Australia's Science Forum

Hi All,

I have hundreds and hundreds of dropper bottles with droppers and rubber teats, most of our chemicals go out into the labs this way. Now Serrata have stopped selling the rubber teat, and or the dropper assembly separately so effectively when the rubber perishes I have to buy the whole new bottle, which is so wasteful! Does anyone know of any other source for these items? Any help appreciated, MariaQ

I bought some black teats from Livingstone last year. Product code PDRT10, but they are not very cheap, at over 50c each! Guess it is still better for the environment, less overall wastage.

Hi All,

Since posting this, Ive found an answer, Serrata now sell silicon teats that replace the rubber ones, at a cost of $3.00 for 10, why they didnt tell me this yesterday when I was talking to them about the rubber ones is beyond me anyway being silicon they should last a bit longer, cheers MariaQ

At half the cost of the old black ones, also from Serrata!

Maria , this could not come at a more timely point . I too just discovered Serrata don't stock the old rubber teats and I would love to know what the code is for the new Silicone ones are as I couldn't find them on their web site . Oh I love printed Catalogs .

bigmack wrote: Oh I love printed Catalogs .

I'm the same, a printed catalogue is so much easier to deal with than looking online!

Thanks to Maria .

Part number 1152100

Unfortunately they are awaiting stock

I recently bought some from Haines Educational

bigmack wrote:Thanks to Maria .

Part number 1152100

Unfortunately they are awaiting stock

I'll say no more.

Find this is the case with most of the equipment I try to order from Serrata these days. I know I am not the only one ordering but I think that they could send an email to let us know what is going on with our orders. AND I love catalogues and hate trying to find things on line.

If anyone out there is after the old style rubber teats.... Officemax has them for $0.69c. I just ordered some and were here in two days.

bigmack wrote: ↑22 Jun 2018, 12:27 Thanks to Maria .

Part number 1152100

Unfortunately they are awaiting stock

Well my Silicone teats turned up from Serrata.
been busy last term replacing the more corrosive droppers . Even put GHS labels on them while I was at it

Anyway. come in today and went to top up the 1M sodium hydroxide ones for a prac and discovered that several of them have started to "become one " with the dropper bottle requiring peeling off .

Must say I'm a bit disappointed , I had hoped they might last longer than the old Red Rubber ones . It's possible that the kids just screwed the lids on really tight .

So curious to see how the ones on the Acids and Alcohol based indicators last

On a positive note , they do fit onto the glass tube and into the caps really easy compared to the old red rubber ones . They are also smaller so when you squeeze you only get about 10 drops when you squeeze the teat compared to about 25 from the red rubber ones ......maybe less wastage .

However I did have issues with them . We have a collection of various 25ml dropper bottles and there seems to be a difference in the size of the flare on the end of the glass dropper tube . Only the large flange / flared ones seemed to create a seal in the teat . IE if you use the smaller flared ones when you squeeze the dropper and release it doesn't suck up and liquid .

This now means I have to use the smaller flanged ones on the red Rubber teats which I will use on non corrosive droppers .

Any one had any luck buying new dropper teats recently? Read previous posts and have checked Officemax and Haines with no luck. Science Supply don't have any. And sounds like Serrata may not be helpful.

Hi Bigmack,

I agree when I got the teats they were a bit small for some tops and could easily be pulled out of the teat hole, so definitely not a universal size. And like yourself, over a few months have already found a number starting to perish, so in many ways would prefer to go back to the rubber teats in different sizes, if only they were available......

MariaQ

I have bought some of the plastic dropper bottles from Serratta due to kids contaminating the chemical by placing different dropper in and the new teats not fitting properly. So far so good. Not all chemicals can go in them due to some having to stay in darker bottles. Hope this helps

I very rarely (perhaps never) send out the glass dropper bottles with the glass and rubber pipettes. I have lots of empty bottles stored in trays but these do not get used. Over the years I seem to have trained the science teachers (senior) to accept that the chemicals now come in plastic dropper bottles. Trained the junior teachers years ago. It is so much easier.
Question: Is this wrong?

I floated the idea of the plastic ones and was told no way , our mob would squirt each other with them .....maybe ....maybe not ....I'll never find out .

I've found they are a bit trickier to use, easy to go a bit heavy handed. Also had some that the lids split after a while, so the chemical would come flying out the side when the students squeezed the bottle. That was a very long time ago, don't know if they have improved (the bottles, not the students) - the last few schools I've been at have only had the glass bottles.

RE: Silicone rubber teats

bigmack wrote: ↑15 Oct 2018, 10:27
Anyway. come in today and went to top up the 1M sodium hydroxide ones for a prac and discovered that several of them have started to "become one " with the dropper bottle requiring peeling off .................. It's possible that the kids just screwed the lids on really tight .

Well it does appear that this was the problem.
So long as I check the droppers when they come back and make sure they are not over tight , they seem to work fine . 5 months now .
The ones with alcohol in them like phenolphalien which would normally deteriorate very quickly seem just fine .

I will order some more .

Update on the Silicone rubber teats .They hate Acid

After 7 months on HCl 1M and they are disintegrating . Ones on NHO3 1M no better . However they seem to be fairing OK with Alcohol based indicators such as Phenolthalien and universal Indicator which the Red Rubber ones didn't like .
The Sodium Hydroxide also seems happy in the silicone Rubber . As do the Silver Nitrate.

So It's looking like I will go back to Red Rubber for acids and use the Silicone Rubber for the rest .