I had Ansco 130 in a plastic liter Coke bottle for three years. When I finally got around to using it, it was fine. I've had Dektol in 16 oz. Coke bottles for two years, and it was fine when I used it.
Previous comments about needing glass for long-term storage are inaccurate. Fill them us until there's no air, and screw on the cap.
Bruce Barlow
author of "Finely Focused" and "Exercises in Photographic Composition"
www.brucewbarlow.com
Since I purchased your DVD/book (which I like very much) I will follow your advice - besides, there seems to be a shortage of amber glass bottles in my particular end of the forest.Originally Posted by Bruce Barlow
Call your local pharmacist and ask how much a 16oz cough syrup bottle will be. These are usually brown in color and have safety caps. They used to be glass but now are plastic. I've used them for years with HC-110, and I think they were less than 50 cents.
I would presume that they have to be gas impermeable, though (which soda bottles would be).
I bought a case of small mason jars, under $10. Each one holds pretty much the exact amount for one "run" in my Jobo, so it is great.
A good lab supply catalog will list the characteristics of each material. Often we use
developers with a lot of sodium sulfite which tend to oxidize slowly. But for critical work
I would never, ever dream of using anything but amber glass bottles. In fact, I gave up
on plastic bottles a long time ago except for stop bath and fixer, and have had very
good reasons for doing so. Just try making color separation negatives or precision masks for color work, and you will indeed recognize the distinction!
The problem with using glass containers for darkroom chemicals is that they tend to shatter, and the contents will splatter when dropped on a hard floor.
As a student, many years ago, a glass bottle of glacial acetic acid accidentally slipped out of my hand. I'll never forget the mess it made when it hit the hard tiled floor. Luckily, eyeglasses protected my eyes from the splatter. It took months to get rid of the acrid odor that permeated the entire building.
I learned my lesson the hard way. No glass containers in my darkroom!
Acids are one of those things which store well in polyethylene. Obviously. safety is always a primary concern.
Back (waaaaay back) in high school me and my pal Harry Chin got to work as lab asistants for the chemistry teacher. I remember row upon row of amber glass jars with ground glass stoppers, each embossed with the names of different reagents---cool! I wonder what happened to them? Anyway I prefer amber glass jugs---perhaps plastic ones are just as good---I don't really know for sure but I also use plastic bottles for chemicals where it seems appropriate (I have quite a collection of amber jugs with bakelite screwtops---I shoot a lot of 8x10 and chemicals are nearly always mixed in gallon size batches---most of these jugs formerly contained Robatussen and were generously given to me by a compounding pharmacist)
The 16 ouncers I needed are for the two parts for Farmer's Reducer.
The 32 ouncer plastic bottle I had wasn't a Delta but a Kalt--my mistake! It is now containing 32 oz. of Hydrogen peroxide from the two 16 ouncers I got at Wal Mart.
Just in case anyone wanted an update
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
Re: Plastic bottles for photo chemicals
Glass bottles are far better than plastic. Yoo can get used brown bottles up to gallon jugs at your local drug store. And you can look for beer in quart brown bottles, you need to find plastic caps that will fit because metal ones will corrode.
There are always safety coated glass bottles:
http://www.labsafety.com/store/Lab_S...s/35616/28787/
If you must handle nasty stuff, a plastic coated glass bottle reduces the breakage issue.
C
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