What goes wrong

It was not sterile

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A clean container was treated as sterile Which contaminates the result, not the container HDPE was autoclaved We cannot tell you which of ours survive it The cap was tightened for the cycle Thermal shock cracked the glass The liner degraded and nobody looked The media had no date on it A reagent bottle was reused for a specimen Buy the right thing for the sterile step References

We do not record autoclavability. Which is the honest start of this page.

A clean container was treated as sterile

Washed, dried and capped is clean. Sterile is a validated process with a record, and for culture work the difference appears as a colony that should not be there.

Which contaminates the result, not the container

A plate with an unexpected organism is a question nobody can answer afterwards: was it the sample, the media, the bottle or the bench.

HDPE was autoclaved

Polyethylene is not the material chosen for autoclave duty. Polypropylene is, and glass is, and there are 13 polypropylene and 103 glass containers here against 154 HDPE.

We cannot tell you which of ours survive it

Our catalog records material, capacity and neck finish, not autoclavability. That is a question for the manufacturer with the bottle, closure and liner all named.

The cap was tightened for the cycle

A sealed container in an autoclave is a pressure vessel. Caps go on loosely for the cycle and are tightened after, and the one that was tightened first deforms or bursts.

Thermal shock cracked the glass

Molten agar into a cold bottle, or a hot bottle onto a wet bench. Media work cycles between autoclave temperature and a water bath, repeatedly, in the same vessel.

The liner degraded and nobody looked

Cycled to sterilisation temperature many times, a liner hardens, cracks and stops sealing. The bottle looks perfect and the media dries out over a month.

The media had no date on it

Which is the quiet one. A bottle of clear medium with no made-on date gets used, and the experiment it ruins is not traced back to it.

A reagent bottle was reused for a specimen

Different regime, different requirements, and nothing about a reagent bottle makes it a specimen container. The four leaves we do not make are the ones this happens to.

Buy the right thing for the sterile step

Pre-sterilised where sterility is the requirement, autoclavable where you will sterilise it yourself and the manufacturer says so, and our bottles for everything that is neither.

References

The archetype behind this shelf is ind-lab: 10 to 1,000 mL, narrow mouth, glass and HDPE, cold fill, thin, aqueous, with "reagent or sample, autoclavability and chemical resistance" as its stated reason. The capacity window fits. Autoclavability is the word that matters most for this craft and our catalog does not record it for any product.

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 19 October 2026. The diagnostics and lab shelf is 600 rows: 270 containers and 330 closures. 5 mL to 946 mL with a median of 118; 71 containers at 30 mL or under, 105 at 60 or under, 154 at 120 or under, 248 at 500 or under. 154 HDPE, 103 glass, 13 PP, and no PET. 246 bottles, 19 jars, 3 jugs, 2 tubes. 97 white, 57 natural, 35 clear, 28 amber. Closures: 163 continuous thread, 44 child resistant, 32 dropper assemblies, 27 spouted, 19 flip top, 14 phenolic, 7 buttress, 6 specialty, 5 dome lids.

Written from 49 CFR 173.199 and 173.134, and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. Nothing here is offered as a compliant primary receptacle for a regulated shipment: the pressure and drop requirements attach to a tested assembly, not to a bottle. Category A infectious substances are a different packaging instruction entirely and are not summarized. Sterility is not claimed for any product, and what a laboratory will accept is the laboratory's to say.