Cleaning Blix container?

[smigol]

I have some blix that's been in those plastic collapsible bottles. Recently when mixing up new chems, I noticed that the interior of the blix bottle is coated with a grey layer. I can rub it off with a finger, but not getting more from shaking the bottle a drop of soap.

Is it correct that this is silver? Would agitation with plain fixer do the job?

For reference, this bottle has only been used for E-6 processing.

[domaz]

Collapsible bottles are basically impossible to clean. There might not be a good way to do it short of painstaking work with a brush, or really strong nasty acids..

[Drew Wiley]

I'd fill it half full with warm water, shake it well, then fill it all the way, stand it upside down, and wait about a week, and see if anything loosens up. That has sometimes worked for me with Blix residue. But yeah, I agree that accordion bottles have issues; I stopped using them long ago.

[smigol]

Thanks for the voices of experience. I'll eventually stop using these things once I get more glass bottles.

[martiansea]

I reuse plastic bottles from flavored seltzer, the 1L ones are perfect. When they get gross, I just throw them out. I doubt they can be recycled after the chemical contamination. I reuse many times before they get tossed.
Glass bottles are good for some things, but when you need to squeeze the air out, the only option is to add marbles. Not interested in keeping a bucket of marbles around, or deal with cleaning marbles covered in various hazardous chemicals. I do use glass for those things where I don't worry about oxidation.

[Conrad . Marvin]

Some brown glass bottles cost way less than a box of film and will last a lot longer if you don’t drop them. A very good investment.

[Drew Wiley]

You can add inert argon gas, or the kind of inert vapor used to keep opened wine bottles fresh. My strategy (even better) : never mix more Dev or Blix than you need for a single day's session.

[martiansea]

You can add inert argon gas...
I don't see people having the ability to do this at home, since it requires more extensive apparatus than just a big tank of argon. And you'd need to know how to correctly do the evacuation procedure with said equipment. Marbles are the only real choice for someone who doesn't have a chemistry lab in their home. I realize some people's darkrooms practically are this, but those of us who do our developing in the kitchen don't have that luxury.

[Drew Wiley]

Incorrect. You can get the necessary supplies in small convenient volume at any wine-making shop or even on Amazon, little containers which are indeed marketed for ordinary kitchen use! No need to rent a big tank of argon with its valve, though some darkroom workers have done that, and it's not a big hassle at all. And when it comes to glass marbles, nobody does that industrially. But there are inert floating plastic spheres made for that specific purpose, available form lab suppliers or even general industrial supply houses like McMaster Carr. Even serious plastic jugs can be obtained with floating lids inside. By contrast, accordion-style darkroom bottles are made from cheap recycled thin plastic susceptible to oxygen penetration.

[koraks]

Marbles are the only real choice for someone who doesn't have a chemistry lab in their home.
Not necessarily. For instance, I keep a collection of glass bottles of various sizes at hand, so I can decant unused chemistry into an appropriately sized bottle as I use up small amounts. This works very well for C41 developer and RA4 blix, for instance.
The disadvantage of marbles IMO is that it's really hard to tell how much exactly you have left of something, especially if there's lots of marbles in the bottle already.

[Drew Wiley]

Yes indeed. When mixing more than you immediately need, divvy it up into full smaller glass bottles appropriate for individual sessions. I keep on hand full liter, 500 ml, and 250 liter bottles.