Chemical Bottles

[miss.annette_leigh_haynes]

<p>Due to the High Cost of Chemical Bottles and can only buy one every two weeks here, is there any way I could get Clorox out of a bottle and use them 64 oz and 128 oz they do not have where I live so I do not have to pay Shipping Charges</p>

[Sandy Vongries]

<p>Large plastic soft drink bottles have been / are used by photographers in various places-- labels removed / replaced with those reflecting actual contents and secured from children (in a dark place) to avoid accidents. I believe the clorox bottles will be problematic.</p>

[miss.annette_leigh_haynes]

<p>Thnks so much for your great Answers I will try that</p>

[martin_dake]

You can also use glass Soda or water bottles, some brands use glass bottles like San Peligrino.

 

Also, ask nicely at your local pharmacy if you can buy a few medicine bottles. They will either sell you, or just give, a few

new medicine bottles or ones used for their bulk supply.

 

Where are you located that you have trouble getting them at a decent price?

[Jochen_S]

<p>Double checking math: you need 2l and 4l chemical bottles?<br>

I recommend: a pack of frost protected windscreen wiping fluid from your supermarket (share content with neighborhood drivers). Or relabeled soda packages or ask around in any local company working with fluids. At work I could get 20l clear coat cans. Earlier I grabbed their 10l damping water additive cans or 5l chemical ones for lithographic film. <br>

I got my stock of black glass bottles for developers back at school from my chemistry teacher.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Additional warning!<br>

<em><strong>Never leave any kind of food labeling on the bottle. You don't want any one to mistake the chemicals for soda or whatever.</strong></em> This particularly applies to anyone who is illiterate like toddlers and such like.</p>

[rob_calhoun]

<p>I use canning jars. They are glass, which is better than most plastics since you want something absolutely impermeable to oxygen for developers and fixers. They also have very tight seals. They come in different sizes and are reasonably priced, at least where I live. My chemistry, color and black & white, lasts months, even years, in them.</p>

[j._drake]

<p>My Kodak fixer is in a 100 fl. oz. Tide, plastic? bottle at the moment. The oldest date when mixed label on it is from 1996. I also use several white bleach bottles for other chemicals without any trouble.. J</p>

[glen_h]

<p>As far as I know PET (usual for soft drink bottles) lets less oxygen through than polyethylene, but either should work. Thicker plastic should be better.</p>

<p>Clorox should be fine for stop and fix, but maybe not as oxygen proof as others for developer.</p>

<p>Clorox should rinse out just fine. </p>

[Wilmarco Imaging]

I am converting to PET drink bottles in 0.5 liter and 1 liter sizes, after 35 years of using brown gallon jugs. Brown jugs are normally PE (polyethylene) and are not as good as preventing oxygen ingress as is a PET bottle.

 

1 liter beverage bottles, such as "vitamin water", can be purchased at discount stores like Wal Mart, K-Mart, etc. for $0.69 each. This is the same or lower cost as can be found ordering on line, when the cost of shipping is considered. I store C-41 chemicals in these clear PET bottles, and will eventually store my black and white chemicals in them also.

 

Clorox bottles I am pretty sure are polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), neither of which are as good as PET.

 

So go out and buy a few bottles of sweet beverage, pour it down the drain at home, wash the bottles and use them for photo chemicals.

[glen_h]

As far as I know, the brown photo bottles are better than usual PE grocery store bottles, but not that much better.

 

I now have enough brown bottles for my developers, I often use other bottles for other chemicals.

[craig_shearman1]

In my early days in photography I stored darkroom chemicals in everything from empty plastic milk jugs to brown glass bottles from a pharmacist friend. I don't know what actual darkroom chemical bottles cost now, but honestly it is a one-time purchase that will last a lifetime. Even if you paid $20 each, you only need a few and you will never need to buy them again. I have some that are 30 years old. I did switch to two-gallon tanks with floating lids and a spigot at the bottom for my main chemicals but those, too, have lasted for years. And the regular bottles are still in use for other chemicals. If you develop more than just occasionally, I would bite the bullet and buy the real thing.

[glen_h]

I have found it harder to get smaller bottles. Nearby photography stores don't have 8oz, and sometimes not 16oz.

 

In my college years, I used to buy Nalgene plastic bottles from the chemistry department. They are thick polyethylene, though not brown.

 

But if you buy Nalgene bottles at ordinary retail prices, they are more than the brown bottles.

[Fotohuis RoVo]

Schott borosilicate (coated) or PET bottles have the smallest permeability. Then you have HD-Polyethylene., like the Jobo bottles. Never use food bottles in a chemical darkroom.

[stephen_jones27]

If you have a brewer supply shop around, I recommend growlers.