Pharmacist bottles

[DeletedAcct1]

Has anyone used these type of bottles https://www.fotoimpex.com/darkroom/...-wide-neck-brown-1000ml.html?cache=1607221066 to store chemicals?

 

[jvo]

bulk apothecary has clear bottles with that sort of top, not sure about brown glass... there are multiple sites for wide mouth brown glass bottles with regular screw tops. .

 

[mshchem]

Those are for storing dry materials. Ground glass stoppers will freeze in place especially with alkaline liquids. Nalgene or Kautex HDPE bottles are resistant to everything you will encounter in photography. The translucent natural version allows you to see when the bottle needs cleaning. Nalgene are made in US Kautex in the EU (Germany).
If you do buy bottles with ground glass stoppers buy some Silicone high vacuum grease and lube the stopper, just a little. Those bottles look cool, maybe better suited for herbs or some sort.

 

[JensH]

Hi,

fine for dry stuff.
I like glass bottles, but for photographic solutions modern lab screw bottles (Schott Duran GL45 or wide GLS80) are better.
Quite expensive when new, but with some luck you find a bargain on an auction site...

Best
Jens

 

[MattKing]

I have had really good results from plastic bottles that the pharmacists use for cough syrup and similar mixtures.
They are amber coloured, graduated, come in a variety of sizes, have good screw caps and my pharmacist has been kind enough to actually give me a few of them - all brand new.
I'm afraid though that my favourite pharmacist assistant there might not get along well with the OP - she has a dog named Kodak!

 

[Mick Fagan]

I have a range of those, all very second hand when I got them. Size range is 100ml, 250ml, 500ml and 1000ml. One trick is to use some flat string, or like product when sealing the glass stopper after pouring in warm chemistry, this allows you to remove the glass stopper without getting red in the face. I think I've had them for around 30 years.

I also have some 2.5L brown bottles with screw caps, which I used for many years to decant my Durst Printo RA4 chemistry for usage another day.

With all of these, I use glass marbles to remove as much air as possible, slightly fiddly, but they have been in use for around 40 years. I have a container with very small marbles for the 250ml bottle, the neck size of that bottle is quite narrow. Nothing fits into the 100ml bottle, glass marbles that is.

For what it's worth, I also have a smaller number of clear glass bottles and over the decades I have used these and never noticed any notable difference over the dark coloured bottles.

Mick.

 

[bernard_L]

HDPE bottles are resistant to everything you will encounter in photography

Except Oxygen

 

[bdial]

I have had poor luck using glass marbles to displace air in my bottles. It may have been particular to the ones i had, but i was getting tiny glass shards in the chemistry from the marbles. And they made the bottles quite heavy. I understand that mileage varies.

I use inert gas for air displacement now, the bottles I use have screw tops. Overall, I prefer plastic, I only use glass for developers that will need long storage times, for example, Xtol replenishment stock.

 

[AgX]

Hi,

I like glass bottles, but for photographic solutions modern lab screw bottles (Schott Duran GL45 or wide GLS80) are better.
Quite expensive when new, but with some luck you find a bargain on an auction site...

Brown standard-glass bottles with narrow mouth and screw-on PE cap seems the most cheap regular chemicals bottle available here.

 

[DeletedAcct1]

To avoid the seizing of the grounded cap, what about a turn or two of PFTE teflon tape?

 

[wyofilm]

As MSCHEM wrote ground glass stoppers will freeze. You will find yourself wrapping the bottles on counter edges to loosen them. As MSCHEM also wrote, a thin film of grease will help, though no perfectly.

 

[bsdunek]

Peronally, I like these bottles for my darkroom. Both the bottle and cap are square so are easy to hold and use with wet hands. The only problem is, they come filled with some sort of liquid that needs to be dumped out first. Otherwise, they're great.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I find it hard to squeeze the air out of glass bottles, so I use bladder bags.

 

[mshchem]

Except Oxygen

It's what manufacturers use to package chemistry. A well made bottle such as made by Thermo Fisher sold as Nalgene is as good as it gets. Glass is great if you can work safely with it. I worked in labs where I handled concentrated acids daily. We didn't use silly glass stopper bottles. We purchased concentrated Nitric, Hydrochloric and Sulfuric acids in 5 pint Safe-T-Cote bottles. Glass with a thick vinyl coating. If the bottle was broken the plastic coating would contain it for safe disposal.

Glass is a pain in the butt. We had a 5 gallon bucket for broken flasks pipets etc.

It does look GREAT! Definitely what would be used on TV!

 

[mshchem]

Peronally, I like these bottles for my darkroom. Both the bottle and cap are square so are easy to hold and use with wet hands. The only problem is, they come filled with some sort of liquid that needs to be dumped out first. Otherwise, they're great.

 

[mshchem]

I find it hard to squeeze the air out of glass bottles, so I use bladder bags.

Remember the cubitainers that Kodak used for liquid chemistry ? The mylar wine bags are even better.

 

[MattKing]

It's what manufacturers use to package chemistry. A well made bottle such as made by Thermo Fisher sold as Nalgene is as good as it gets. Glass is great if you can work safely with it. I worked in labs where I handled concentrated acids daily. We didn't use silly glass stopper bottles. We purchased concentrated Nitric, Hydrochloric and Sulfuric acids in 5 pint Safe-T-Cote bottles. Glass with a thick vinyl coating. If the bottle was broken the plastic coating would contain it for safe disposal.

Glass is a pain in the butt. We had a 5 gallon bucket for broken flasks pipets etc.

It does look GREAT! Definitely what would be used on TV!

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole looking up Nalgene in response to this interesting post.
It appears that Nalgene can refer to a variety of materials. And that the HDPE versions of Nalgene aren't necessarily the same as other HDPE examples. And that Nalgene has limited resistance to strong oxidizing agents.
All of which is to say that it is difficult to point to a single material and say definitively that it works - the quality and application of that materials matters.
Interestingly enough, it appears that Eastman Chemical are the source for the Tritan used in many Nalgene bottles.

 

[mshchem]

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole looking up Nalgene in response to this interesting post.
It appears that Nalgene can refer to a variety of materials. And that the HDPE versions of Nalgene aren't necessarily the same as other HDPE examples. And that Nalgene has limited resistance to strong oxidizing agents.
All of which is to say that it is difficult to point to a single material and say definitively that it works - the quality and application of that materials matters.
Interestingly enough, it appears that Eastman Chemical are the source for the Tritan used in many Nalgene bottles.

Yes I was involved in converting all of the polycarbonate parts to Eastman polyester. The BPA concern crushed the use of polycarbonate in food contact use. No clear evidence was shown that polycarbonate caused problems, but consumers made the choice.
Tritan bottles are very nice but expensive and lack chemical resistance of HDPE.
This is what I use
https://www.berlinpackaging.com/the...mouth-bottles-natural-leakproof-cap-312089-8/
I have 3 sizes 1 liter, 500 ml, 250 ml. (Sold as US 32, 16, 8 fl. oz) I fill these all the way to the point of overflow, then cap. Developer stock solutions keep indefinitely.
These are thick walled, you can't squeeze to expel air. I simply decant to the smaller sizes, any remaining solution I toss. These are not cheap. I bought a case of 50 1 liter bottles it was around 175 usd delivered.
Soda bottles work fine, but I like the look and the convenience.
When I worked in a lab, we bought decahydronapthalene from Eastman Chemical. It was shipped in beautiful quart brown glass Boston Round bottles with a phenolic Polyseal cone lid. They were absolutely beautiful. I left them all behind when I moved.
This is turning into a stop bath, prewet type discussion so I'm standing down
There's many paths to success here.
Best Regards Mike

 

[mshchem]

PS Nalgene is a brand not a specific material. Originally made by Nalge corporation.

 

[bernard_L]

We didn't use silly glass stopper bottles. We purchased concentrated Nitric, Hydrochloric and Sulfuric acids in 5 pint Safe-T-Cote bottles.

I fully agree that one feels safer with strong acids in unbreakable (HDPE or other) bottles. Strong acids are not altered by atmospheric Oxygen. OTOH, photo developers are degraded by Oxygen. My point was that there are polymers with better barrier properties than HDPE, e.g. PET or PVA.

 

[pentaxuser]

I'm afraid though that my favourite pharmacist assistant there might not get along well with the OP - she has a dog named Kodak!

A lot of the bears in the far North of Canada and in Alaska are also called Kodak as well, aren't they

pentaxuser

 

[ced]

While on the subject of stoppered brown bottles. I have used 2 that I picked up on the local fleamarket and both were in very good shape, any ideas why
both developed weird cracks around the top that slowly spread downward (both eventually thrown out) & they were not moved around much just used a plastic cooking pipette to draw a few mls of liquid gum arabic?
I could use plastic or other synthetic stuff but have a soft spot for glass.

 

[john_s]

Another vote for the Schott lab bottles. Expensive, especially when you consider cost-free alternatives, but once in a lifetime purchase. The plastic caps are superior. However the large sizes 2.5L and 5L are very very expensive.

 

[grainyvision]

I just use the common plastic bottles I get from photographers formulary. No idea what material it is, but I've not had any unexpected problems with oxidation. They seal well enough that if you put an alkaline solution of sulfite into one, it'll compress and deform due to the sulfite absorbing oxygen within the container, and going the other way, when I store an acidic solution of sulfite it'll swell from generation of sulfur dioxide gas. Never had one burst etc.

One note about glass is that extremely alkali solutions will leach chloride from the glass slowly. Wouldn't compromise the strength but might affect the solution depending on what it is

 

[cmacd123]

FWIW, I have used these : http://stores.photoformulary.com/glass-bottles/

B&H used to carry them,I am not sure if they still do. Replacement caps are often available at the Local Wine Makers supply store.