Someone give Bomex, Kimax Kimble USA, Boeco Germany brand glassware me. Which is best?
[edit by mod] title clarification
[Edited on 11-5-2020 by j_sum1]B(a)P - 11-5-2020 at 01:53
Simax is my go to. I have never had an issue with it.TmNhRhMgBrSe - 11-5-2020 at 02:54
What about I said that 3 brands?j_sum1 - 11-5-2020 at 03:28
Most of mine is non-branded Chinese glassware. I prefer to break the cheap stuff.
Or more specific to your question, I don't know how many people will have had experience of all of these brands to compare them. That which is good,
lasts. And so you don't get to compare them side by side.
If they are a gift, enjoy them.BromicAcid - 11-5-2020 at 03:48
When Bomex first started coming out there were posts on this forum about beakers and other components failing and that it being shoddy/cheap glassware
and not to be trusted. My gut is that those issues have been worked out and they have been producing decent glassware for awhile. That being said
I've never used Bomex.
Duff - 11-5-2020 at 05:34
Can anyone recommend Laboy glassware? I am looking to buy a Schlenk line and they seem to have inexpensive options.Syn the Sizer - 11-5-2020 at 06:08
tbh, I made a purchase on amazon of a set of 24/40 from Ding glassware in China and they have been solid. I have dropped flasks, my 105 vacuum
take-off adapter fell and landed on my sep funnel, the takeoff didn't fare well but the sep funnel is still fine. I also fropped my graham condenser
on my allhin condenser and they are both fine. The price was cheap for lots of glassware and like j_sum1 said its better to break the cheap Chinese
stuff anyway.Texium - 11-5-2020 at 06:25
Someone give Bomex, Kimax Kimble USA, Boeco Germany brand glassware me. Which is best?
Kimax is great all
around. Bomex can be shoddy. I've seen perfectly acceptable glassware from them, and also some very scary looking pieces with large bubbles and uneven
bases (beakers shouldn't rock back and forth!). The only Bomex piece that I personally own is a 250 mL graduated cylinder that I bought at a science
store since it appeared to be on the good end of the quality spectrum. I don't have any experience with Boeco.
Can anyone recommend Laboy glassware? I am looking to buy a Schlenk line and they seem to have inexpensive options.
Laboy glass is very high quality for its price. You can find a number of threads here extolling their products. I haven't used one
of their Schlenk lines, but I would bet it would be more than adequate.mackolol - 11-5-2020 at 10:38
I have cheap Polish glassware from China, company named "Chemland".
It's good enough although it breaks from time to time, but I don't give damn because it is so cheap and if something breaks, I can try something new.
And another reason is, that after using it for some time it becomes scratched or misty because of chemicals reacting with it or precipitating on it,
unable to be cleaned. Now I'm using only one RBF that I have left and after a month of using it all the time it looks bad.
I don't know if that's the case with more expensive glassware, but I guess so. That's either why I don't mind changing my glassware from time to time.
With new and good looking equipment I can be the one who controls pretty pictures topic
[Edited on 11-5-2020 by mackolol]G-Coupled - 11-5-2020 at 14:19
lol, it won't be 'Polish' glassware if it's from China. :-pmackolol - 11-5-2020 at 23:22
lol, it won't be 'Polish' glassware if it's from China. :-p
Haha it sounds as it sounds. I mean that it is Polish company that imports their glass, but I was wrong, I thought that they take it from China, but
they take it from Italy/Germany as I checked now.G-Coupled - 12-5-2020 at 00:44
You mean it's a Polish company that sells Italian/German made glass?
If so, sounds like potential quality, but potentially expensive.greenlight - 12-5-2020 at 10:14
The german brands, Simax and Bomex has served me well.
My choice is Schott Duran from Germany if you can get it. Have dropped flasks and actually had them just about bounce without breaking before. Have
been putting the same pieces under vacuum for a decade now.outer_limits - 12-5-2020 at 10:43
All I can say - great value to quality ratio. Dirty cheap, almost zero problems.
One thing which broke was the thermometer adapter (the one which was never used - so maybe it was damaged in transport). morganbw - 12-5-2020 at 13:55
No clue on which is the best.
I use cheap chinese glassware which has withstood some serious robust crap.
I would drive a Mercedes if I had the money but the glassware that I mostly sourced is from Deschem (my spelling may off ) has served me well.
I still need/want a few pieces, many actually, but a few for sure.
edit to add this:: perhaps more important to the make is perhaps what it is made from. I hope someday to source some quartz glassware.
[Edited on 5/12/2020 by morganbw]RogueRose - 12-5-2020 at 15:31
Well if you are asking what is good, quality glassware, I think all the big names are good but you really pay a premium. I've found that Chemglass is
really nice for the $. It's more expensive than generic Chinese stuff but seems much less expensive than things like Kimax, Pyrex, Shott Duran, etc.
I see a lot of nice used Chemglass stuff for really good prices and a lot of it is stuff that is hard to find in the "big" names. teodor - 13-5-2020 at 04:42
I think there are 4 components of "best":
- chemical inertness / resistance - it is important for analytical work but depends on to WHAT it should be resistant; there is a theoretical
difference between different species of borosilicate glass family - but I have no experience/results of measurement for this;
- mechanical resistance - the thicker glass is better; Flasks with ground join survive better than beakers not depending on brand - I have much more
broken beakers than flasks; the last broken flask was broken in the neck by clamping it too tight;
- thermal shock resistance - I didn't notice the difference between main brands I use (Duran & Simax) in the range up to 250C. This type of damage
I experience 10th time less than mechanical breakage and 100th time less than spoiling a new glassware by accumulation of dirt I still unable/have no
enough time/greedy for chemicals to wash
- accurate volume marking; It is not supposed to be accurate as on measuring cylinders but in some brands it is much more accurate than on others and
this is the reason why I would prefer e.g. Duran family (Lenz, Witeg) to Simax.
[Edited on 13-5-2020 by teodor]
[Edited on 13-5-2020 by teodor]
Bomex
MadHatter - 13-5-2020 at 06:21
This is the only brand of glass I ever had trouble
with. A 1 litre beaker broke with a light tap when
I'd boiled down a compound. This was after the
beaker had cooled down and I was trying to get
the compound out without too much scraping.
In contrast I got a set of heavy-walled beakers
from Canada that were almost bullet-proof. They
are made of Kimax. One of them fell out of my
hand and bounced off the floor with not even a
scratch. Jacob - 14-5-2020 at 13:05
Schott Duran of course, if you could get the real deal.karlos³ - 14-5-2020 at 13:22
I switched from expensive czech/german glassware to cheap chinese stuff like two years ago.
I even switched my usual NS 29/32 to 24/40, simply because of the price.
Can't say it wasn't worth it, of course stuff breaks occasionally, but so does the other stuff.
Just go for what is cheap enough and see if its quality is adequate, if yes, buy some more to replace what gets broken.
Now I pay just a fourth of what I paid for glass earlier.
It is wonderful and much better this way.Loptr - 14-5-2020 at 14:01
Most of my glassware is Synthware. Love it.SWIM - 14-5-2020 at 17:36
Don't know about Boeco, but Kimble Kimax is very good (Perfect brand, an old US label was the same stuff packaged for hobbyists, I think).
Bomex was once good glass, but they were sold to somebody else and have sucked for some time now (years, decades?).
Seriously, I've seen a lot of that stuff and read lots of reviews on Amazon and the defect rate is very high.
Bubbles, uneven bottoms, graduated cylinders that aren't even up to spec for accuracy...
Laboy is the best Chinese glass I've seen, but Synthware is about the same (I've seen less of that)
They're both well-made and well finished. Good joints too.
Nanshin is a step down from Laboy in fit and finish, but lots of our members use it and it gives good service apparently.
If you need an organic kit, Nanshin has very good deals for new glassware and a lot of different kits to choose from.
Haven't checked lately, but Nanshin kits used to be about 1/2 to 2/3rds the price of a similar Laboy kit.
Mateo_swe - 24-5-2020 at 06:59
Im pretty sure the cheap china lab glassware has become so good now that for hobby use its no difference except the china stuff is a lot cheaper.
But if you use the glassware for more advanced stuff like high vacuum work or something that pushes the glass close to the limits, then one of the top
quality brands is more or less required.Romix - 29-5-2020 at 16:43
Best glassware I had is ''Pyrex'' you can heat it up with torch until it starting to melt, and it doesn't brake.
Cheap Chinese glassware brakes on a hotplate with out fuse at the melting point of lead...Dragonsired1 - 3-6-2020 at 10:52
Czech Simax is a very good brand of glassware. Never had any problems and it can withstand a lot of abuse. But I think it boils down to how much are
you willing to spend on it. Also I would try to search what's available around you. I'm from Czechia so for me Simax is good choice both for quality
and price as beakers are around 50 - 80 CZK around 2-3 EUR.
Buying from ebay like Boro 3.3 beakers, glass rods, stoppers is a good option. BUT for vacuum stuff and analytical like pipette and burette I would
definitely buy more expensive branded products as they tend to be more precise. Heptylene - 3-6-2020 at 11:32
Schott-Duran all the way! Also Ilmabor and Lenz are good brands from germany. Never had problems with any of them.
I tend to buy my glassware new for components that are critical, like RBFs, beakers, condenser. Anything I never want to break on me during a
synthesis.
For glassware I use rarely, I buy from deschem. They are ok quality, but the joints are not as good as Duran joints.Fyndium - 13-4-2021 at 06:11
So you say that Chemland glassware is good?
A flask that costs 25€ costs 50€ from China, and many other flasks are much cheaper as well. When something looks too cheap, I always suspect it.
The chinese flask measurement markings have been surprisingly accurate. I took a test with measuring cylinder and most were very close. The volume of
the vessels can vary though, usually upwards, but this phenomenon seems to occur with brand too. Schott Duran 2L separator can take at least 2.5L.Texium - 13-4-2021 at 06:27
Sep funnels are generally supposed to hold more than their declared volume, so that you still have room to shake. Fyndium - 13-4-2021 at 07:18
Well, that makes great sense. On the other hand, it seems that they could always be just a little bit bigger.
I'm again in the adapter business. Chemland has 29, 35 and 45 joints, while all Chinese go with 24. Only actual downside with them is that they
increase device height.
For erlenmeyers, it seems that 45/40 joints can be good actually, because they allow better access to contents than a tiny 24* hole. I had to do a
recrystallization of a chunky crunchy stuff and it was a job of it's own to make the pieces small enough to fit in. I still haven't learn to use
beakers.pneumatician - 13-4-2021 at 08:24
Ilmabor are I think the "qlty control NOT passed" from Schott-Duran or some other big guy like this. I have some Ilmabor items and the "quality" is a
joke. I have an erlemmeier with good appearance but if I look at the base it has most of its glass diameter much thinner!
Of course I never buy more from this brand. Simax is very good and hard. I love the labwareGlass "DDR" with his look "sting punk" :-)Bezaleel - 15-4-2021 at 00:40
Fun, I seem to be the only one so far in this thread who had had an issue with Simax glassware. Two flasks has air inclusions in the glass, and so I
lost my trust in Simax's quality. I still buy it though, or price reasons, but prefer Duran Schott (or old Jenaer). Fyndium - 15-4-2021 at 01:24
My Simax flask also has air bubble in the bottom.
My Schott Duran flask - at least one of them - has air bubble included as well.
So I see that air bubbles, at least in singular occurrences, do not cause flask QC fail.
) has served me well.