Glass compared to plastic bottles

[Tom Kershaw]

While I understand there are advantages to brown glass bottles for light sensitive solutions, as well as the advantages of reduced oxidization; except in these circumstances do glass bottles offer meaningful advantages over plastic containers designed for solution storage?


Tom.

 

[jim appleyard]

I'm no plastics chemist, but glass does not breathe , but some plastics do, AFAIK. Lots of folks put their chems in the plastic soda bottles. I don't know if these breathe or not, but in my day of selling bottled soda, the bottles were dated. I don't know if it was because the beverage itself broke down or the plastic would breathe.

 

[Neal]

Dear Tom,

If your chemicals are going bad because of the amount of air leaking through the walls of a plastic bottle you simply aren't making enough photographs! ;>)

Seriously, if you don't plan on making photos very often, mix as you go for film and use everything "one-shot". Before it became my standard developer, I had Xtol concentrate last a good year in a plastic bottle. When printing, it doesn't take many darkroom sessions to exhaust a tray full of developer or fixer, particularly if you use fiber base paper. If you just feel better using glass, there are "safety" bottles with plastic coatings available. When you consider that the bottles really don't wear out the extra cost will make you feel better and add very little to your long term photo budget.

Neal Wydra

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Dear Tom,

If your chemicals are going bad because of the amount of air leaking through the walls of a plastic bottle you simply aren't making enough photographs! ;>)

Seriously, if you don't plan on making photos very often, mix as you go for film and use everything "one-shot". Before it became my standard developer, I had Xtol concentrate last a good year in a plastic bottle. When printing, it doesn't take many darkroom sessions to exhaust a tray full of developer or fixer, particularly if you use fiber base paper. If you just feel better using glass, there are "safety" bottles with plastic coatings available. When you consider that the bottles really don't wear out the extra cost will make you feel better and add very little to your long term photo budget.

Neal Wydra

Neal,

I use plenty of paper developer and fixer. My question is more orientated towards solutions mixed from scratch.

Tom.

 

[Martin Aislabie]

Tom - it depends on the type of plastic

Glass is pretty much inert to anything photographic - so is ideal but obviously vulnerable to physical damage

The plastic bottles that Chemicals are supplied in are reasonably inert too - but not quite as inert as glass - so I wouldn't put Dev in an old Fixer bottle (just in case)

Fizzy drink plastic bottles (Coke/Lemonade/..) are also reasonably inert & about on a par with the plastic Chemical Bottles

Plastic storage bottles sold by various companies range in breathe-ability and porosity ranges from v good to quite poor

I don't use glass bottles - too butter fingered

I do use a range of plastic bottles - but never mix Dev/Stop/Fix/Toner bottles

Also I keep my Chemicals in the dark - so the need for a dark bottle is never a problem

Martin

 

[Ole]

Wasn't this discussed to dath just a few days ago? Or weeks, perhaps?

Anyway I'm sure the answer is in here already.

And btw - plastic is more inert than glass with regards to alkaline solutions like developers.

 

[Dave Swinnard]

This was published a few years ago: http://www.silvergrain.org/Photo-Tech/plastic.html

(I dredged it up from an old bookmark file - It worked this morning when I tried it.)

Dave

 

[Tori8x10]

Yikes! I mix up working solutions and store them in jugs (used for storing and pouring of liquids) marked with a #5 in the recycle triangle. Should I throw them all away (or recycle) and never use them for chemicals again? Right now I'm only storing PF's version of Ansco 130.

 

[PhotoJim]

Ansco 130 is nearly immortal as print developers go. My stock solution is 21 months old and a fresh batch of working solution I mixed up last weekend from it worked absolutely perfectly. However, few print developers have that kind of longevity. I stored it in full Delta chemical jars (and a couple of litres in reused Ilford containers that once contained Multigrade developer).

 

[fschifano]

Wasn't this discussed to dath just a few days ago? Or weeks, perhaps?

Anyway I'm sure the answer is in here already.

And btw - plastic is more inert than glass with regards to alkaline solutions like developers.

It's been discussed ad infinitum.

 

[BetterSense]

I made this thread most recently.

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

 

[Murray Kelly]

The bottles with a '5' are polypropylene and most medical solutions are packed in this stuff. I use 100, 250, 500 and 1L PP bottles and they are seemingly impervious to gasses. If I leave the developer with air on top (no inert gas put in) the bottles suck in as the oxygen is used up.

Also refrigeration prolongs developer life.

Murray

Yikes! I mix up working solutions and store them in jugs (used for storing and pouring of liquids) marked with a #5 in the recycle triangle. Should I throw them all away (or recycle) and never use them for chemicals again? Right now I'm only storing PF's version of Ansco 130.

 

[Tori8x10]

Good to know Murray, thanks for that answer. I will keep using them and stop worrying about it.

Tori

 

[fotch]

Are you sure?
I found the following info on #5 at http://www.sisweb.com/lab/bottle/material.htm
"Polypropylene (PP). Rigid, solid, durable in container or cap forms. Opaque, natural grayish yellow in natural form. Excellent stress crack and impact resistance. Excellent moisture barrier, good oil and alcohol barrier, poor gas barrier properties. Good chemical resistance. Sterilizable with EtO or autoclaving. SPI recycling rating - (5). "

The bottles with a '5' are polypropylene and most medical solutions are packed in this stuff. I use 100, 250, 500 and 1L PP bottles and they are seemingly impervious to gasses. If I leave the developer with air on top (no inert gas put in) the bottles suck in as the oxygen is used up.

Also refrigeration prolongs developer life.

Murray

 

[Murray Kelly]

PP #5

Well, there you go! I can only say again that if oxygen could get in it would. The bottles suck in, which is good enough for me.
I'm trying hard to remember if any developers have 'gone off' - I once had some 2 year old diafine part A that had a pH higher than I thought it should and I tossed it out. Didn't actually test it with film. I keep all the devs in the fridge as well, nowadays.
I will have to keep an eye on them for the sake of science!
Thanks for the pointer

Murray

 

[dancqu]

Schweppes !

They are square, or were. Move up! Dan

 

[fotch]

Glass is Class

I started out with glass in the fifties (use to get free from the local pharmacy), then changed to plastic in the seventies, now, back to glass.

Reusing consumer food product bottles (beer bottles) have an element of danger that proper labeling (if label does not detach itself) should be a good source.

JMHO