Deluxbert
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1000ml Beakers that i touch explode
So i seem to be cursed because i have the great luck of constantly breaking 1000ml beakers. Just today I was drying up some iron oxide in a beaker and
it just friggin popped. At 150C......
What a joke. How can it be that the vigreux i fixed myself by melting glass shards from bottles (not even boro) into the hole of a shattered finger
holds up (done with a shitty torch it even has tons of cracks but no leakage...) but 1000ml beakers just explode in my hands on contact...
First 1L beaker i had exploded in my hands. It wasnt even warm or anything. It was on the hotplate for some time and then i poured off the liquid in
it (Water) and let it cool. I had it in my hands (wasnt even noticably warm) and it just cracked when I added some tap water for cleaning.
What am i doing wrong. How can it be that nothing breaks for me no matter how badly i treat them but the 1L just friggin crack to hell. 
Is there something like a prayer or ritual I am missing to keep 1L beakers from exploding.
And no im not using cheap craptastic beakers. First one was a schott, last one was a simax.
But some friggin how chinese crapglass 100-500ml beakers take the same stuff without even taking a scratch.
In my chemist time I only broke one thing that wasnt a 1L beaker :a vigreux (not the one i repaired that one was dead on delivery) But that one broke
because a gosh darn metal bar dropped 1m on it.
6 1L beakers and counting.
I think i need to quit buying 1L beakers alltogether and just use flat round bottoms or erlenmeyers....
[Edited on 28-1-2018 by Deluxbert]
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NEMO-Chemistry
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Quote: Originally posted by Deluxbert  | So i seem to be cursed because i have the great luck of constantly breaking 1000ml beakers. Just today I was drying up some iron oxide in a beaker and
it just friggin popped. At 150C......
What a joke. How can it be that the vigreux i fixed myself by melting glass shards from bottles (not even boro) into the hole of a shattered finger
holds up (done with a shitty torch it even has tons of cracks but no leakage...) but 1000ml beakers just explode in my hands on contact...
First 1L beaker i had exploded in my hands. It wasnt even warm or anything. It was on the hotplate for some time and then i poured off the liquid in
it (Water) and let it cool. I had it in my hands (wasnt even noticably warm) and it just cracked when I added some tap water for cleaning.
What am i doing wrong. How can it be that nothing breaks for me no matter how badly i treat them but the 1L just friggin crack to hell.
Is there something like a prayer or ritual I am missing to keep 1L beakers from exploding.
And no im not using cheap craptastic beakers. First one was a schott, last one was a simax.
But some friggin how chinese crapglass 100-500ml beakers take the same stuff without even taking a scratch.
In my chemist time I only broke one thing that wasnt a 1L beaker :a vigreux (not the one i repaired that one was dead on delivery) But that one broke
because a gosh darn metal bar dropped 1m on it.
6 1L beakers and counting.
I think i need to quit buying 1L beakers alltogether and just use flat round bottoms or erlenmeyers....
[Edited on 28-1-2018 by Deluxbert] |
Buy 900ml ones
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JJay
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I have broken every beaker in my beaker set except for the 50 mL at least once. The 1000 mL spontaneously developed a star crack while sitting on a
counter holding some lukewarm solution. But the 100 mL usually breaks within a few weeks every time it is replaced, whether it is dropped, crushed,
struck, or exposed to ridiculous temperature extremes.
The 50 mL has never broken, perhaps because I usually use a test tube or a vial instead. The last three pieces of glassware I've broken have all
broken while I was cleaning them.
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j_sum1
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My 1000s are my favourite for breaking. Right now I have one sitting in my freezer in pieces. I put it there when I was halfway through some iodine
recovery and had to attend to real life. It was still ok the next day when the small amount of water in it had frozen. But it was not ok some time
between day 6 and day 7.
Darned annoying really. They cost a few bucks at that size. But then they cost a small fortune to have shipped.
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aga
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1L is the only size i've never broken, probably because they don't get used much.
Cleaning up is the main cause of glass breakage around here too.
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wg48
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[/rquote]Buy 900ml ones[/rquote]
Good practical advise LOL
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Deluxbert
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Yeah i do think i will only go for 950ml ones because man it sucks having to spend so much on stuff that will prolly break
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LearnedAmateur
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It might be an idea to work in smaller batches, I haven’t got any glassware with a capacity exceeding 250mL with the exception of a 500mL Erlenmeyer
that I never use. The only ones I’ve broken was when I started out and as a result of too fast heating - in fact I attempted to ‘fire cut’
(burning an ethanol soaked string wrapped around the glass then dumping into water) a broken 50mL separatory funnel and it didn’t even crack when
immersed in cold water!
In chemistry, sometimes the solution is the problem.
It’s been a while, but I’m not dead! Updated 7/1/2020. Shout out to Aga, we got along well.
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Texium
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Thread Moved
28-1-2018 at 07:18 |
highpower48
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Hmmmm, maybe use plasticware. Can't use for heat but lot of uses to have around. Best part you can get a whole selection of plasticware beakers for
less than price of one glass 1000ml beaker. Cheap enough that you can call them disposable. 
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NEMO-Chemistry
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| Quote: Originally posted by highpower48 | | Hmmmm, maybe use plasticware. Can't use for heat but lot of uses to have around. Best part you can get a whole selection of plasticware beakers for
less than price of one glass 1000ml beaker. Cheap enough that you can call them disposable. |
Yes you can, fischer do some. they gave away some freebees with a box of plasters. I forget the name of the plastic but I have a beaker, it takes heat
upto 130C i think
Nalgene or something like that its called
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Chemi Pharma
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@Deluxbert, try to avoid warm the beckers directly on the top of hotplates surfaces. The glass they were made is too thin, even they're borosilicate
made. Any thermal shock can break them easily.
Instead, try to put them inside a metal recipient (aluminum, stainless steel, or everything similar) plenty of water to warm it until 100ºC or motor
oil (for baths until 250ºC). The recipient must to be in contact with the hot plate, nor the becker.
When finished and the temperature have gone down, pick up the becker with gloves, not with your bare hands to avoid static eletricity and put it over
a non metal surface, or paper towels, never directly over the bench to avoid thermal shock and breakage of the glass.
If you do that and the beckers still breaking down, sorry, but you need to bless yourself in a hurry, cause you're certainly cursed (lol)
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zed
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Which brings us to a topic, I have been wondering about.
Coffee pots. Tough durable. Can take some heat, yet seldom break.
Well, turns out, some common brands.....are borosilicate glass.
https://www.amazon.com/HIC-Pour-Over-Coffee-Borosilicate-Sta...
https://www.amazon.com/Pour-Over-Slow-Coffee-Maker/dp/B0739W...
I'm gonna keep my eyes open at the local garage sales, and thrift stores.
[Edited on 28-1-2018 by zed]
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j_sum1
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A proportion of my beakers are repurposed coffee plungers.
No problems thus far.
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NEMO-Chemistry
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Fischer did a shit job by the look of it. I got three beakers off them. The link to free beakers was posted on the forum!! They sent out the beakers
and a set of plasters!!
Some even goto 250c !
https://www.thermofisher.com/uk/en/home/life-science/lab-pla...
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Rhodanide
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Beakers are nothing compared to specified glassware. You can buy a set of shiny new beakers for a quick buck, but when we're talking about
distillation adapters and such...
I thought I'd be smart and let my adapters sit in cool water overnight after I did my second WFNA run. Seeing as it was winter and it's cold as all
shit here in Maine, that was a big mistake. Came back in the morning to find my beautiful, delicate, ever-so-useful-but-not-anymore-because-f*ck-ice,
distillation adapters... all caked in solid ice, broken into three pieces each. Needless to say, my reaction was similar to that of Tom Cruise's in
"Rain Man". Except, replace the sand with snow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRjoCb2a_nk
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Vosoryx
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| Quote: Originally posted by Tetra | ...
I thought I'd be smart and let my adapters sit in cool water overnight after I did my second WFNA run. Seeing as it was winter and it's cold as all
shit here in Maine, that was a big mistake. Came back in the morning to find my beautiful, delicate, ever-so-useful-but-not-anymore-because-f*ck-ice,
distillation adapters... all caked in solid ice, broken into three pieces each. Needless to say, my reaction was similar to that of Tom Cruise's in
"Rain Man". Except, replace the sand with snow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRjoCb2a_nk |
I did that once with a condenser, and decided never to let it happen again. Nothing has been destroyed yet, but I might get careless one day.
"Open your mind son, before someone opens it for you." - Dr. Walter Bishop
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Sulaiman
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I too have had bad luck with 1l or more beakers,
(ok, I was careless) ... so far I've cracked
. a 1l hot horlicks mixer - pyrex
. a 1l cafetierre - toughened glass
. a 1.5l cafetierre - pyrex
. a 1l Griffin/low-form beaker - borosilicate
I had considered getting myself a nice Schott Duran 1l beaker
... untill I saw the cost. 
largest undamaged beakers are now 250ml 
so far I've not broken any beaker 250ml or less.
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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PirateDocBrown
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Stainless steel beakers are available.
Phlogiston manufacturer/supplier.
For all your phlogiston needs.
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unionised
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| Quote: Originally posted by Deluxbert | So i seem to be cursed because i have the great luck of constantly breaking 1000ml beakers. Just today I was drying up some iron oxide in a beaker and
it just friggin popped. At 150C......
[Edited on 28-1-2018 by Deluxbert] |
Were you using an oil bath or a sand bath?
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Reboot
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In many cases, 'breaking' from use is a drawn out process, with tiny fractures happening on many occasions for many reasons. Eventually the
microscopic cracks accumulate and join up to become big cracks.
A glassblower once told me that thinner glass is more resistant to thermal stress since it's more flexible and heats more evenly (low thermal mass.)
That may be, but it's more vulnerable to physical damage, which can make it more likely to be in a weakened state when it does come under thermal
stress.
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zed
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Ummm. I see the problem. A quick trip to e-bay, updated me on American/European Borosilicate prices. Not inexpensive anymore. In fact, the
opposite of inexpensive prevails.
Gotta pick and peck, vintage labware, or go Chinese. Generally, even Vintage Pyrex costs a fortune.
Well, I'll log an e-bay watch-out, for desired items, and lay in wait.
[Edited on 30-1-2018 by zed]
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