the issue that in general, free things that anyone can use should not be better than things which are rare and hard to find. that's game design.
large beakers are only useful when being moved if you want to make grenades. otherwise, the reason they are used is for their size. they can hold more reagents than standard beakers and so they are highly coveted.
giving <i>greyshirts</i> a 1000u storage container while chemists still have to try and hold all their shit in beakers and bottles is ridiculous.

suggestion: give chemistry a chemical vat which holds things and allows you to separate chemicals like the chemmaster, which holds 1000u. make the bathtub 700-800u.