Best glass bottle type for storage: clear, amber or cobalt blue?

[jimzilla]

Am curious about preferences and reasons for selecting glass bottles for nic or juice storage. I assume that protection from light is not critical if the bottles are kept in the dark, so clear (which allows inspection of liquid color changes) may be better than amber or blue bottles.

Also, cobalt blue bottles are quite attractive but is there any chance of cobalt compounds leaching into the liquid? Cobalt blue itself has some toxicity concerns for our application (per wikipedia: cobalt blue is toxic when inhaled or ingested) but only if it can get into the liquid. Probably not an issue but who knows (or do you?).

What type of glass bottles do you use and why do you prefer this type?

 

[yzer]

I like the amber Boston round bottles. I ordered a half dozen from Home Science this winter. They work great. You can probably find a lower price elsewhere, if you like. These arrived in perfect shape, well packed and clean.

Chemistry Bottles & Jars | glass & plastic

I don't know if there is any real advantage to using cobalt blue or amber glass. Both probably block light equally well. The tinting of either will be inert and held by the glass. The color won't contaminate the bottle contents. Cobalt blue is prettier but I really don't care that much about color coordinating the stuff in my freezer.

The caps are important. Look for Bakelite caps with a Poly-Seal insert. Boston round bottles from Home Science come with these.

Black Phenolic Screw Cap, 28-400 - Total Pharmacy Supply

 

[eikon]

According to beer brewers, Amber protects from UV best, cobalt is next, then green. Clear provides no UV protection. If you are keeping it in the dark it is just personal preference. It is doubtful that any cobalt will leach into the liquid, it has been used in glass production for thousands of years, so i think we would have heard if there were problems

I love the blue for mixed juices, I'm not that worried about light, and they are just so dang purdy.

on a different note, if you get the ones with the droppers, opt for the white ones. The black rubber breaks down over time and can (after a year or so) give lovely rubber undertones to your juice.

 

[john333]

I bought mine from SpecialityBottle. I got a gallon each of pg and vg and store them on a dark shelve in 32oz brown round bottles. My nicotine is stored in my freezer with cobalt blue bottles. My reason for colored bottles is to simply keep out the light. The bottles I mix in are clear so I can see the liquid and how they might change over time. The liquids I mix in the clear bottles I don't worry about since they wont sit around for a long period of time. I force myself not to mix a lot of recipes in order to not have a bunch of half empty bottles sitting around.

As to cobalt in glass - some people will argue as to weather glass is a solid or a liquid. It sure seems like a solid but...take a look at a two hundred year old window pane. The glass at the bottom of the pane will be thicker than the glass at the top of the pane. good luck

 

[jimzilla]

Great tips, all. I've been using all three types but your insights are greatly appreciated!

 

[xbassman]

I like the amber Boston round bottles. I ordered a half dozen from Home Science this winter. They work great. You can probably find a lower price elsewhere, if you like. These arrived in perfect shape, well packed and clean.

Chemistry Bottles & Jars | glass & plastic

I don't know if there is any real advantage to using cobalt blue or amber glass. Both probably block light equally well. The tinting of either will be inert and held by the glass. The color won't contaminate the bottle contents. Cobalt blue is prettier but I really don't care that much about color coordinating the stuff in my freezer.

The caps are important. Look for Bakelite caps with a Poly-Seal insert. Boston round bottles from Home Science come with these.

Black Phenolic Screw Cap, 28-400 - Total Pharmacy Supply

Home Science is a good vendor.
I've ordered there as well....

I've got a few glass droppers that fit the Boston round bottles.
Can't quite remember where I got those though.....

 

[frankfennel]

I also read a few times that amber keeps light out better than cobalt blue or green. There's an experament done by a vendor I think that shows the depletion of nicotine overtime in clear vs amber etc and in a windowsill vs drawer etc. Clear's nice because you don't have to label it and can see what flavor a juice is by the color.

I agree that polycone lids are a must, and I'd rather use a syringe than worrying about a dropper cap melting into the juice. Euro dripper bottles I head are a mess with e-juice and barely drip thick juice if your carto/clearo/etc will even work with a euro dripper.

It's so much easier to just fill a tank with a plastic dropper bottle, but of course, it's plastic which we don't want. I had juice in glass jars with f217 liners and they leaked because aparently a gas built up in them or something because the lids sort of warped a bit and slowly leaked. The polycone caps give the best seal and I hope they don't melt like dropper bottle tops. I wanted Jars as opposed to lids because they don't fall over as easily loose in a drawer and you can get your fingers in there to clean them better than a bottle which you have to cap and shake vigurously or put in the dishwasher or put a paper towel or something on a stick to get into and scrub now and then. But I haven't found large jars with polycone lids and have been searching the past couple days. Mason jars eventually rust on the lid's underside, but the mason jars with the metal latch clasp and rubber rings might work.

 

[yzer]

Yes, cone shaped Poly-Seal cone liners are the best. Just don't over tighten them when you screw on the cap. You only need to snug them down. If overtightened you can cut the seal with the bottle lip or permanently distort them, preventing re-use. Lab people learn this with experience. Boston round bottles are very easy to pour without a lot of mess or dripping, even with VG.

 

[Mowgli]

bump bump b

 

[FACE MEAT]

Drink a Newcastle out of a bottle then drink a Newcastle out of a can or on tap. The bottled version will taste like a skunk's business end, whereas the canned / draught version will taste like the beer it's supposed to be. Same goes for Corona, Stella Artois, etc.

The energy in light wreaks havoc on the volatile compounds contained in a liquid stored within. The effect may be more or less severe depending upon the ingredients used in said liquid.

Whenever possible, I use brown glass. When brown glass isn't available, it's stored away from light.