Ansco 130 End-of-Life Characteristics

[Dan Rainer]

I've been using the same gallon of Formulary 130 for over a year now. It's lost about 25% of its volume and is strongly tea-colored, but seems to still work the same as ever. I've been very impressed with the developer and plan to keep using it, but as this is my first gallon, I've never seen it die before. According to John Finch of Pictorial Planet:

"The keeping properties of ANSCO 130 are legendary! This developer lasts months, I have even heard years. It can be brown and murky and yet it keeps making gorgeous prints. When it does go it goes fast. There’s no doubt that it has died and this gives me confidence that it is doing it’s ‘thing’ right up to the end."

What should I be looking out for when it "goes fast"? Will the print just suddenly come out murky or undeveloped? Any descriptions/images of 130 death would be helpful.

 

[john_s]

A while back there was a sticky thread about Ansco 130. There might have been something in there if you can find it.
I suggest that you make up a new batch. I don't know if it would be worth replenishing your current batch, or just start again on the day that it "goes fast."

 

[Steve Goldstein]

I replace what’s left of 2 liters of Ansco 130 1+1 (the volume decreases primarily due to carryover) after around 45 8x10s or the equivalent. New batches consistently require 1/6 stop less exposure than the old. I haven’t noticed any contrast change, just the exposure difference.

A batch died on me once. It dropped off very quickly, just a handful of 11x14s from seemingly normal to very underdeveloped. I don’t remember exactly how many prints I’d made using that batch, but as I always keep count I decided at the time that 45 was a safe number. At that point my initial 2 liters is down to around 1.5 liters.