Brown Metol - Is it Good?

eeastman · Jun 20, 2007

I received two containers of Elon or Metol developer. They are both brown in colour. Some Metol I purchased my self is white. Does anyone know for sure if the brown Metol/Elon has become oxidized and therefore of no good? I could test it, but I do not want to waste the other chemicals. Thanks for any help.

Kino · Jun 20, 2007

The Kodak Elon does tend to go dark brown when oxidized and is a creamy white when fresh, but I don't know if you can judge the loss of potency by the color.

It might be the manufacturer's formulation; is this fresh stock from a vendor or old stock or what?

eeastman · Jun 21, 2007

It is old stock that a friend had around his darkroom for a long time. It is really a tan colour rather than dark brown, but it is definitely not creamy white. I have some new stuff that is white, that is what alerted me to a potential problem.

Kino said:
The Kodak Elon does tend to go dark brown when oxidized and is a creamy white when fresh, but I don't know if you can judge the loss of potency by the color.

It might be the manufacturer's formulation; is this fresh stock from a vendor or old stock or what?

jim appleyard · Jun 21, 2007

It's not as good as new. I have a bottle of old stuff that's brown. I don't use it for film, but it works ok for paper if you add an equal amount of new.

gainer · Jun 21, 2007

You could test it on a sippet of film without much loss of expensive chemicals. A teaspoon of it and 2 tablespoons of sodium sulfite in a half liter of water will give you a pretty close approximation of D-23. I have used some pretty dark stuff with no ill effects. Now, if that solution is dark, that's another story.

dpurdy · Jun 21, 2007

I have been mixing my film and paper developer with old metol for a couple months since it was given to me. I was a little nervous using it in my beutlers formula as it is the only developing agent. But it seems to be exactly the same strength as the fresh white stuff that I also have. My old metol is tan with darker brown specks in it. Same story with some old hydroquinone I inherited.

Dennis

eeastman · Jun 21, 2007

Thanks for all your input. I will try the simple solution and see what happens. Again thank you for your input.

Edward

eeastman said:
I received two containers of Elon or Metol developer. They are both brown in colour. Some Metol I purchased my self is white. Does anyone know for sure if the brown Metol/Elon has become oxidized and therefore of no good? I could test it, but I do not want to waste the other chemicals. Thanks for any help.

Pat Erson · Jan 12, 2021

A "tiny" bump to confirm brown metol works fine...
I just developed some HP5 in D76H aka H76 (that is the classic formula minus the hydroquinone and 0.5g of extra metol per liter) and my negs look good.
I was quite wary as with D76H aka H76 there's just one developing agent (metol) but despite its age and colour it worked fine.

(Disclaimer : I used the developer 1+1 one shot and I made it yesterday. I don't know how it might age as I'll be done with it tonight).

Kino · Jan 12, 2021

Brown Metol = OK (mostly)

Avoid the brown acid...

Peter Schrager · Jan 12, 2021

I have some from the early 90's that is not quite white but it's fine

Andrew O'Neill · Jan 12, 2021

Some of the metol I have was purchased back in the 90's. It's a bit beige, but still seems to be working fine... at least it does in the D-23 I mixed up recently.

Brown Metol - Is it Good?

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