Substitute Amber Glass in the UK (i.e plastic)

[martingriffy]

Hi all,


Is there a plastic alternative to amber glass (darkroom in bedroom, if it breaks im screwed)? I read in 'The Darkroom Cookbook' that an alternative is a '32-ounce Barrier-Tainer' made by 'Delta-1' which is plastic.

Now, I cannot find any info on the web about this product, but then, I am in the UK and the book is of American origin. So, if there is this in the UK what's it called and where can I find it?

Also, once I mixed up some Stop-Bath & Fixer what is an ideal storage container?

Sorry one more, Does anyone know an ideal airflow for a ventilation system? I.e there are some with 90m3/h or 245m3/h.

Thanks for replies in advance

Cheers All

Martin

 

[Ian Grant]

Yes there's some heavy duty plasic bottles, where are you I may a spare (or 2).

Ian

 

[tkamiya]

People spend all too much energy finding a perfect bottle with perfect performance. You can use just about anything for stop bath. It is not going to degrade in any way other than usage. As to fixer, any plastic bottle will be just fine.

With developer, one needs to be a little more careful as some plastic can pass enough oxygen to promote degradation. If you keep your stuff under the counter, you don't need amber bottle either.

 

[martingriffy]

Hi Ian,

That would be great, im down south though around Bournemouth area

Martin

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Only a very few photographic solutions like silver nitrate need to be in amber bottles. Use PETE or PVC plastic bottles and just keep them out of direct sunlight.

 

[Ian Grant]

People spend all too much energy finding a perfect bottle with perfect performance. You can use just about anything for stop bath. It is not going to degrade in any way other than usage. As to fixer, any plastic bottle will be just fine.

With developer, one needs to be a little more careful as some plastic can pass enough oxygen to promote degradation. If you keep your stuff under the counter, you don't need amber bottle either.

Some types of plastic bottles are useless for developer because they breathe Oxygen, these tend to be low grade polythenes and a developers storage life can be considerably shorter. So it is important to find and use the most appropriate bottles.

High density polythenens as used by Ilford, Kodak, Agfa etc are fine. I use much sronger and thicker high density bottles which originally contained concentrated Nitric and Hydrochloric acid.

Ian

 

[Wade D]

If you can get used brown glass bottles from the local drug store then you have a bottle for life. Clean them well of course. I have 15+ bottles that have been in use for 40 years.
Not necessary as some have said but nice to look at all lined up in a row.
Edit. I see you are concerned with breaking them. Plastic is better but can get brittle as well.
I've not broken a single glass bottle in 40 years.

 

[Monito]

Use any good hard plastic bottles. Store the bottles in a dark green or black plastic garbage bag, or put them in a cupboard with a wooden door that closes. Voila: the solutions are protected from light.

As to protecting them from oxygen penetrating the plastic: plan your work in batches of sessions so that solutions are used up quickly enough.

 

[nworth]

Most of the dark amber plastic bottles I've seen are made of HD polyethylene. They do let some air in through the plastic, but they have a good track record for storing photo solutions as long as you don't store them too long and as long as you store only one kind of chemical in a given bottle. (They also tend to absorb things a little bit, and they become discolored and, I assume, contaminated.) Other kinds of red and dark amber plastic bottles are available for chemical storage from some chemical supply shops, but they tend to be expensive. In general, the dark color is not really needed for developers, especially if you keep them out of direct sunlight, so regular PET bottles work well.