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darkroom chemistry bottle solutions

phillip2446

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hi

i am trying to figure out what i can store chemistry in.
like say d76 or other chemicals like fixer.

can i use soda bottles or juice bottles to store the chemistry in?
i believe they are pete bottles.

any advice would be appreciated

cheers
 
PETE or glass has the lowest oxygen permeability. With glass being best. It is really most important with developer.
 
Look for a "1" in the recycle triangle symbol or the letters PETE just under it .
 
Brown glass pharmacy bottles can't be beat. I've been using the same ones for almost forty years. Check with your pharmacist he may give you some. That's how I got mine and they have calibrating lines to boot.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/
 
jeffreyg said:
Brown glass pharmacy bottles can't be beat. I've been using the same ones for almost forty years. Check with your pharmacist he may give you some. That's how I got mine and they have calibrating lines to boot.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/
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Several years ago I tried several pharmacy's and they all said everything now comes in plastic.
 
Several threads on APUG address this issue. The take-home message was that there's no need for brown glass unless you store your developer in direct sunlight. Mine's in the dark closet that I call my darkroom. D76 gets stored in one-liter mason jars.One-shot developers like HC110 completely avoid the storage problem because the unmixed syrup lasts a really long time.
 
quart beer bottles with screw on caps. Green or brown. They are designed to keep the beer safe from the harms of light and will do your developer just as well.

take the labels off or put x's on them lest you grab one when you're all out of beer and swig a bit of dev.
 
I have always used plastic soda bottles that you can squeeze to minimise air and empty wine boxes with bags. Just remove the tap with a flat bladed knife, wash it out and re-use. You even get a spring loaded tap and if you reverse the box inside out and label as such, you wont drink it by mistake.
 
The danger of reusing bottles that contained food or drink is that someone might mistake the contents for food or drink.

PE has strongly argued this point in many threads over the years and I agree with him.
 
Sirius Glass said:
The danger of reusing bottles that contained food or drink is that someone might mistake the contents for food or drink.

PE has strongly argued this point in many threads over the years and I agree with him.
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You remove the label, relabel with the chemical they contain and don't keep them in your domestic fridge. No problem.
 
cliveh said:
You remove the label, relabel with the chemical they contain and don't keep them in your domestic fridge. No problem.
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Without trying to be argumentative or tell someone they are wrong, there is a big advantage to getting the proper bottles.

Accidents can & do happen. That is why they are called accidents. Any reasonable steps to prevent accidents is prudent. Even though you may not need brown in the bottle to protect the ingredients, it does kind of warn people there is something different, unless it is in the shape and color of a familiar drink, like beer.

It is just cheap insurance to get bottles that look like chemical bottles. JMHO
 

I take your point, but would say plastic is a safer material than glass, as it is more likely to bounce than smash.
 
cliveh said:
I take your point, but would say plastic is a safer material than glass, as it is more likely to bounce than smash.
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Plastic can break although a lot less likely. I have not dropped a bottle of anything or broke a bottle from an accident in 50 years. Just lucky I guess.
 
Go to your local brewers supplies store. i got a box of 24 1ltr plastic bottles for £10.
 
If you can find a laboratory supplier online, or someone with access to one, brown glass bottles (known as 'Winchesters', at least in the UK) are surprisingly cheap and last a lifetime, as someone already said. You are more likely to break your foot than the bottle if you drop one. I replace airseals in the lids every time I put new chemicals in - I cut these from the silvered plastic tabs used to seal milk containers.
 
fotch said:
Plastic can break although a lot less likely. I have not dropped a bottle of anything or broke a bottle from an accident in 50 years. Just lucky I guess.
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I have never dropped a bottle, glass or plastic, full or empty in the darkroom. I have however started developing film with PhotoFlo.
 
Those plastic brown 32oz Hydrogen Peroxide bottles have served me well. The bottles with Hydrogen Peroxide may cost less than the same style bottle at a photo supplier. For 1 gallon size plastic bottles I have used empty windshield washer fluid bottles. The wall thickness of those bottles (jugs) is extra thick.

I would not recommend the 1 gallon plastic milk jugs. The jugs I tried are very thin-walled. I had one develop a pinhole. I found a big mess days later.
 
Storing toxic chemicals in soda or juice bottles or any other food container is NOT a good idea.

Small children finding them easily could be poisoned. Personally, I wouldn't want to have to explain how it happened.
 
I've always heard that Boston Rounds were popular for storing photo chemicals. I use an assortment of lab bottles and square Fiji water bottles, well-marked of course.
 
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