Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Looking for cheap bottles, 250, 500, 1000ml. Any recommendations?

Looking for cheap bottles, 250, 500, 1000ml. Any recommendations?

alking - 6-9-2018 at 09:17

I use those reagent bottles with the ptfe caps you find all over ebay and the like, they generally run 10-15$, but is there anything cheaper? I don't need borosilicate glass or for them to withstand autoclaving or anything, just something cheap to hold solvents. US domestic would be preferred.

Sulaiman - 6-9-2018 at 10:17

Not all liquids need a ptfe cap, most do not.
For most fluids, re-purposed domestic containers such as sauce, vinegar etc. (long list)
are more than adequate.
For example, using bottles with PE caps, from my favourite chilli sauce
Linghams_HNO3.jpg - 17kB

In my lab/shed these bottles are used to store many types of liquid,
(RFNA shown at right but just recently finished after two years),
concentrated and dilute acids (hydrochloric, nitric, sulphuric),
ammonia solution, methanol, ethanol, sodium hypochlorite solution, pH reference buffer solutions and others.
So I think that even if you do not want to go as low as recycled domestic vessels,
you do not need the more expensive ptfe lined caps for everything.

P.S. the RFNA storage was meant to be temporary, hence the lack of a label.
also
these bottles are not perfect;
. I used to have 35% H₂O₂ in one and it bleached the inner part of the cap - which did not actually fail
. I often get drips down the outside of the bottles when pouring,
but I guess that is common for most screw-top bottle types.

Regarding volumes, I often need to use more than one bottle to store a liquid,
e.g. I'd use four bottles for a litre of something.
this is actually a benefit as a 250ml bottle is easier to handle than a 1000ml bottle,
and there is less risk of me contaminating my entire stock with one dumb accident

[Edited on 6-9-2018 by Sulaiman]

alking - 7-9-2018 at 09:24

I've thought about that, but I'd prefer something more reliable/standard. If all of the lids are the same plastic with the same dyes for instance I can reliably determine (or at least infer) whether they will react with what I put in there. Plus it's easy to see at a glance how much of what I have. What I really had in mind was some basic flint glass style bottles, I'm surprised they're not more common. I saw them once and they were about 1/2 the cost or less than the borsilicate ones, but I did not purchase any and can no longer find them.

macckone - 7-9-2018 at 09:36

Check your local brewing supplier. They have a variety of cheap bottles and cheap lids of various kinds. Also local restaurant supply store, they have a variety of sauce bottles as many restaurants make their own sauces. You can buy lids separate from bottles and the lids are MUCH cheaper to ship than the bottles. If you want phenolic lids with PTFE liners it will probably have to be ordered. But unlined phenolic, polyethylene and metal are readily available.

All this assumes you are in a decent sized city.

Hardware stores in rural areas often have similar items as rural folks also can foods and make beer and sauces.

WGTR - 7-9-2018 at 09:39

Have you looked at Qorpak?

http://www.qorpak.com/category/182/clear-boston-round-bottle...

JJay - 7-9-2018 at 09:42

Dr. Bob has bottles.

Dr.Bob - 7-9-2018 at 10:11

I have lots of 60 and 120 ml bottles (in several types, caps, shapes, etc, for $1-3 each, most with PTFE caps, most new, a few used), plus a few larger ones left (only a few 250, 500, and 1000) but for cheap. Send me a u2u if you are interested, I also have some media bottle and other types of glass bottles. If you want enough of them, I could try to do a group buy, sometimes that works well. I just found a case of 250 ml amber Qorpak PTFE capped bottles as well.

[Edited on 8-9-2018 by Dr.Bob]

DavidJR - 7-9-2018 at 10:38

Don't get lab reagent bottles, find a local packaging supplier and buy some glass sirop bottles. They're dirt cheap and work well for most things.

Sigmatropic - 7-9-2018 at 10:46

Get a job at a chemical lab, save the glass bottles, save the ptfe lined caps. Hey presto, a lifetime supply of lab grade bottles and a salary. Which is also how, I assume, Dr Bob gets his.

RogueRose - 7-9-2018 at 16:47

I'll have to second the boston rounds. They come in clear and amber with a variety of types of caps. They can be kind of expensive but if you buy a case (like 12 1L or 500ml) they can be less expensive but the real drop in price is when you buy a case/case (that'd be like 144 or 288 of the 1L or 500ml bottles).

You might be able to find some places that use these bottles and ask if you can buy empty bottles from them, some places might allow you to do this. I know a lot of places that sell essential oils use these bottles (especially the amber ones, often with PTFE lined caps).

If you want to pursue this avenue I can look at some of the places that I've bought EO's from where they were packaged in these bottles and let you know.

I know this place uses amber bottles for most products:
https://www.libertynatural.com/

https://www.bulkapothecary.com/categories/aromatherapy-essen...

https://www.camdengrey.com/essential-oils/Essential-Oils/

Bulkapothecary also has some really nice aluminum bottles that have various linings from PTFE to less expensive linings - the bottles are very similar to the Al camping bottles for fuel or water.

Another place to look is your local thrift shops. I've found lots of the aluminum camping water bottles for about $1 each and they are anywhere form 500ml to 1.5L

I've also been told that local colleges and Uni's often dispose of the reagent bottles and even some really nice larger glass bottles (1-5L glass jugs - amber and expensive if bought by themselves).

Also check out people who are selling their brewing & wine making supplies, you can find a lot of good bottles in these cases.

[Edited on 9-8-2018 by RogueRose]

Dr.Bob - 8-9-2018 at 05:51

I do occasionally find used bottle worth cleaning and reusing, but getting harder, as most vendors now use crappy bottles, rather than good glass ones. If you want 4L glass solvent bottles, labs throw out many. I could get lots of them for free, but the shipping cost would be insane. But if you look for a local university or business lab, they will have them, and you might be able to get some (ask the janitor) or dumpster dive for them.

But hard to find 250 and 500 ml nice bottles, most reactive reagents used much come in small bottles, a huge cumber of chemicals come in plastic now, which is not ideal, as some get very brittle or don't seal well. But vendors are cheap now, and many use poor quality bottles. I also use 1L Aldrich amber solvent bottles, but the labels are hard to remove, and many have septa seals, so not as easy to reuse.

The good glass bottles are still available, Qorpak sells lots, but the shipping is often more than the bottle, unless you find a good deal. I have just lucked into finding some cases of new ones locally, that is where the smaller ones (the 60 and most 120 ml ones are brand new) came from.

RogueRose - 8-9-2018 at 06:30

I found some bottles on this one site and the pricing seems pretty good, though IDK if the sizes are what you need.

Glass Cobalt Blue Boston Rounds 5ml to 60ml
https://www.bulkapothecary.com/glass-cobalt-blue-essential-o...

Glass Green "boston round like" bottles 5ml to 30ml
https://www.bulkapothecary.com/glass-green-essential-oil-bot...

Amber boston rounds 5ml to 120ml
https://www.bulkapothecary.com/glass-amber-essential-oil-bot...

Clear glass "Flint" bottles - 5 - 120ml
https://www.bulkapothecary.com/glass-clear-flint-bottles/

5/8th Dram (2.3ml)- amber bottles - box of 50 for $9
https://www.bulkapothecary.com/5-8-dram-glass-amber-essentia...

1/4 Dram .93ml glass, amber, with cap & diffuser - 144 for $25

LOTS of glass bottles, mostly boston rounds I think - many colors
https://www.libertynatural.com/package/bottle_g.htm

8oz aluminum bottles (some lined)
https://www.libertynatural.com/package/bottle_m.htm

Plastic bottles - various sizes (HDPE, PET, LDPE)
https://www.libertynatural.com/package/bottle_p.htm

Caps for all sizes of bottles
https://www.libertynatural.com/

8oz amber boston rounds - 12 pack for $18 w/ caps & free Prime shipping.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N2WC5HP/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?ps...

16oz amber boston rounds - 12 pack for $20 w/ caps & free Prime shipping.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9K1GO1/ref=sspa_dk_detail_5?ps...

16 Oz French Square Glass Jars -12 pack - clear w/ caps - $25 - free shipping (economy)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071DVPNHV/ref=sspa_dk_detail_3?ps...

lots of sizes and color Boston rounds some good prices too
https://www.camdengrey.com/essential-oils/Bottles-Vials-Glas...

RogueRose - 8-9-2018 at 17:59

I just thought I would mention that it is a very good idea to browse Amazon and Walmart marketplace for items you are looking to buy, especially for bulk items (like cases or multi-case sizes). In my search of some good prices of bottles I came across some amber boston rounds that were the same price for a case of 108 bottles (with the best caps they offer) for the same price of 24 bottles - and there was free shipping.

IDK if it was a pricing mistake, but they did only have "1 left" but it was possible to order more at the same time as it said "More on the way". I added 4 to my cart and they all priced at the same low price, but said only one available to ship.

I was worried that this might trigger a review so I only ordered 1 case and in the email they sent, there is an option to "order more" and the price was back up to $160-240 (plus $20-30 S&H + $10-15 for tax), compared to the $30 price I was charged, there was something wrong with the pricing. Human error, or a glitch in the automatic pricing function of the site.

I've seen this on a few other products over the years and it seems the prices get adjusted fairly quickly (I think people contact them and ask "is this price correct" - instead of just ordering).

If this happens to you, take screen shots of the item page, the check-out pages, the order review, etc and save it all in a purchase order history on local computer. I even use a video screen recorder to record the whole process (on good deals) so if they come back and charge me differently I can send them these files and tell them I want the advertised price. I've only had the price questioned once, all other times the item shipped for the stated price - but the prices were corrected before too long.

I now Amazon often has these issues around Black friday. In my tech forum there were some people who bought $300 video cards for about $45 and got 10-20 of them per order and amazon honored the low price. Same thing happened with some hard drives that were about $400-500 that were on sale for about $70 & some monitors and speakers. There is a whole forum dedicated to amazon price mistakes on this tech forum so people can take advantage of these mistakes.

This has to be an issue with amazon's software as if it wasn't they wouldn't honor the pricing selling so many things at a loss like this.

Recently I found some Gl45 white/grey teflon caps (for reagent bottles) that were about $.72 each (normal price was about $12-20 each) but they sold out before I could place an order. The guy who got a gross of them (all that was left) was sure happy.

So it is worth looking around on Amazon but I think it is hit or miss when you find them. If you do find something, PLEASE don't tell Amazon about it, just order the product and count yourself lucky! Maybe share with the members here.

I would say this is a little unethical, but I can't count the number of times when I've been over-billed by a company and had to spend MANY hours trying to get a refund - IF I ever got one - sometimes it isn't worth it. I've never had a company offer a reward for telling them about a mistake either, just a "thanks", do you want to buy it for the real price now (MAYBE if you are super lucky a 10% discount or or free shipping if lucky). It seems like it is a war against the consumers (and small shop owners) so when you can take advantage, I see no reason not to.

Can anyone offer a different perspective on this? Do you think it should be reported when seen?

[Edited on 9-9-2018 by RogueRose]

S.C. Wack - 8-9-2018 at 19:08

Cynmar has a lot of stoppered bottles, and OK single-bottle pricing on others. I like Nalgene squares from amazon for dry items...I put nitric acid and chloroform in bottles of the style of post 2 (edit: once, in the past), and attest that they are the work of Satan especially for acids. The quality of the cap should be proportional if you value your health or lab...

[Edited on 9-9-2018 by S.C. Wack]

Dr.Bob - 9-9-2018 at 16:50

I have seen occasional low prices on Amazon and Ebay, often when they are changing products out, moving locations, or other reasons, not always clear. But I have also gotten some items that way that were clearly damaged (like broken light bulbs, case of smashed bottles, missing parts, broken glassware, etc) where I think they hoped someone would not notice or complain. So bargains work both ways, they will often not offer anything but a complete return for broken items then. But if they mark a price and sell it to you, it is legally yours.

I am happy to try to help people do a group buy if the want a few of something. The issue with most Amazon/Ebay deals is that people want to sell a case of 24, 100, or 1000 of something. But if I can find a good deal, I am happy to split it across people, but the cost will include shipping to me then to the buyer, so it makes sense for a few of an item, but not a full case. That is how I ended up with some of the bottles I have.

monolithic - 9-9-2018 at 20:12

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob

I have seen occasional low prices on Amazon and Ebay, often when they are changing products out, moving locations, or other reasons, not always clear. But I have also gotten some items that way that were clearly damaged (like broken light bulbs, case of smashed bottles, missing parts, broken glassware, etc) where I think they hoped someone would not notice or complain. So bargains work both ways, they will often not offer anything but a complete return for broken items then. But if they mark a price and sell it to you, it is legally yours.

I am happy to try to help people do a group buy if the want a few of something. The issue with most Amazon/Ebay deals is that people want to sell a case of 24, 100, or 1000 of something. But if I can find a good deal, I am happy to split it across people, but the cost will include shipping to me then to the buyer, so it makes sense for a few of an item, but not a full case. That is how I ended up with some of the bottles I have.

Have you ever come across a cheap source of PTFE caps? I know that Specialty Bottle Supply carries relatively cheap Boston amber bottles, but I'm not sure the caps would hold up to solvents, etc.

JJay - 9-9-2018 at 21:23

I keep my bromine in a previously used 100 mL coated Boston round bottle that I got from Dr. Bob. It still has the Alfa Aesar bromine label attached. He also sent me a nice previously owned 125 mL media bottle with a poly coating and a PTFE-lined GL-32 cap that looks like it could be just perfect for dimethyl sulfate. My benzene is stored in a 250 mL coated square Pyrex media bottle under one of Dr. Bob's PTFE-lined caps. My nitric acid, chromic acid, and sulfuric acid are stored under PTFE in 1 L media bottles that I got from Dr. Bob, with the nitric acid in an amber bottle. While these bottles were not exactly cheap, they were competitively priced and looked perfectly clean, costing a small fraction of what they would have cost if I had bought them new. Professional labs might require new bottles, but used ones are great for amateurs.

I keep analytical reagents and products from microscale experiments in various small bottles, vials, and jars that I got from Dr. Bob. He has a splendid selection of small containers.

My various metal chlorides are stored in their original shipping containers inside multiple Ziplock bags. I keep fungi and plants in Ziplock bags. I also keep most of my homemade powders such as drying agents and acetates in Ziplock bags.

For storing ordinary lab reagents such as barium carbonate, potassium dichromate, sulfur, etc. that are not air sensitive or hygroscopic, I use retro-looking Karter Scientific reagent bottles with ground glass joints. Currently, I am using amber bottles for those, but I am thinking about switching to clear bottles.

I have a few slightly air-sensitive chemicals stored in plastic bottles that previously held sodium hydroxide. I use 500 mL Boston rounds with PTFE-lined caps for storing hydrochloric acid, purified toluene, acetic acid, DCM, etc. For bulk powders, I use 4 L juice bottles.

[Edited on 10-9-2018 by JJay]

Dr.Bob - 10-9-2018 at 08:45

It is very hard to find cheap PTFE lined caps by themselves. Often, the cost from Qorpak for the caps is as much or more each than the entire bottle costs in bulk. Plus, it is often hard to order just a few caps, they sell most by the 100 or 1000 pack. I do save caps from reagents, but few come with good caps now, so hard to get extras. That is why I always buy the bottles with PTFE caps to start with, as finding good deals on the caps is tough.

Elrik - 12-11-2018 at 11:35

Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman

For example, using bottles with PE caps, from my favourite chilli sauce. In my lab/shed these bottles are used to store many types of liquid

I would love to know what other solvents are stored successfully without damage or contamination in sauce bottles.
Good bottles abruptly became rare in my region and I hadnt thought to stockpile them. Now the best I can normally find are sauce bottles with what appear to be LDPE inner pouring caps and coloured polypropylene caps.
I expect these would be good for all alcohols and most aqueous solutions, as you said, and I expect they would not be good for low to moderate size ketones [MEK, cyclohexanone, etc.] but what about the aliphatic and aromatic series of solvents as well as esters? Particularly the lower ones like hexane, toluene, ethyl acetate, etc.
Does anything aside from low ketones soften, embrittle, or dissolve pigment from these caps?
Thanks

[Edited on 2018-11-12 by Elrik]

monolithic - 12-11-2018 at 16:40

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob

It is very hard to find cheap PTFE lined caps by themselves. Often, the cost from Qorpak for the caps is as much or more each than the entire bottle costs in bulk. Plus, it is often hard to order just a few caps, they sell most by the 100 or 1000 pack. I do save caps from reagents, but few come with good caps now, so hard to get extras. That is why I always buy the bottles with PTFE caps to start with, as finding good deals on the caps is tough.

I did some searching and found a source for reasonably priced caps. They sell them with no minimum quantities and the prices aren't bad.

https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23577&...

Mr. Rogers - 12-11-2018 at 16:56

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob

Qorpak sells the green caps individually if you buy them directly from their web site. They did, at least as of a few months ago.

Dr.Bob - 12-11-2018 at 17:27

Yes, they do, for almost as much as the entire bottle and cap in the cases that I looked. Plus they charge shipping and handling, so if you want to buy 5 caps, it might cost $10 with shipping. But if you can find the size you need, it might be OK, it depends a lot on the exact size and number you want. I needed a bunch, and they were pricey, found better sources from Ebay.

I still have some 60, 120 and 250 ml bottles in a few varieties, clear/amber, Boston round, french squares, medium and and wide mouth, and a few 120 ml amber plastic coated, almost all have PTFE lined green caps. I just sold a bunch of the 120 and 250s, but have some left. Also still have some vials and test tubes.