jjjjjj_robertson

Hi Larry, I just somehow saw your suggestion about using new fixer to dissolve old fixer! I missed it the first time around. I think as a last resort I will definitely try this. Thanks!

In one bottle in particular, the chemical residue is pretty gunked on there and I'm still having a hard time cleaning it. Vinegar didn't work for it and potentially dangerous chemicals are probably out of the question... I had a thought which was - what if I just fill it up to the gunky level with actual fixer and maybe the new chemical will slowly dissolve the old? The gunk level is not too high, it would only be a small waste of fixer I suppose. Also about the glass - wouldn't a plastic gallon bottle also have a lot of air space? I also read in several places that plastic is more permeable to oxygen than glass (if glass is at all). If it's thinner plastic, like with those cheap plastic gallon jugs, maybe you could squeeze a little air out of it but then it would seem the oxygen permeability would be greater than with a thicker plastic bottle. I'm pretty careful and have been using 3 other glass jugs for developing chemicals and I pour in a large plastic sink so the risk of dropping it is not as high as it would be, say with a bunch of students in a shared darkroom. I'm just trying to shave a few dollars off my budget here and there as I am already spending so much outfitting this darkroom. Any more cleaning suggestions would be great, thank you!

I will try both of these options to see if either works... Also having a really hard time finding replacement bottle caps or lid liners for retail, I only see a lot of wholesale options... it looks like the type of cap I need is a 38-430 bottle cap (38mm) but it has to be a little taller than some of the search results that show up. If anyone knows where to buy just a few of these at a retail price, please let me know.

I've been trying to research this independently but have had a hard time, so I'm trying this forum. I inherited a few amber 1-gallon glass jars from the University's old B&W photography program but am having trouble getting rid of tough residual stains on some of them. Unfortunately some of them weren't marked or were marked ambiguously (i.e. "Developer" but not specifying whether it's for film or paper), but I know one is probably residual B&W developer and the other two contain fixer residue (the fixer residue flakes off but not all of it comes off). Tried soaking them in plain water (hot and cold), then soapy water, for days and actually one I soaked for a month. Got a good deal out but still seeing some major gunk. I don't want to use any old cleaner in case there is a chemical reaction. I read some recommendations about vinegar but am hesitant to try it. Most of the cleaning advice involves using scrub brushes on easy to clean items like tanks and reels, but the gallon jugs are difficult to get anything into, the openings are too narrow for bottle brushes (which are too gentle and don't scrub hard enough) and I've been jerry-rigging all kinds of cleaning devices in vain. Does anyone have experience with this? +One more quick thing - does anyone sell replacement bottle caps for these bottles? One of the caps broke, and the others are either very stained or the paper part is deteriorating on the inside. This is the type of bottle I have, but a couple lack handles and the caps are black: http://www.yankeecontainers.com/c/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/glass-pharm-jug-with-cap-1024x768.jpg I browsed that website but I want to be pretty sure I'm buying the right caps, also they are wholesale and I only need maybe 5 so not sure where to get them retail. Thank you. - J.