BOD Bottle or an incubation bottle is a main apparatus used for the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) test. During the five-day BOD or BOD5 test process, the BOD bottle is used for incubating diluted samples under the 20 °C or 68 °F of temperature.
The bottle is normally designed to have a special shoulder radius to push out all air from the inside of the bottle when a sample solution is being filled. According to Method 5210 in Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, the BOD bottle should include a ground-glass stopper and a flared mouth which form a water seal preventing the air from the outside of the bottle coming in.[1] Method 5210 also recommends to use a paper, a foil or a plastic cup to cap over the mouth of the bottle reducing the evaporation during the incubation. Generally, the side of the BOD bottle is permanently screened with white writing area, and is printed with a specific number; both for the aid of the sample identification.
Glass is a material being specified in the Standard Methods 5210 of the BOD5 test. The glass bottles are manufactured from Type 1 borosilicate glass.
It is a carbon-coated polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle that is solely manufactured by Environmental Express in Charleston, SC. The bottle is lightweight, unbreakable, and recyclable. Since the bottle is designed for single-use, it eliminates any potential for cross-contamination between samples. The bottle does not require any resources nor energy for cleaning and rinsing as it is disposable. CBOD bottle is also claimed to be cheaper, and cause less contamination in the sample solution than the conventional- BOD bottle.[4]