Brown Plastic Chemical Containers

ColColt · Jun 6, 2016

i have half a dozen chemical containers that may be suspect as far as keeping properties are concerned. Some are old, a few are new from Freestyle. They're not the accordion type but a fixed value such as 1.2 gallon. Some have "Delta 1, DATATAINER" ON the front with a triangle on the bottom and the number 2 inside that triangle.

Others have "Prinz-DataJug" on the front but nothing on the bottom at all. Are any of these trustworthy or would some just be thrown away? I normally keep Rapid Fixer in some for film and regular powdered Kodak Fixer for paper in others along with some type of Hypo Clearing Agent, depending on what I have on hand.

Sim2 · Jun 6, 2016

Hi there,
This is not definitive, just my current understanding of plastic bottles, the number in a triangle indicates what type of plastic for recycling purposes; the no.2 is HDPE plastic which I believe will leach oxygen through the plastic over a period of time. I had similar issues with this type of plastic. When I changed to a no.1 PET plastic the keeping properties got a lot better, however this plastic will not support large volumes by itself. Hope this helps a bit.

ColColt · Jun 6, 2016

It seems I had read that before but didn't know for sure. My HC-110 I had mixed in one of the accordion style containers didn't last but a couple months until it turned yellowish so, I quit that and started using brown glass bottles. More recently, I abandoned the idea of mixing it and started using Dil H using the concentrate as needed. For other developers, such as ID-11 I use the glass brown bottles.

gone · Jun 6, 2016

Just an hour ago I ordered a couple of those brown plastic 1 gal bottles from Freestyle. All I'm doing now is printing, so just needed something to store stock developer and fixer in. For 4 years I used the same plastic jugs in our old city and never had any issue w/ them. The fixer was way over a year old in one bottle and still going strong by the clip tests. Even had a black accordion bottle w/ a red cap from Freestyle, and it worked fine too. The main thing is to put some Saran Wrap over the mouth before screwing down the cap to keep things air tight.

Neal · Jun 7, 2016

Dear ColColt,

If the bottles are clean, without holes and the caps seal, they are fine. I use whatever empty gallon (or so) plastic jugs from juice or tea. Never a problem. I've never lost any chemicals ever over reasonable amounts of time (less then a year) due to bottles, including Xtol for over a year in the accordion ones. Always remember, if you're losing materials to time you are simply not making enough photos.

Good luck,

Neal Wydra

ColColt · Jun 7, 2016

The Dilution B I had made of of HC-110 went bad in a bit less than three months in the accordion type of container. It also had the "2" designation on the bottom. I've had Rapid Fix go bad in two months with the above mentioned bottles. Perhaps it was reaching the end of life but it had only processed 10 rolls of film.

DREW WILEY · Jun 7, 2016

These kinds of thin recycled plastic jugs are semi-permeable to oxygen, so good only for temporary developer storage. For optimal performance you
need completely filled brown glass bottles with tight caps. The cheap jugs are OK for stop bath, if you happen to resuse that. I don't. I mix fresh chem
for every session. HC-110 stores well in stock solution, provided you store it in glass bottles, or you can mix it directly from concentrate if you are
careful and can thoroughly disperse the syrup.

Jim Noel · Jun 7, 2016

ColColt said:
i have half a dozen chemical containers that may be suspect as far as keeping properties are concerned. Some are old, a few are new from Freestyle. They're not the accordion type but a fixed value such as 1.2 gallon. Some have "Delta 1, DATATAINER" ON the front with a triangle on the bottom and the number 2 inside that triangle.

Others have "Prinz-DataJug" on the front but nothing on the bottom at all. Are any of these trustworthy or would some just be thrown away? I normally keep Rapid Fixer in some for film and regular powdered Kodak Fixer for paper in others along with some type of Hypo Clearing Agent, depending on what I have on hand.

DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT store developer in those containers. They suck in oxygen via osmosis. I don't store toners in them either. Maybe fixer is OK, but I mix mine as needed so I am not sure.

ColColt · Jun 7, 2016

Long ago I use to store developer, stop and fixer in the accordion style containers and don't recall having any problem doing that. This year is the first time I've had developer go bad using them...and it was a new one-not the old ones I had. I knew when I poured that developer out to mix 1:1 it was bad from the color.

The fixer went bad from one of the other non-accordion containers in a shorter time than I would have thought...about two months. Maybe that's the life of mixed fixer, I'd have to recheck the life span.

Brown Plastic Chemical Containers

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