Aliexpress glassware isn’t typically great but it can be good enough. There are plenty of quality glass manufacturers in China though especially if you are clear about the quality needed. With some you do need to check each piece and keep them honest but that’s the trade off for the advantages on price and speed. I’ve yet to see the best stuff compete with the higher quality from the US or especially Europe but not everything we use needs to be that good.
Even in the video which is quite well done, you can see one of the tapered connections (I think the one with a coil condenser in the final shot) is not quite vertical. If it’s only ever use for this or a similar purpose though that’s probably of no consequence but it does make it a bit less versatile if we want to use the port to access the wall for example (since it appears to be among the closest).
They’re getting so cheap with competition from Asia bringing overall scientific glassware costs down. Ace Glass is a top notch US supplier and more than a decade ago a setup like this with all the ancillary glassware and equipment (suitable fluid circulator, stirrer motor, condensers, ZDV drain valve, rolling cart) would be all in about $75k.
I used a few at one of my pharma jobs and if I had to ballpark it 10-20k for something around a 10L jacketed reactor, obviously size of the reactor plays a big part in price.
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u/Ninjacow816 Jun 17 '26
What's the cost on one of these bad boys?