Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Amazon experiences

amazingchemistry - 31-5-2013 at 19:48

I just wanted to ask (because for some reason it did not occur to me before) what your experience, if any, is when buying reagents and equipment from amazon.com. Here's what got me excited:

Nitric Acid 1M
http://www.amazon.com/Hanna-Instrument-HI70445-Nitric-Soluti...

Sulfuric Acid 98%
http://www.amazon.com/Concentrated-Sulfuric-Acid-Pure-H2S04/...

Nitric Acid 67%
http://www.amazon.com/67-2%25-Nitric-475ml-Bottle-Teflon/dp/...

Sodium Hydroxide
http://www.amazon.com/Sodium-Hydroxide-Grade-Devil-Caustic/d...

Kimax Flasks
http://www.amazon.com/Kimble-26520-1-Borosilicate-Kimax-Erle...

Microscale Organic Kit
http://www.amazon.com/Kimble-Polyethylene-Standard-Threaded-...

There seem to be a fair share of "vaporware" sellers out there, so I wanted to know if you had any suggestions or tips. Among the offers that give me second thoughts:

Benzoic Acid (Lab Grade)
http://www.amazon.com/Benzoic-Acid-Grade-Crystal-Gram/dp/B00...

[Edited on 1-6-2013 by amazingchemistry]

[Edited on 1-6-2013 by amazingchemistry]

plante1999 - 31-5-2013 at 19:56

None, but I know that theses reagents/material are sold for too much, and worth less than that. Find a better supplier.

amazingchemistry - 31-5-2013 at 19:58

True, but you pay partly for convenience and purity (mostly the convenience of not having to make things like nitric acid from, say, pennies and battery acid)

chemcam - 31-5-2013 at 20:30

The only link I opened was the 475ml 67% nitric acid and that is way too expensive I get 2.5L ACS 70% HNO3 for $50 you should look for actual chemical suppliers in your area. It took me a month of research but I now have 2 local suppliers that have great prices.

hyfalcon - 1-6-2013 at 01:36

dudadiesel has good prices. That's where I get my nitric acid.

amazingchemistry - 1-6-2013 at 10:45

thanks to the urging of chemcam + a couple of hours of going through google searches and arcived discussions, I have found a nice little cache of suppliers. I'd still be interested on your feedback regarding amazon though, because of how ubiquitous it is

chemcam - 1-6-2013 at 11:08

Quote: Originally posted by amazingchemistry  
thanks to the urging of chemcam + a couple of hours of going through google searches and arcived discussions, I have found a nice little cache of suppliers. I'd still be interested on your feedback regarding amazon though, because of how ubiquitous it is


Good for you! Glad you took my advice! I have never purchased chemicals off amazon but I have used eBay many times. The reason I don't use amazon is because usually it's cheaper elseware. Here is an example, your benzoic acid on amazon is $44 but on ebay it is $30 for same amount and by Alfa Aesar. eBay - Benzoic Acid Then at my local supplier it's even less at $23 for ACS. All were 500g

Hexavalent - 1-6-2013 at 13:42

I think I paid ~£5 (~$7.60) for 800 g of benzoic acid of unknown purity on eBay.

Upon checking the melting point, I would say it is of ACS reagent grade quality; it melted at 122oC - 123oC, which perfectly matches literature values. It is a white, glistening solid, and has never failed in any of the reactions I have used it for.

[Edited to correct currency symbols]

[Edited on 1-6-2013 by Hexavalent]

DougTheMapper - 2-6-2013 at 05:53

The nitric acid is a huge rip. They want $75 plus the $27.50 hazmat shipping fee.... so $102.50 for less than 500ml? What a joke!

Get the sulfuric acid and then some crap nitrate salt on eBay and make it yourself with a distillation set. But not on Amazon!

http://www.dudadiesel.com/search.php?query=sulfuric This is the website of that Amazon seller with the sulfuric. For the same price as the nitric you can get almost 5 gallons of H2SO4. I can vouch for them as a reputable supplier. They also have lots of other chems.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-lb-Potassium-Nitrate-Gold-Refining... KNO3 at less than $3 per pound plus shipping.

I'm not sure what side of chemistry you'd like to explore with these reagents but for me the fun part is figuring out how to get high quality reagents from off-the-shelf products before I do an actual experiment with them. It saves me a lot of money to just pick up crap at the hardware/paint store and refine it myself. Also, there's the extra lab experience that comes with all of that, and you learn how to deal with gels and foaming and processing gases and all sorts of fun stuff.



[Edited on 2-6-2013 by DougTheMapper]

Fantasma4500 - 2-6-2013 at 06:31

woah.. didnt EVER expect even the british amazon to hold all of these things!!!
were talking 99.9% anhydrous acetic acid!!

something broke my mind tho, 333£ for 500g sodium persulfate
thats alot
ill spend the rest of my day browsing every single chemical supplier here.. beatiful!! :')
anyways legit suppliers usually hold more than one thing

annaandherdad - 3-6-2013 at 09:49

I recently bought some iron powder from Amazon. I wanted it pretty fine, and Amazon had 300 mesh for a good price. It was cheaper than anything on ebay.

GreenD - 3-6-2013 at 11:06

dudadiesel is legit. have sulfuric from them

Variscite - 3-6-2013 at 21:16

I ordered a set of (5) Corning Pyrex graduated beakers from Amazon the other day.
The set cost me $22, the graduations looked a bit weird, but compared to what else I could find, the brand quality associated with Pyrex and the price made it a seemingly good deal. The reviews on it looked good and the rating was 4.6/5.
You never know what you will get though. I will update this post once I receive them.

Dr.Bob - 4-6-2013 at 06:41

There are many good sources of glassware on Amazon, many are overpriced, due to Amazon's high fees, high shipping costs, and restrictive rules, but once you buy something from a vendor, you can often deal directly with them in the future. Plus, in many cases, you can see from what state they ship from, which would let you search for local companies.

Ebay also has lots of glassware and many other items, more variability than Amazon, but you have much more chance of finding good deals, negotiating prices, and finding more unique things than on Amazon.

Buying chemicals from either requires some knowledge of what you are doing, so that you 1) don't get ripped off, 2) don't order something with major restrictions or other red flags that will get you a visit from someone, or 3) buy the wrong thing.

sonogashira - 4-6-2013 at 09:59

Looks like a scam.