Home » Sources for Laboratory Supplies
You can obtain the equipment and chemicals needed to do the experiments in Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments from many sources. (Full disclosure: Other than as noted, we have no connection with or financial interest in any of the kits or sources we recommend on this page.)
The Home Scientist Kits
In
2011, we plan to begin offering specialty science kits through our own
company, The Home Scientist, LLC. The first of these kits will be a
microchemistry kit targeted at home schoolers, many of whom have asked
us if we could put together a kit that would provide a broad and
rigorous chemistry lab experience at low cost. Our goal for this
kit is to cover the full range of first-year chemistry lab topics in as
much depth as possible while not requiring a balance, volumetric
glassware, or other expensive items. The kit will include all necessary
equipment and chemicals other than common household items and those
inexpensively and readily available locally, and will include full
documentation on CD.
As of December 2010, we're still working on the kit, so we haven't yet fixed the price. We're trying hard to keep it at $175 or less, but rather than work to a fixed target price we'll give priority to breadth and depth of coverage.
We also plan to introduce other kits over the coming months and years, including kits for AP chemistry, first-year and AP biology, forensics, earth science, and physics.
As of December 2010, we're still working on the kit, so we haven't yet fixed the price. We're trying hard to keep it at $175 or less, but rather than work to a fixed target price we'll give priority to breadth and depth of coverage.
We also plan to introduce other kits over the coming months and years, including kits for AP chemistry, first-year and AP biology, forensics, earth science, and physics.
Equipment and Chemical Kits
Elemental Scientific offers hardware kits [1, 2] and chemical kits [3, 4, 5] that provide most of the specialty items you need to complete the experiments in the book. Obviously, these kits are to be
used only by an adult or under
adult supervision.
Balance
Any
home chemistry lab needs a decent balance,
which is obviously also useful for physics,
biology, forensics, and other sciences. We consider centigram
(0.01 g) resolution
the minimum
acceptable for serious home lab work, and a milligram (0.001 g) balance
is better.
Unfortunately, there's been a huge shake-up in the inexpensive balance market over the last few years. In one respect, that's good. Balance prices have fallen dramatically, and excellent balances can now be purchased for half or less what a similar balance would have sold for just a few years ago. In another sense, this shake-up has been very bad for balance buyers, because the market has been flooded with shoddy, no-name, Chinese-made balances, most of which are sold by one-person garage operations operating on eBay. (Not that all Chinese balances are bad; many well-known tradenames like Ohaus are now essentially just nameplates on good quality Chinese-made balances.)
The two biggest names in affordable home laboratory balances are My Weigh and Jennings, both of which have been around for decades. Although both of these companies now manufacture most or all of their balances in Chinese factories, both maintain high levels of quality control and customer support, and we recommend you choose a balance made by one of these manufacturers. (There are other good balance manufacturers such as Mettler and Sartorius, but their emphasis is on professional analytical balances that are much too expensive for a home lab.)
If you're on a tight budget, we recommend the Jennings JS-200XV pocket balance, which is available from numerous on-line vendors for under $50. With a capacity of 200 grams and resolution of 0.01 g, the JS-200XV is suitable for almost any home chemistry lab work, including quantitative analyses and AP chemistry experiments. In our testing, it showed excellent accuracy and repeatability for masses in the 0 to 30 gram range, and lower but still acceptable accuracy and repeatability for masses from 30 to 200 grams.
For the next step up, we recommend the My-Weigh iBalance 201, which is what we usually use our my own lab. The iBalance 201 is available from numerous on-line vendors, and typically sells in the $120 range. Its 200 gram capacity and 0.01 gram resolution are identical to the Jennings JS-200XV balance, but the iBalance 201 is considerably more robust and maintains excellent accuracy and repeatability across its entire range from 0 to 200 grams.
If you want a milligram balance, we suggest the Acculab VIC-123, which has a capacity of 120 grams and 0.001 gram resolution and sells in the $240 range.
Unfortunately, there's been a huge shake-up in the inexpensive balance market over the last few years. In one respect, that's good. Balance prices have fallen dramatically, and excellent balances can now be purchased for half or less what a similar balance would have sold for just a few years ago. In another sense, this shake-up has been very bad for balance buyers, because the market has been flooded with shoddy, no-name, Chinese-made balances, most of which are sold by one-person garage operations operating on eBay. (Not that all Chinese balances are bad; many well-known tradenames like Ohaus are now essentially just nameplates on good quality Chinese-made balances.)
The two biggest names in affordable home laboratory balances are My Weigh and Jennings, both of which have been around for decades. Although both of these companies now manufacture most or all of their balances in Chinese factories, both maintain high levels of quality control and customer support, and we recommend you choose a balance made by one of these manufacturers. (There are other good balance manufacturers such as Mettler and Sartorius, but their emphasis is on professional analytical balances that are much too expensive for a home lab.)
If you're on a tight budget, we recommend the Jennings JS-200XV pocket balance, which is available from numerous on-line vendors for under $50. With a capacity of 200 grams and resolution of 0.01 g, the JS-200XV is suitable for almost any home chemistry lab work, including quantitative analyses and AP chemistry experiments. In our testing, it showed excellent accuracy and repeatability for masses in the 0 to 30 gram range, and lower but still acceptable accuracy and repeatability for masses from 30 to 200 grams.
For the next step up, we recommend the My-Weigh iBalance 201, which is what we usually use our my own lab. The iBalance 201 is available from numerous on-line vendors, and typically sells in the $120 range. Its 200 gram capacity and 0.01 gram resolution are identical to the Jennings JS-200XV balance, but the iBalance 201 is considerably more robust and maintains excellent accuracy and repeatability across its entire range from 0 to 200 grams.
If you want a milligram balance, we suggest the Acculab VIC-123, which has a capacity of 120 grams and 0.001 gram resolution and sells in the $240 range.
Glassware
- Cynmar - extremely wide selection; student/student(+)/professional grades; vg/e prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- HMS Beagle - very wide selection; student/student(+)/professional grades; g/vg/e prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- Home Science Tools - moderate selection; student/student(+)/professional grades; g/vg prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- Nasco - extremely wide selection; student/student(+)/professional grades; g/vg prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- Science Kit - extremely wide selection; student(+)/professional grades; f/g/vg prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- United Nuclear - moderate selection; student/student(+) grade; g/vg prices; delivery times vary from fast to slow
Equipment
- Cynmar - extremely wide selection; student/student(+)/professional grades; vg/e prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- HMS Beagle - very wide selection; student/student(+)/professional grades; f/g/vg/e prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- Home Science Tools - moderate selection; generally student/student(+) grade; f/g/vg prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- Nasco - extremely wide selection; student/student(+)/professional grades; g/vg prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- Precision Weighing Balances - huge selection of balances at f/vg/e prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- Science Kit - extremely wide selection; student(+)/professional grades; f/g/vg prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- United Nuclear - moderate selection; generally student/student+ grade; f/g/vg prices; delivery times vary from fast to slow
Chemicals
- Cynmar1 - very wide selection; mostly lab and reagent grade; g/vg/e prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- HMS Beagle - extremely wide selection; mostly lab or reagent grade in small quantities; f/g/vg/e prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- Home Science Tools - wide selection; mostly lab grade or ungraded, but some reagent grade; f/g/vg prices; usually fast delivery on in-stock items
- United Nuclear - wide selection (mostly oxidizers/pyrotechnic); most reagent grade; g/vg/e prices; delivery times vary from fast to slow
- Readily Available Chemicals (alternative sources for many chemicals)
A Note about Elemental Scientific
Elemental Scientific has an extremely wide selection of equipment and chemicals at good to excellent prices. There is, however, a downside. Elemental can be extremely slow in filling orders and responding to email or telephone queries. It's a small operation and they are sometimes overwhelmed by orders. My own experience over several orders with Elemental has been mixed. In one case, I received my order the same week I placed it. In other cases, delivery took several weeks (even though they knew who I was). Some readers have reported some orders taking literally months to arrive, with repeated follow-up phone calls and emails being ignored.
I continue to provisionally recommend Elemental Scientific as a source because of their prices, selection, and history--they've been in business more than 50 years, originally as Hagenow Labs--but be aware that shipping delays are not uncommon with Elemental orders. If you want to take advantage of their prices and selection, I recommend that you order far in advance of when you actually need the materials.
Elemental Scientific has an extremely wide selection of equipment and chemicals at good to excellent prices. There is, however, a downside. Elemental can be extremely slow in filling orders and responding to email or telephone queries. It's a small operation and they are sometimes overwhelmed by orders. My own experience over several orders with Elemental has been mixed. In one case, I received my order the same week I placed it. In other cases, delivery took several weeks (even though they knew who I was). Some readers have reported some orders taking literally months to arrive, with repeated follow-up phone calls and emails being ignored.
I continue to provisionally recommend Elemental Scientific as a source because of their prices, selection, and history--they've been in business more than 50 years, originally as Hagenow Labs--but be aware that shipping delays are not uncommon with Elemental orders. If you want to take advantage of their prices and selection, I recommend that you order far in advance of when you actually need the materials.
Copyright ©2010 by
Robert Bruce Thompson. All Rights Reserved.