their chemicals that is no real guarantee. The various Rodinal clones are shipped by their manufacturers in polyethylene bottles and they spoil very quickly.

 

[pentaxuser]

harelequin, it seems to me that the crucial difference is the one I posed as a question but to which I received no answer and was echoed by rpavich which is that once you start to use the liquid, what do you do about the air gap. That concern is eliminated with a winebag which, if you drink wine and find 2x 3L bags then the bags and boxes are free.

pentaxuser

 

[mshchem]

Here's my thread on XTOL stored for 11 years in a PET soda bottle still worked fine. Not recommended , key is fill to the top . Oxygen kills developer.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/xtol-11-year-old-stock-solution-worked.146101/

 

[sepiareverb]

Glass Boston rounds, fill with developer, give a little squirt of Bloxygen and cap with polycone lids. Your developer will last a long time.

 

[sperera]

I kind of think Im going to get 1 litre coca cola or whatever it is bottles and fill up and then after use squash the bottle until the liquid goes to the top as mshchem suggested!!!!!!!!

 

[harlequin]

Dear Mr. Sperera,

You can email the folks at Freestyle sales, they can give you full breakdown of their chemical plastic composition
of their 5L bottles. I know for a fact they have been shipping their developers in them since 2005, without issues.

Additionally by giving the remaining contents a shot of TETENAL protectant (a staple item in most labs I have worked in)
displaces air/02 and keeps the developers in Good Condition until needed.

I hope this answers questions and Tetenal is a respected brand used around the world for this exact purpose,
Good Developer+Good Bottle+Protectan........any questions?

 

[scheimfluger_77]

PET bottles need to be relatively gas-impermeable, otherwise fizzy drinks would go flat quickly. A PET bottle of cola will stay bubbly for years, and your developer should stay fresh for that time as well as long as the bottle is full.

How dumb am I! It never occurred to me that a soda bottle was impermeable because of the fiz factor. No need to find the perfect bottle from a bottle vendor. The only problem i see with a soda bottle is that it is flimsy to hold onto. I like a plastic bottle with enough “body” to hold without much deformation, but that is just a personal preference.

 

[scheimfluger_77]

Dear Mr. Sperera,

You can email the folks at Freestyle sales, they can give you full breakdown of their chemical plastic composition
of their 5L bottles. I know for a fact they have been shipping their developers in them since 2005, without issues.

Additionally by giving the remaining contents a shot of TETENAL protectant (a staple item in most labs I have worked in)
displaces air/02 and keeps the developers in Good Condition until needed. View attachment 195902

I hope this answers questions and Tetenal is a respected brand used around the world for this exact purpose,
Good Developer+Good Bottle+Protectan........any questions?

When it was available I used the Patterson equivalent for years. There is also discussion other places in Photrio about using marbles for the same purpose.

 

[MattKing]

How dumb am I! It never occurred to me that a soda bottle was impermeable because of the fiz factor. No need to find the perfect bottle from a bottle vendor. The only problem i see with a soda bottle is that it is flimsy to hold onto. I like a plastic bottle with enough “body” to hold without much deformation, but that is just a personal preference.

The actual bottles used might vary from region to region.
But some Coca-Cola and Seven-Up 2 litre bottles around here seem to be both more rugged and shaped to hold more securely.

 

[Ian Grant]

I ran a precious metal analysis lab for a few years and we used a lot of AR grade Hydrochloric and Nitric acid these used to come in class Winchesters (brown glass with a plastic outer, but the company supplying us switched to 2.5l HD plastic bottle, these are very thick walled, not possible chance of a split/breakage. They are brilliant for developer and fixer storage. Hot water is enough to clean acid traces but for safety I 'd fill them with spent print developer as a precaution.

That's all I used for Xtol for years, one for the working stock the other replenisher I never bothered with any precautions as the replenisher bottle reduced in content and that never caused a problem.

Ian

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I ran a precious metal analysis lab for a few years and we used a lot of AR grade Hydrochloric and Nitric acid these used to come in class Winchesters (brown glass with a plastic outer, but the company supplying us switched to 2.5l HD plastic bottle, these are very thick walled, not possible chance of a split/breakage. They are brilliant for developer and fixer storage. Hot water is enough to clean acid traces but for safety I 'd fill them with spent print developer as a precaution.

That's all I used for Xtol for years, one for the working stock the other replenisher I never bothered with any precautions as the replenisher bottle reduced in content and that never caused a problem.

Ian

I used these too. Check with the local college and see if they will give you a few rather than put them out with the trash. BTW the caps are color coded, blue for hydrochloric acid, brown for acetic acid, yellow for sulfulic acid, ...So you can do your own coding for developer, stop, and fix.

 

[NJH]

Just been looking online for winchester glass bottles. There are a few retailers in the education sector here selling the big 2.5 litre brown winchester bottles. Firstcall also sell 2.5 litre brown glass bottles with blue caps (pricey though).

Very left-field option but Ikea are doing these traditional glass pop bottles with the flip top stoppers for £1.90 each:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/...bottle-with-stopper-clear-glass-art-30213552/

 

[darinwc]

No needs to drink wine to get the wine bags.
Look up 5l wine bags on eBay.

A friend of mine turned me on to them.