Sciencemadness Discussion Board

German Pyrex Beaker???

mericad193724 - 4-10-2006 at 12:44

I placed an order with homelearning tools for a few items such as one 400ml Pyrex beaker. I just received my order! I must say very fast shipping, but they FUCKED UP my order AND they gave me a Pyrex beaker that says "Made in Germany" as opposed to the usual "Made in the USA."

German Pyrex??? Never seen it. The glass seems to be pretty good, heavier than bomex with even thicker rim. It has a square white enamel patch and says No. 1000.

Is this just as good as regular USA Pyrex or is it just as worthless as China Bomex?

Here on their website they say it is made in the USA, but if you look at the picture carefully you can see the "Made in Germany."...

http://www.hometrainingtools.com/catalog/chemistry/glassware...

Does Germany quality = USA quality
Or Does Germany quality = China "non-quality."


Mericad

Magpie - 4-10-2006 at 13:26

I have beakers ordered from a large scientific supply house that have the same markings as yours. I have had no problems with them. My guess is that they meet or exceed Pyrex USA standards.

Don't forget who makes all the glass tops for all stoves in the world - Schott, a German company.

12AX7 - 4-10-2006 at 13:41

German, Japanese and USA products, I think, are generally quite good. Most of Europe probably.

I recall Japan makes a lot of CNC machining centers, for instance.

Tim

[Edited on 10-4-2006 by 12AX7]

woelen - 4-10-2006 at 14:05

German quality >= USA quality :)
Good stuff.

Maja - 5-10-2006 at 01:24

German glass companies and products are really good .... No complains about them.

The_deadly_dustbin - 5-10-2006 at 04:08

How dare they send you something that is not made in the US :o Those damn' bastards. You should sue their pants off. At least 275 Gazillion Dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[switch off irony mode]
But hey......German scientists survided non-US made glassware for more than 150 years by now, so it's not that bad :D And SCHOTT-glass takes that Pepsi-challenge by KIMAX every day before breakfast. And I can compare directly as I was born in Nuremberg and lived in the US for about 4 years working for CORNING.

[Edited on 5-10-2006 by The_deadly_dustbin]

matei - 5-10-2006 at 09:06

Quote:
Originally posted by mericad193724

German Pyrex??? Never seen it.

Is this just as good as regular USA Pyrex or is it just as worthless as China Bomex?

Mericad


Hey pal, germans invented the chemically resistant glass (borosilicate glass) in 1887. You can be sure it's as good as USA-made one.

http://www.us.schott.com/english/company/milestones.html

ordenblitz - 5-10-2006 at 17:02

I only wish made in USA was as good as German items.
I'd trade all my pyrex for Schott in a hartbeat!

mericad193724 - 6-10-2006 at 15:24

Haha...I love nationalism!

Some of you guys that are saying German glassware is THE BEST glassware is because you either FROM Germany or you are from Europe and therefore will just say German stuff is better than USA stuff. I for one live the USA and therefore I would rather have USA made glassware.

Here where I live all products are either made in china(displayed with tiny letters on the bottom of products), Philippines, Mexico, Japan, or USA (always displayed in big letters on the front labels of products!)

I have never seen anything made in Germany so I had no way of gauging the "quality."

I will take USA made products over anything any day!...I am an American :cool: !

Mericad

[Edited on 6-10-2006 by mericad193724]

The_Davster - 6-10-2006 at 15:37

I am from Canada...the German stuff really is better. Much more thermal shock resistant.

ordenblitz - 6-10-2006 at 16:01

Quote:
"I will take USA made products over anything any day!...I am an American"

I am an American as well, but realize acceptance of materials regardless of their quality is what
got the auto industry in trouble in the 80's. The US car makers too long counted on the
willingness of the citizens to buy what ever they were given, because to do otherwise was un-
American. Now Ford, GM and Chrysler are playing catch up to Japan and Germany.

We here in the USA certainly should be able to make similarly high quality merchandise as northern Europe
and Japan but we continually fall short because of our laziness and over confidence.

Sure I'm American, but I'm also not foolish. Buy the best you can for the money regardless of its
origin and let the market decide the rest.

not_important - 6-10-2006 at 21:30

Might be useful to explain why there would be differences in borosilicate labware from different sources, rather than doing the all too typical male pissing contest.

Things that could be important would be the exact composition of the glass, and the heat treatment given to it after forming. Anyone have any hard data?

mericad193724 - 7-10-2006 at 05:06

Not_important is right. It would be best to compare the composition and and treatment of all the different brands of glassware. Also, if anyone just has a lot of money they could buy a bunch of Bomex, USA Pyrex, German Pyrex, KIMAX, Griffin and all the rest. Then subject these to tests and see how each performs...this will end the Glassware debates ONCE AND FOR ALL:o.

Fleaker - 7-10-2006 at 07:01

I must say Schott Duran is some very nice glass, I've never had problems with it. Pyrex and Kimax are fine as well, but I still say Schott Duran is higher quality. To me it seems much thicker and takes a lot of abuse from incidental everyday stuff (i.e. being put down roughly, or heated up too quickly). Less breakage. I have a large SD vacuum filtering flask and the walls must be at least 1.5 cm in thickness

Darkblade48 - 7-10-2006 at 10:03

I have a few pieces of Schott Duran glassware lying around, and I've used them along with the more common Pyrex/Kimax that I have. I haven't really found a major quality difference (though I haven't been roughly handling any of my glassware), but the Schott does seem to have some thicker glass walls than the Pyrex and Kimax stuff.

Ramiel - 7-10-2006 at 10:42

I'm from Australia, just so you know. Being an amateur chemist for a long time means more than my share of "incidental everyday stuff" has happened to my poor glassware. I remember dropping a 200mL beaker onto the slate tile floor once and having it bouce up again, allowing me to save it, it was Shott-Duran. Since then I've always asked for them and have never had a problem, in fact, most of my not-Shott-Duran glassware has been phased out (read: broken) while the Shott-Duran remains.

This is a pretty heuristic measure I know. :P

unionised - 8-10-2006 at 00:46

"Haha...I love nationalism!"
Aparently.

"Some of you guys that are saying German glassware is THE BEST glassware is because you either FROM Germany or you are from Europe and therefore will just say German stuff is better than USA stuff."

Any evidence of that, or just an example of your prejudice? (BTW, here in the UK a lot of pyrex is supplied from France). I don't think that many of use are Europhiles to the extent that it biases us totally against the US.
"I for one live the USA and therefore I would rather have USA made glassware."
Please yourself, but I would rather do something scientific like compare the products. Of course, if you are concerned about the environmental impact of shipping a product that is essentially sand halfway round the world, then I'm sure we all aplaud that idea.

I can't help wondering if the real difference here is much simpler. I know that in the glassware catalogues at work there are often (at least) 2 versions of each product- typically one is branded as Schott or Pyrex- the other (own brand) is a fair bit cheaper. If you buy the cheap one you can easilly tell why -it's thinner glass. After a while the thin stuff fails the "bounce test".
I don't think we need any analysis of their composition or of the heat treatment- in my observation, the "Own Brand" stuff just uses less glass.
To those of you who comment on the poor quality of Chinese imports, might I just check on something? Did you buy the Chinese stuff because it was cheaper than stuff from "the Western world"? If so are you aware of the old addage that you tend to get what you pay for?

not_important - 8-10-2006 at 22:41

Thicker glass makes sense, if the valuation is on how easy the stuff breaks. But better care must be taken during cooling to avoid stresses, which means greater production cost.

Beakers

MadHatter - 9-10-2006 at 19:15

My heavy-walled beakers are Schott-Duran. I'll put them up against any lab glass out there.
I'm not complaining about Simax, Kimax, or Pyrex. These glasses are good. Bomex is the
cheapass offender of the group but is still good for applications not requiring high heat
or vacuum.