Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Laboratoriumdiscounter.nl ratings

I have ordered two times from them and my experience was good. Fast shipping and decent prices. I only ordered from their own brand chemicals (copper sulfate, hydrochloric acid 37%, sodium chlorite, potassium hydroxide, potassium chloride). Nothing really special, just replenishing stocks with cheap replacements. Purity of the materials is good.

Quite a few chemicals, however, are not shipped to private persons (e.g. nickel salts, cobalt salts, chloroform).

Ok, thanks a lot! I don't intend to buy anything fancy from them, just a couple of alcohols and organic acids and things of that ilk.
Basic stuff, the same as you. Thanks for the advice. Dank U veel!

teodor - 3-8-2021 at 08:22

labshop.nl is also a good shop for basic things. I would try to compare the prices but they are quite different - some things a more expensive, some things are less. The assortment is a modest one but the strong point is that usually everything is at home by the next day.

Keras - 3-8-2021 at 08:39

labshop.nl is also a good shop for basic things. I would try to compare the prices but they are quite different - some things a more expensive, some things are less. The assortment is a modest one but the strong point is that usually everything is at home by the next day.

Their website is in Dutch only?

teodor - 3-8-2021 at 08:51

Their website is in Dutch only?

Yep, this is a usual thing for the internet shops here. The exceptions are extremely rare.
They speak English quite fluently by phone & email.

Keras - 3-8-2021 at 09:37

Their website is in Dutch only?

Yep, this is a usual thing for the internet shops here. The exceptions are extremely rare.
They speak English quite fluently by phone & email.

Agreed, but that doesn't make navigating the thing any simpler. By chance, German serves quite a lot, when you have learnt what the correspondances between Dutch (~ Platt Deutsch) and German (~ Hoch Deutsch) look like…

teodor - 3-8-2021 at 10:23

Their website is in Dutch only?

Yep, this is a usual thing for the internet shops here. The exceptions are extremely rare.
They speak English quite fluently by phone & email.

Well, my native language is Russian (also I can easily understand many eastern-european), so on this basis I can compare Dutch, German and English chemical nomenclature unbiased. And I would say that the Dutch looks quite OK for me, but German and English names for compounds look quite strange. (These unique names for elements like Sodium, Potassium, Tungsten in English for example, and when I try to search compounds on es-drie (it also only in German) web site I feel lack of a true gothic keyboard).

Of course German was an official language of chemistry in the past, so the most texts will be never translated, and now this is my motivation to study German - otherwise I think my knowledge of chemistry will never get a good basis.

But Dutch shops are easy to navigate for me - if I need Natrium I go to letter N.

Keras - 3-8-2021 at 10:58

…but German and English names for compounds look quite strange. (These unique names for elements like Sodium, Potassium, Tungsten in English for example, and when I try to search compounds on es-drie (it also only in German) web site I feel lack of a true gothic keyboard).

Coming from French, English and German names are pretty familiar to me, but neither are Natrium, Kalium or Wolfram. Anyways, the differences are minor. French has also 'azote' instead of nitrogen. Anyways, thanks for the tip!

[Edited on 3-8-2021 by Keras]

karlos³ - 3-8-2021 at 12:45

Apfelsäure, Schleimsäure... *cough*

Strange, I just got told about this shop very recently, and was astonished about the cheap prices for certain solvents.
Also, I got told it is a fine supplier.

Haven't ordered yet, but the damn prices!
Absolutely great!

Tsjerk - 3-8-2021 at 13:44

https://www.deoplosmiddelspecialist.nl

Also a nice supplier, just be a bit careful when ordering chemicals they label is possible drug precursors, you might have to explain what you are planning on doing with them. Also some chemicals require an end user statement.

Fyndium - 3-8-2021 at 14:13

It is good chemistry knowledge to be informed of common alt names, at least for the most common stuff, like potassium(kalium), sodium(natrium), tungsten(wolfram), etc.

Whatever, copy-paste it to google and it will likely give you a lot of hints what it is better known to you.

draculic acid69 - 3-8-2021 at 16:40

Looked at the site and clicked on the letter P and first thing that I can see is palladium so I click on it and there is some very expensive palladium powder that looks very black.
My palladium powder is still a dull grey. I don't think it is supposed to be as dark
as it is in the picture . Then I clicked on propionic acid and it says €8 for a litre.
That sounds very cheap. I do not think I could buy it from China for that price. Then I clicked on acetic acid and its more expensive than the propionic acid then I clicked on platinum and for Pt powder there was the same black charcoal powder picture they had for Pd powder. These are what I would think are red flags usually but there's ppl above in the post saying that they have successfully ordered from there before so maybe they are all good.
Also if anyone wants platinum or palladium I can beat there prices by a lot. U2u for details if interested

[Edited on 4-8-2021 by draculic acid69]

Tsjerk - 3-8-2021 at 21:51

Google has whole website translation while you use it, even easier. I have used it on Russian forums, even the posts are very readable that way.

metalresearcher - 3-8-2021 at 22:38

Site looks nice, but they are more expensive than Onyxmet.

And under 'Elements' there are some errors: https://www.laboratoriumdiscounter.nl/en/chemicals/elements/

wrong symbols for two elements. F = Phosphorus, Pd = Lead ???

teodor - 4-8-2021 at 01:39

Some hint. When I need to know the name of a compound in different language I just go to wikipedia on this language (let say, wikipedia.de) enter the compound formula (let say, H2SO4), press "search" and then I get the compound article with the name as a title (Schwefelsäure).

Fyndium - 4-8-2021 at 02:11

In wiki, you can also just move your cursor over different languages and see the name of the page.

There are also some details of interest in different language, for example I like to check German wiki because sometimes it has some nice data about compounds and reactions that English doesn't.

Keras - 4-8-2021 at 02:40

Quote: Originally posted by draculic acid69

Looked at the site and clicked on the letter P and first thing that I can see is palladium so I click on it and there is some very expensive palladium powder that looks very black. My palladium powder is still a dull grey. I don't think it is supposed to be as dark
as it is in the picture.

I’m not sure I'd judge the purity of a powder out of a picture. There are too many parameters that can go wrong in colour rendition for it to be a good tell-tale of quality. Besides, it might just be a generic picture – spilling out platinum or palladium powder just to take a picture is taking a risk of losing some, to quite an appreciate financial loss.

Quote: Originally posted by draculic acid69

Then I clicked on propionic acid and it says €8 for a litre.
That sounds very cheap.

Properly what I wanted. I’m pretty happy with their prices for propionic acid and isopropyl alcohol that I use for household cleaning, too.

Quote: Originally posted by draculic acid69

Also if anyone wants platinum or palladium I can beat there prices by a lot. U2u for details if interested.

Interesting.

Keras - 4-8-2021 at 02:43

Also, did anyone try minerals-water.co.uk?

Tsjerk - 4-8-2021 at 07:35

Quote: Originally posted by metalresearcher

Site looks nice, but they are more expensive than Onyxmet.

And under 'Elements' there are some errors: https://www.laboratoriumdiscounter.nl/en/chemicals/elements/

wrong symbols for two elements. F = Phosphorus, Pd = Lead ???

Obviously they are no chemist's, phosphorus in Dutch is fosfor. Maybe the also have wrong pictures for some of their compounds, for example the palladium.

I got a bottle of their barium hydroxide, I believe the label said it was the octahydrate, and when I obviously used too much it turned out be the monohydrate, while the CAS number was for the anhydrate...

Fyndium - 4-8-2021 at 07:46

Reference pictures are just.. reference. Any white, grey or black powder will look just like that, same goes for any colorless liquid. Easier to just leave the pics off, because no one really cares about looking at those.

But messing up with hydrates and CAS numbers is a more serious matter in my books.

Keras - 4-8-2021 at 10:57

Quote: Originally posted by Fyndium

But messing up with hydrates and CAS numbers is a more serious matter in my books.

I agree. I've ordered a couple of commonplace chemicals. I’ll see what I get. Thanks for your inputs.

Tsjerk - 4-8-2021 at 11:03

Ah, I just checked that bottle, the CAS was correct for the monohydrate label, but it turned out to be the octahydrate...anyway, it was mislabeled.

Herr Haber - 7-7-2022 at 01:58

Order placed on the first of June, called on the 13th to say hello and get to know them.
I was told my order would leave the next day as they were waiting on ampoules.

Today is 7th of July, my order hasnt been shipped yet.

I'm pissed off and pretty sure I wont ever do business with them if they actually manage to ship me my order someday.

Keras - 7-7-2022 at 04:11

Quote: Originally posted by Herr Haber

Order placed on the first of June, called on the 13th to say hello and get to know them.
I was told my order would leave the next day as they were waiting on ampoules.

Today is 7th of July, my order hasnt been shipped yet.

I'm pissed off and pretty sure I wont ever do business with them if they actually manage to ship me my order someday.

I don’t think they should be held responsible. Frankly, delays have increased exponentially lately, and so did lead times. I had to wait quite a lot for my bottle of phosphorus pentoxide. It came from Roth. When I checked on the Roth website, directly, I saw that the lead time wasn't even available.

There’s shortage of everything these days. Now, what I do is ask them beforehand what they do have in stock in a list of reactants I want, and more or less tailor my orders to fit their own supplies. That way, I don’t have to wait.

Herr Haber - 7-7-2022 at 06:48

In the meantime I dropped a message on their chatbot and got a tracking number.
I hope their packaging is good. Those 144 ampoules were not cheap !

Tsjerk - 7-7-2022 at 07:03

Their packing is OK. I also got to know their shitty "yes, we are shipping tomorrow" which actually means next month. But in the end they ship...

Actually they even send me some items that were on backorder twice... The first time I got a package out of the blue. Normally they send a tracking number when actually sending something. Two weeks later I got a tracking number for the same parcel. I thought it was probably a late processing of the first order or something. But the next day I actually got the package a second time....

I didn't tell them, if they would have perfect spot-on customer service every time I probably would. But they even screwed me by combining two orders and then delaying the one order with the item of the separate order... So no, this double delivery is mine.

I don't know how easily deoplosmiddelspecialist sends abroad, and they also put items on backorder, but at least they ship what they have got and don't delay the complete order because one item is not available.

[Edited on 7-7-2022 by Tsjerk]

woelen - 7-7-2022 at 11:27

Laboratoriumdiscounter is quite good to my opinion. I wrote a review about that shop and gave them 7 out of 10 points and told that if things were organized better, then they would get 9 or even 10 points. The quality of their products is good, or sometimes even excellent. One of my recent orders contained HBr 48% for a very competitive price and the liquid really is clear, just a very very pale yellow, when you are looking through a liter of liquid in the long direction of the bottle. I have had HBr 48% before from other sellers and the liquid I obtained always was looking like piss. I have similar experience with their CuSO4.5H2O and their DMF. No smelly shitty half-decomposed stuff, but nearly odorless, perfectly colorless.

I placed several orders. With two of them, I had to wait and send reminders, or I received a partial shipment and had to wait a long time for the remaining part. The other orders just went fine, I received them in two days. I told them in my review, that it is my impression, that if things go according to the standard order handling process, then things are fine, but if an exception occurs somewhere in the process, then their organization is not prepared to handle the exception in the right way. They must improve that. I received a positive response to my review and they admitted that things could be improved. Since then, I already ordered two times again (one order of DMF and methanol, and some pyridine and diisopropyl ether), and both orders went smoothly.

I also have good experience with deoplosmiddelspecialist. They even sell 30% NaClO3 (solution in water). This is within EU-regulations, but allows hobbyists to obtain pure chlorates at a decent price. I intend to use it for experiments in making perchlorate of it by means of electrolysis. Unfortunately, deoplosmiddelspecialist hardly ships anything abroad. Only really innocuous things are shipped abroad. Inside the Netherlands they ship nearly everything for very reasonable shipping costs. Only some items need ADR-shipping, e.g. NaBH4.

Keras - 7-7-2022 at 23:17

To top it up with their slightly messy way to handle things, I happened once to order calcium hypochlorite and received potassium nitrate instead. Since ordering KNO₃ requires normally an EUA, I was happy to keep it and just ordered calcium hypocrite again, which I received fine at the next shipment.

They must be quite a few working there, and they have considerably expanded their offer, which inevitably leads to mishaps and blunders. The non-chemical stuff they sell is not as attractive, though. Some items are fairly priced, but most of them are very dear, even by ‘current’ standards.

[Edited on 8-7-2022 by Keras]

Herr Haber - 13-7-2022 at 00:50

All things considered, a normal experience so far.
Everything you mentioned: from "yes we ship tomorrow" to having to wait a month wondering if anyone has seen my order I have experienced personnally from several big lab suppliers. It's *not* a Laboratoriumdiscounter thing only.
Sometimes I've received a little bit more (actually, everyone from whom I bought 2.5 liters of anything ended up sending me 3x1l. Shame, I could reuse 2.5l jugs for liquid waste.)
Other times I received the wrong items, partials were sent without notice (up to 4 for 1 order from my main supplier but they know me best). When I order several size HDPE jars with inner lids and caps and all 3 arrive in separate parcels I wonder what kind of dope their logistics department runs on ! :mad:

But back on the order. I assume they didnt ship because some chemicals were missing. And... uh... 10 disposable scalpels. I couldnt have thought these would be on backorder

The missing chemicals are quite common so a bit of a suprise aswell. Oh well, I can do with alternatives for a while.
As Tsjerk said, the packaging is OK. Actually, I would call that excellent and it's one of my main criteria when I decide if I want to continue working with a supplier.
My next order will include ADR and a couple of "intent of use" (for acetone ? really ?). I guess I'll see how they deal with that.
I was surprised the 0.5L THF was sent in an UN HDPE bottle instead of a metal can (and no ADR though the same amount of diethyl ether would be). I know these things are sturdy but against THF ?
I'm thinking about repackaging this to an Al bottle.

Agree with your ratings and reasons Woelen. I would compare them to APC Pure (UK) I saw you mention their HBr but already have a little bit. Enough for the little bromate I have.
Not nearly enough to fill 144 ampoules with bromine

Those 10ml ampoules are just beautiful, excellent, perfect quality. Thinking about all the possibilities I now have makes me giddy. Displays, gifts, pre-weighting sensitive chemicals... Oh, that's gonna be fun !
Price is high but it'll save so much time, hazards, thinking over test tubes that It's a non issue.
But all that will have to wait ! Vacation time next week !

teodor - 9-1-2024 at 04:43

20th March 2023: a Hempel column with vacuum jacket was ordered
Several monthes later: when it will be delivered? The answer: in 2-3 weeks.
24th October 2023: please make the moneyback
few days later: they asked my bank account number. I provided it.

still nothing: no column, no money on my account ....

So, I wouldn't recommend this supplier.

[Edited on 9-1-2024 by teodor]

Fery - 12-1-2024 at 05:54

I have also very bad experience with them. I ordered only once from them and that was also the last time (beginning of January 2023). I received only some of the items, only after few emails and only after few months. Asking for returning money for missing items required repeated emails (I had money back in October 2023). Waste of time ordering from them and apparently for some less lucky people also financial loses. Never ever again!

Raid - 13-2-2024 at 08:45

I might try ordering some methylamine from this site and see how it goes. It's surprising to find it for as cheap as it is.

Texium - 13-2-2024 at 10:15

Quote: Originally posted by Raid

I might try ordering some methylamine from this site and see how it goes. It's surprising to find it for as cheap as it is.

Ordering methylamine from overseas sounds like a fine way to invite the DEA into your home. You might want to reconsider.

Raid - 13-2-2024 at 11:18

Quote: Originally posted by Texium

Quote: Originally posted by Raid

I might try ordering some methylamine from this site and see how it goes. It's surprising to find it for as cheap as it is.

Ordering methylamine from overseas sounds like a fine way to invite the DEA into your home. You might want to reconsider.

Indeed, I'll make sure to let everyone know if I get raided.
I'm decent at explaining my way out of things so I think that I'll be fine.

Texium - 13-2-2024 at 12:01

That may be so (though I doubt it), but how would your parents feel about the DEA coming to knock?

Raid - 13-2-2024 at 17:36

Your allowed to posses methylamine if you do not have the intent to manufacture illicit materials with them. I just need as its a very good reducing agent.

[Edited on 14-2-2024 by Raid]

AnonGuy - 14-2-2024 at 15:45

It appears they only ship within EU?.....

woelen - 15-2-2024 at 00:30

Methylamine is not such a good reductor, actually, it's only weeakly reducing. Even dichromate is not reduced to chromium(III) by methylamine or methylammonium ion.
As a gas at high temperature, it acts as a reductor, e.g. it is flammable (much more so than NH3), but solutions in water are only weakly reducing. If you want a decent reductor, then use hydrazine hydrate. That is much more reducing (but also much more toxic).

[Edited on 16-2-24 by woelen]

Raid - 18-2-2024 at 17:24

Methylamine is not such a good reductor, actually, it's only weeakly reducing. Even dichromate is not reduced to chromium(III) by methylamine or methylammonium ion.
As a gas at high temperature, it acts as a reductor, e.g. it is flammable (much more so than NH3), but solutions in water are only weakly reducing. If you want a decent reductor, then use hydrazine hydrate. That is much more reducing (but also much more toxic).

[Edited on 16-2-24 by woelen]

Thanks for the info, I had some aq. hydrazine but it was a bit annoying to synthesis due to the equilibrium reaction. And I just don't really like working with it that much.

woelen - 12-6-2024 at 05:55

20th March 2023: a Hempel column with vacuum jacket was ordered
Several monthes later: when it will be delivered? The answer: in 2-3 weeks.
24th October 2023: please make the moneyback
few days later: they asked my bank account number. I provided it.

still nothing: no column, no money on my account ....

So, I wouldn't recommend this supplier.

[Edited on 9-1-2024 by teodor]

How is the status of this order now?

At the start of March, I ordered 500 grams of tetramethylammonium chloride and 500 ml of aqueous trimethylamine. The trimethylamine was shipped fairly quickly after ordering, but I did not receive the tetramethylammonium chloride. After well over two months, I contacted them about the tetramethylammonium chloride and it appeared that they had no back-order to their supplier TCI for that compound. This was due to some error in their process. When I ordered, the tetramethylammium chloride was not in stock at TCI. Apparently, at that time, they did not order it and put my order on status 'nalevering', which means something like 'subsequent delivery'. When TCI had this chemical in stock again, they did not order it and so, my order kept status 'nalevering' indefinitely

I called them, and after the call, they ordered the chemical at TCI, and a week later, it was shipped. So, after some action from my side, things were OK.

In the meantime I also had another order, some Na2S2O8, some Al-sulfate and some triethanolamine. This order I received just a few days after ordering.This was last week.

So, all in all, Laboratoriumdiscounter to my opinion still is a good seller with a nice selection of chemicals, but their internal business processes still can be improved, especially if there is some non-happy flow in their processes.

teodor - 12-6-2024 at 11:08

How is the status of this order now?

Well, I wrote some not-so-friendly email to them and after that I've got the moneyback with the suggestion "the fastest way to contact us is by using the “My Account”. There is still some KOH ordered 1-2 years ago and still not delivered.

Now I would buy things like the hempel column from glasatelier-saillart.be. Jan Saillart is very accurate in doing business but most of things usually takes 3 weeks to be back-ordered and delivered, but in my situation I've lost more than 1 year writing kindly emails and waiting promises from laboratoriumdiscounter.

I am making some rearrangements in my laboratory so I (hope temporarily) suspended buying new chemicals/equipment, instead I am ordering some microscope equipment from Zeiss as well as acoustical equipment for performing my sound experiments (as you can imagine in the same room). Well, I don't see the same situation with business processes in other shops/companies - I contacted many small sellers last year for very specific studio equipment all over the globe. But by some reason all kind of funny things last years happen only with chemical suppliers.

Keras - 12-6-2024 at 11:46

How is the status of this order now?

Now I would buy things like the hempel column from glasatelier-saillart.be. Jan Saillart is very accurate in doing business but most of things usually takes 3 weeks to be back-ordered and delivered, but in my situation I've lost more than 1 year writing kindly emails and waiting promises from laboratoriumdiscounter.

I didn't know that glass blower. Has a lot in his catalog. A pity he is on the wrong side of Belgium!

teodor - 12-6-2024 at 23:45

... A pity he is on the wrong side of Belgium!

)))

Why do you have no such good glassblowlers in the proper part?

By the way, I bought a spiral condenser made by themselves, it is of top quality.

[Edited on 13-6-2024 by teodor]

Keras - 13-6-2024 at 03:17