Australia's Science Forum

I have started work at a different school this year,and I am going through the process of trying to find everything. I need to purchase some storage bottles for my solutions, and have used in the past,Duran/Schott bottles.(clear glass with blue plastic lid) We use one main supplier in S.A. for most stuff, and they have these bottles, but I remember one catalogue I saw that had them much cheaper. Current price I have is $11.50 for the 1 litre, and $8.20 for the 500ml. These prices include GST.
I need to purchase both of these sizes(and quite a few of them) so if anyone knows of anywhere that has them cheaper, I would appreciate hearing about it.
Thanking you in advance,
Cheers,
Lisa

Hi Lisa,
last time we went for the cheaper ones that were Schott look-alikes but were Chinese in manufacture.
Whilst this is a good alternative for many things, we have decided NOT to go for the cheaper ones in this at least in future only because they do not pour or seal well.
ie - they drip when tipped over......
See what others think though.
Good Luck
~Robyn

We use bottles which we got free from the hospital. I think they were from the pathology department. They hold 2L and are only about 6cm wide 23cm long and not quite 21cm tall (where the lid is). I'll try to take a digital photo and post it up tomorrow. The fit perfectly on our shelves and don't waste any space. Easy to access and also can see at a glance which solutions are low. Might be worth checking out if you can get them instead of spending money on storage when you could spend it on other things, especially if you need lots of them. If you contact your hospital and ask about the containers for the ISE electrolyte buffer and the Wash Concentrate II (there are more solutions that come in the same bottles but I've already taken the stickers of the others), hopefully you'll get the right ones. Just need to make sure you wash them out well before use.

Hi Robyn,
Good thinking.Thanks for reminding me that quite often, you get what you pay for, and you're right, for chemical solutions, it might pay to go with the brand names.

Rosalie,
What a great idea. I will certainly try my luck around the hospitals.Any freebies you can get are great,because,as you said, there is always plenty of other things to spend the money on. If you could post a photo, that would be great,because I would like to know if they are glass or plastic.( I can use both)

Thanks to you both,
Cheers,
Lisa

Hi All,

I personally like the Schott screw cap storage bottles, I have used them in Industry and have also have replaced the old bottles at school with these.

There is an identical type from "Simax". These are a little cheaper but the quality is the same. If you need any details I will post them to you in the Private Message options. Like wise for anyone else needing the same information.

If I do this using the Private Message option I can at least protect the supplier and myself from publically anouncing it over a general Web Forum. (as per the rules of using this forum).

Cheers,

Robb.....

We use Amber glass bottles, even through we keep our soultions in cupboards, we find they keep better, being amber glass they help keep the light out. Glass is better in my mind, as some soultions can break plastic down, and make it brittle.

AMber glass the way to go

I have taken the photos of the bottles for you but our computer security won't let me put them on. I'll have to ask for help... They are plastic bottles, HDPE, so most things can be stored in them. There's a table on page 28 in "The Laboratory" which indicates what can and can't be stored. Obviously glass is better for strong solutions. I keep acids (1M or less) in them and haven't had any problem so far. Even if they start to show signs of 'stress' in a year or so, it won't be a problem to start using a new bottle since they are free anyway. There are still some solutions I keep in Amber bottles (eg silver nitrate) so it isn't a 'solve everything' solution to a storage problem, but it sure helped our budget! Anyway, I'll try to find out how I go about posting photos and hopefully give you an idea of what they look like.
Rosalie

Yay! I got it to work! At least I think I did... Had to shrink them a fair way... sorry they are blurry - they weren't the best photos to start with! Now I need to get back to the lab... I don't usually spend this much time on the computers in one hit!