Best way to clean plastic bottles?

[eli griggs]

These are NOT suitable for storing developers, in particular color developers. I know, because when I started out with color, I made the mistake of using similar bottles. Contrary to what you may believe, these bottles do not seal anywhere as well as the similarly looking beer bottles. Also, the 'silicone' gasket tends to become brittle under influence of the chemistry, further reducing the tightness of the seal.

A far better option are plain glass bottles with a well-fitting plastic cap. I've used those for years for all sorts of chemistry.

I had a couple beer bottles and a decorative blue kitchen bottle which used these type caps & gaskets, and, I too, found them a waste of money & good chemistry.

If you just like those bottles, put a bunch of cleaned, empties back, and buy a five gallon "Hyers"(?) Root Beer kit, and have some fun this Spring, making your own soda pop.

One tip; in the waiting period for the drinks to sit and age/develop, keep the bottles submerged in a tall plastic basin of water, so any exploding bottles do no leave a sticky, mess with glass shards in your storage area.

Cheers.

 

[Xylo]

I believe I've overlooked a good glass option by no considering the Nescafe, large and extra large heavy glass bottles.

Just make sure they don't have a metal lid.
I did that a while back for my fixer and one day I discovered that it had actually eaten through the lid making a few corroded pinholes... that was unexpected... fixer actually removing a metal from a surface (yes, I know, it's what it's supposed to do, I just wasn't expecting it to be that effective).

As for my C41 kit, I originally mixed it late last summer and it's still working (or at least it was two weeks ago). Granted the colorimetry might be a bit off for enlarger work, but it's just fine for scanning. So I think the bottle caps on these bottles has been improved since you last used them. But I must say that they are not all made equal. The ones I used that seem to work come from IKEA and not Walmart, so your mileage may vary.

And BTW, I really would stay away from turning them back into food containers. This stuff is pretty foul and I definitely wouldn't trust my capacity to rid the bottles of any toxic chemical traces. So, if they fail, they go directly to the recycle bin to get re-melted.

 

[eli griggs]

Just make sure they don't have a metal lid.
I did that a while back for my fixer and one day I discovered that it had actually eaten through the lid making a few corroded pinholes... that was unexpected... fixer actually removing a metal from a surface (yes, I know, it's what it's supposed to do, I just wasn't expecting it to be that effective).

As for my C41 kit, I originally mixed it late last summer and it's still working (or at least it was two weeks ago). Granted the colorimetry might be a bit off for enlarger work, but it's just fine for scanning. So I think the bottle caps on these bottles has been improved since you last used them. But I must say that they are not all made equal. The ones I used that seem to work come from IKEA and not Walmart, so your mileage may vary.

And BTW, I really would stay away from turning them back into food containers. This stuff is pretty foul and I definitely wouldn't trust my capacity to rid the bottles of any toxic chemical traces. So, if they fail, they go directly to the recycle bin to get re-melted.

Yes, these are plastic lidded, but I learned using Ragu plastic jars to isolate the metal lids from formula with Saran Wrap.

The last thing we need is rusty lids on bottles.

That's why I like and use the plastic caps for Ball Mason jars that Walmart sells.

 

[koraks]

I did that a while back for my fixer and one day I discovered that it had actually eaten through the lid making a few corroded pinholes

Hehe, I've had my fair share of perforated caps with pretty "rusticles" dropping down from the holes

 

[Don_ih]

Rust just adds flavour to photo chemicals

 

[Sonynolta User]

Fiji (not Fuji) water bottles are nice, and they fit into a Jobo square hole.
As much as I abhor buying water from some island on the other side of the planet and shipping it to Ohio.

 

[gordrob]

One tip; in the waiting period for the drinks to sit and age/develop, keep the bottles submerged in a tall plastic basin of water, so any exploding bottles do no leave a sticky, mess with glass shards in your storage area.

This comment brought back a lot of memories of having to pick chokecherries one summer when we were kids for our parents who were going to make chokecherry wine. Beer bottles were filled with the "wine" and capped with a bottle cap. Months later during the night a couple of the bottles exploded in the basement pantry area leaving a gooey mess and broken glass all over the room. Even moving the rest of the bottles outside afterwards was a risky endeavor.

 

[MTGseattle]

I'm throwing this in here from left field; what about Nalgene type bottles? Wide mouth, durable, (I'm unsure regarding chemical inertness), Limited in available sizes I think.

 

[Xylo]

I had to google that one...
And it turns out that it's a type of polyester made by Eastman Chemicals... so that's just begging for a test
They say it's an amorphous thermoplastic that is chemically resistant. So that is already a good start.
If the lid is good and the plastic doesn't let oxygen migrate through, it could be a good solution.

 

[eli griggs]

Look for Nalgene lab ware for a wider appreciation of what's available.

Photographers Formulary, years back sent me glycin in a nice brown Nalgene bottle, which I saved back.

 

[Xylo]

Look for Nalgene lab ware for a wider appreciation of what's available.

Photographers Formulary, years back sent me glycin in a nice brown Nalgene bottle, which I saved back.

On the French Wikipedia page, it says that they are made from a copolyester named Tritan. So it might be going under both names depending if it's the original from Thermo Fisher Scientific or a cheap made in China knockoff.

 

[Donald Qualls]

cheap made in China knockoff.

The cheap knockoff probably won't use the Tritan brand name either. There's surely a generic name, like aramid (generic for Kevlar) in tire belts that don't license the Kevlar trademarked brand name...

 

[Xylo]

You're probably right about this one.

 

[Donald Qualls]

A quick search reveals that Tritan is an Eastman brand of "copolyester" (presumably made from two or three different ester monomers, as with other copolymers) that's useful in a huge variety of applications -- like polycarbonate but more inert and good for blood contact as well as food and chemicals. Nalgene is a brand name of labware made from Tritan.

 

[BMbikerider]

I decided to try the 6-bath E-6 kit from Bellini, so I need at least 5 one litter bottles. The instructions make a big deal about using dedicated bottles and beakers for each chemical. I have old bottles around, but they all have been used for something else in the past.

For example, I have two plastic bottles that I stored C41 bleach in. I tried everything I could to wash them (dish soap, boiling water, leaving them filled with water overnight, etc) but I can't get rid of the bleach smell in them. Glass bottles do not have this problem BTW.

So what is it about plastic? Does it absorb chemicals and becomes impossible to 100% clean? Is there a hack you can recommend? Asking because while I have glass bottles I can use, I do not have 5 beakers for mixing.

Thanks.

I can imagine if you search on the web you will find a supplier who will sell you dark brown or green screw top g;ass bottles. In Uk they are really quite cheap around about 2.5$ in your money. They last indefinitely and all you have to do when you change chemicals is to rinse them out and let the drain (upside down of course).

In the last E6 kit I used was one from Tetenal. They stressed that the ones used for the developers are the important ones that should only be used for the developers. The other chemicals are pretty well impervious to each other. So really you only need 2 dedicated bottles carefully marked which is which, and away you go.

Be aware the processing of E6 the 1st developer temperature is vitally crucial. Get it wrong and the resulting slides could be toast. Too high and the slides will look washed out, to low and they will look to dense.

 

[Steven Lee]

@BMbikerider thank you. I have successfully used up the Bellini E6 kit with great results. To be clear on one thing though: glass bottles are great for long term storage, and I have the golden standard: the Boston Amber Bottles. But they are not a good fit for actually developing. Bleach can explode if you forget to loosen a cap, and a loosened cap is prone to leaking, their mouths are not wide enough for quick pouring, and generally wet glass is a hazard IMO when working quickly. That's why I was asking specifically about plastic: I needed something to develop in.

Wanted to zoom into one point you raised: about separating the developer from other chemicals. I have heard this advice before, and it makes sense. But I recently was reading deeper into E-6 and apparently the reversal bath is also an extremely delicate snowflake beast which doesn't tolerate the slightest contamination. Similarly, first developer and color developer appaprently really hate each other. From the Tetenal E-6 kit manual: "Never leave concentrates and working solutions of First Developer and Colour Developer open next to each other! Any contamination of the First Developer with Colour Developer (also vapors) will lead to an error result"

The quoted part made me paranoid originally. Vapors! I couldn't get the bleach smell out of my bottles after hours of trying, so having just two types of plastic bottles seemed risky.

Anyway, to sum up my search, here are the bottles I have and recommend:

• eTone. Can be found on Amazon.
• JOBO. CatLABS or Freestyle.

Both also exist in 500ml versions that are more suitable for rotary processing.

 

[MattKing]

Growler bottles are the best choice for glass bottles, due to their finger grips or handles. And I wonder about using the caps the beer brewers use when the beer is early on in the fermentation process for the bleach.

 

[BMbikerider]

Exploding breach bottles! that is a new one on me, Mind you it is long time since |I have processed E6 - at least 20 years and my only recent experience with colour bleach is with C41 film developer and that certainly didn't explode and RA4 bleach and that is in my open topped Nova print processor so that won't go bang either.

Is the Bellini a two bath bleach and fix or a single bath Blix? The blix may have to be slightly more active and give off a type of gas.

 

[Steven Lee]

@BMbikerider I never had a E6 bleach explode on me, but that's because I stopped developing in glass bottles a long time ago. I experienced this a while ago with C41 bleach: take an amber glass bottle filled to the top, close the cap, store it outside at 60-65F, then place it into a JOBO-like tempering bath and CABOOM, due to temperature increase.

 

[BMbikerider]

It may be that because I stored chemicals in glass bottles - not developing a film in one! That would be quite impractical.

With bleach you don't have to fill it to the top, it will not go off in the short life of a kit that is being used. Of that you can be certain.. If the chemical goes into the bottle at working temperature (35c) As it cools, he actual volume will decrease so creating a semi vacuum. not increase the pressure. So exploding bottles seem to be highly unlikely.

 

[koraks]

I experienced this a while ago with C41 bleach: take an amber glass bottle filled to the top, close the cap, store it outside at 60-65F, then place it into a JOBO-like tempering bath and CABOOM, due to temperature increase.

Maybe a bad bottle that already had stress cracks or something like that. Might even be a production flaw.
Glass bottles don't explode like that with very gentle pressure that builds under the circumstances you describe. Also, C41 bleach isn't particularly nasty on glass. In fact, there are no common photochemicals that will damage glass to such an extent that it will lose structural integrity. Strong hydroxide solutions will etch the glass over time, but it'll just make the glass go dull while retaining its strength. That's about the worst that happens to glass in a darkroom.

 

[Xylo]

Glass is pretty robust. Unless there's a chip or frequent rapid temperature changes, it's really not an issue.
Just look at champagne bottles. They have a lot of pressure inside them to the point where they have to wire the cork, yet very few of them explode.

 

[Brad Deputy]

I will second the eTone plastic bottles. The 1 liter size anyway. They've kept my C41 and ECN-2 chems fresh for several months, and they seal tight.

I recommend buying directly from eTone, they are near half price compared to Amazon or eBay. Only disadvantage is they come directly from China on the slow boat, so 2-4 weeks to arrive.