Cool bottle alert

[2F/2F]

Hello,

A friend recently introduced me to a beverage called Pomx Antioxidant Super Tea, and the bottles are absolutely great for chemical storage. The "tea" itself is pretty good once you get used to it, but can taste a little odd at first (slightly pungent, slightly bitter, but still sweet, with some odd flavor mixtures).

The bottles are clear PETE plastic, but the plastic is much thicker than a water bottle. It is nice and sturdy.

The bottom makes the bottle stand much more stably than a water bottle as well. A nice continuous rim at the edge of the bottle and the thick plastic make these bottles anything but wobbly.

The cap appears to have a great gasket. Seems to be a somewhat elastic, but not soft plastic. Should keep air out perfectly.

The bottles are labeled 8 fl oz (473 ml), but they will fit about 494 ml when filled all the way to the top. So, they are, for all photographic intents and purposes, close enough to a half liter bottle to be called one.

The shape of the bottles is simple and clean. Straight sides, domed top. No frills or weird space-age moldings like water bottles.

The spout is nice and wide (over 1 inch diameter), so they pour and funnel easily and smoothly.

I don't know if there are any other sizes available, but I will certainly be buying this tea for a while in order to stock up!

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Grolsch beer bottles are also 473 ml or so, and also are very close to 500 ml when full, and the contents taste quite nice.

 

[2F/2F]

I am a hard liquor guy, Kevin...except for the occasional Mickey's 40 oz.

...but seriously, this is a plastic alternative to beer bottles, and they have a great lid...and I do like the tea...but not most beers. Pilsner Urquel is probably the beer I like best.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

I am a hard liquor guy, Kevin...except for the occasional Mickey's 40 oz.

...but seriously, this is a plastic alternative to beer bottles, and they have a great lid...and I do like the tea...but not most beers. Pilsner Urquel is probably the beer I like best.

Yes, it sounds like a handy plastic bottle. I don't mind the Pilsner Urquel myself.

 

[2F/2F]

Others should feel free to add their own cool bottles to this thread.

 

[vdonovan]

I don't know about bottles, but if you like Pilsner Urquel, you'll like Grolsch. They are both classic, crisp Pilsner beers.

 

[Rick A]

Jeez, I miss the old days when we would drink a quart of beer just for the brown bottles. Then they stopped making resealable screw tops for them, and we had to find a new source of chem storage. I guess these new plastic bottles are just as good, if not better.
Any chance you have a pic of the new one you are raving about.

 

[2F/2F]

Too lazy to search for my digital camera batteries, dust them off, charge them, etc., so I found this picture on the company's Website:

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(This lychee flavor is particularly nasty. Lychee is one fruit I definitely do not enjoy all that much.)

 

[MattKing]

The motts clamato bottles (available in 946ml and 1.89 liter sizes) work well for me. They are reasonably strong, have large openings, and have grips that make them easy to use.

Here is a link to the website (warning - flash video):

http://www.mottsclamato.com/

 

[BetterSense]

I've been using plastic PET salsa bottles from the Sam's club 2-pack of Pace's Chunky Salsa. The plastic Pace bottle seems to be a pretty rare critter, maybe found only at Sam's. The lids are very wide, sturdy and reseal well so it's easy to pour things back in, and they have a nice stable bottom, and hold a liter. The regular glass Pace bottles are pretty good too but they don't hold a liter and you can't squeeze the air out of them.

 

[DanielStone]

2f,

I'm guessing since that's a POM drink, its pretty expensive?

-Dan

 

[John Koehrer]

Arizona iced tea 1 gal. bottles are pretty airtight too

 

[anikin]

For C-41 developer, my favorite right now is Martinelli's apple juice bottles:

http://www.martinellis.com/store/products/siaj10b.shtml

These bottles are 300ml and made out of rather thick airtight plastic. I make 1 or 2 liters of developer and split it into these bottles and use them one at a time for one or two shot development. The developer keeps very well in these. I just opened a bottle that I mixed 2 months ago and it's in perfect condition. The only trouble is, every time I open developer now, I want to drink it -- the juice tasted soooo good ;-)

 

[mark]

I like the shape of the bottle, no neck and thick. Is it clear plastic?

Too bad the contents would put me in the hospital. Allergic to pomegranates.

 

[2F/2F]

The drinks can be over $2.50 a pop, which is absolutely ridiculous. I get five or six of them them when they are on sale for 98 cents each at Vons.

 

[greybeard]

Ummm....guys, it is not generally a good idea to put non-potable stuff into beverage bottles, particularly if the original appearance of the bottle is not drastically altered. Kids, in particular, are apt to take a swig on the assumption that it if weren't soda pop, it wouldn't be in a soda pop bottle.

Putting automotive antifreeze (ethylene glycol-based) into two-liter soda bottles is one of the more egregious offenses, since the stuff not only looks sort of citrus-y, it actually tastes sweet and it doesn't take much to kill a youngster.

I can imagine someone mistaking slightly oxidized developer for an herbal tea, and in some cases the taste might actually be better

 

[2F/2F]

Ever heard of natural selection, greybeard?

 

[vdonovan]

My 70 year-old father-in-law is an intrepid outdoorsman. He uses an old anti-freeze bottle as a water bottle. He enjoys the expression on his climbing partners faces when he takes a swig out of it.

 

[DanielStone]

My 70 year-old father-in-law is an intrepid outdoorsman. He uses an old anti-freeze bottle as a water bottle. He enjoys the expression on his climbing partners faces when he takes a swig out of it.

keeps his veins from freezing in the cold

-Dan

 

[greybeard]

Ever heard of natural selection, greybeard?

My father used to store insecticide in soda bottles, until I pointed out how dangerous it could be to his grandchildren. He stopped doing it immediately and I now have a grandchild of my own to worry about.

But then, some people don't have kids......any more........

keeps his veins from freezing in the cold

Ah, yes---the old-fashioned alcohol-based antifreeze. Didn't know you could still get that without paying excise tax on it!

 

[PVia]

For 500ml, I like the Fuji Water bottles. A square-ish shape, very stable and sturdy.

For 1 or 1.5L, I stand by Trader Joes water bottles.

And lastly, for 1.75L with super wide necks (perfect for pouring pot oxalate pt/pd developer), I use Organics Orange Juice bottles available at Von's and it's partners.

You asked...;-)

 

[2F/2F]

I use those OJ bottles for 1.75 L as well! I use them primarily for storing old brown. I mix up 2 L when I start printing, and at the end of the session, I fill the OJ bottle and chuck the rest (which is usually very little due to carry over into the fixer and evaporation). When I start a new session, I empty the OJ bottle into the tray, and then add a 200 mL shot of A and B.

 

[sly]

Ummm....guys, it is not generally a good idea to put non-potable stuff into beverage bottles, particularly if the original appearance of the bottle is not drastically altered. Kids, in particular, are apt to take a swig on the assumption that it if weren't soda pop, it wouldn't be in a soda pop bottle.

Putting automotive antifreeze (ethylene glycol-based) into two-liter soda bottles is one of the more egregious offenses, since the stuff not only looks sort of citrus-y, it actually tastes sweet and it doesn't take much to kill a youngster.

I can imagine someone mistaking slightly oxidized developer for an herbal tea, and in some cases the taste might actually be better

This would depend on personal circumstances, wouldn't it? I recycle fruit juice bottles for my chemicals - but my darkroom is in a dedicated room, separate from the house, and those juice bottles are on a shelf above the sink, boldly labelled FIX, or D-76 . My kids are grown and gone, but grandchildren and other youngsters would not have access to that room without supervision. If you use the laundry or bathroom for your developing, have to store the chemicals in the cupboard, have kids at home (or visiting lots) the situation would be quite different.

 

[MattKing]

I figure that to an uninformed child, a chocolate brown bottle for chemicals looks just about as inviting (likely to contain chocolate milk) as a pop (soda) bottle with a bunch of extra labels on it:

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In my mind, taking care to limit access and to ensure clear labelling are the most important ways to deal with this concern.