Think of it as high-tech recycling. We can and do repair all sorts of laboratory glassware; any items much more complex than beakers and testtubes are fair game. Individually, each piece of broken lab glass is a unique situation although the fix is often straight forward: reattach or replace a new joint, thread, or stopcock, seal a star crack, fill chips in a flange, etc. Emailing a photo can be very informative in terms of a rough estimate. We won't charge more than half the value of the new item without consulting you. If the glassware is broken in a "working" area, that is, the shell of a stopcock, the ground part of a joint, a flange, etc., those parts can be replaced as good as new. We do mean as good as new - repairs are carried out in the same manner as manufacture of new lab glassware. There is rarely a functional difference.

Click the image to the right for a slide show of a repair sequence.
See more repair images in our Repairs gallery.

Repairs always include a risk that the glass will not survive the process. We make every effort to save the item, and we're good at it, but stuff happens. In the event that the item is really valuable, we will give you fair warning: the risk is yours. In the event of failure we may offer to provide a new item, salvaging what we can.

We try to accommodate your needs for rapid service. When your operation is down due to the lack of one piece of lab glassware, you need it now. We maintain a stock of most sizes of tubing and components, so we usually have the necessary materials in hand. We understand your need for quick turn-around and will make every effort to meet that need when possible. We do charge to expedite orders.

We do ask that lab glassware to be repaired be clean, and we need to know what contamination might be there. In the course of repair, the glassblower frequently needs to connect a blowtube to the glass to blow and/or suck to work a seal (we're glassblowers, right?); the vapor of contaminating material could create a health hazard for the glassblower. A specific problem is silicone adhesives; if repairs have been attempted with silicone glues, please clean them off completely. Burning off silicone produces toxic fumes, and will damage our annealing ovens, not to mention the glassblowers! Any time spent cleaning will be charged at double our normal shop rate. We are expensive glass washers. A rule of thumb: if you would be willing to drink water from it, it's probably clean enough.

We can clean fritted ware by firing in our annealing ovens; sometimes this is the only way to get the really bad gunk out of a frit. A thousand degrees Fahrenheit pretty much takes care of all organics, at least. Again, please tell us what the contamination might be.

If you ship us glassware for repair, please pack it carefully. There is no greater drag than opening a box of repairs which has been reduced to shards. This generally means plenty of packing between items; we like bubblepack around the glass, and starch based foam pellets (Eco-Foam or Renature) to fill. Leave plenty of room between the items and the walls of the box. Best is to overfill the box with pellets, then crunch them down when you tape the box closed; this locks the glassware in place within the box. Remember, the shippers are specifically allowed to drop any box four feet, and don't think they won't. We also like it if you can put tape over the nasty sharp edges, so we don't shred our fingers unwrapping.