Here are the data sheets you want to read for the Kodak kit:
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/business/retailPhoto/techInfo/zManuals/z131.jhtml?pq-path=12338. Read sections 1 and 3 for sure.
How other brands vary from this process, I have no idea...but this is the way the company whose process it is tells us to do it.
Kodak's C-41 Flexicolor home kit process is as follows (hand processing in inversion tanks):
Developer: 3:15 (100 F) - Fine tune with process control strips if desired.
Bleach: 6:30 (75 - 105 F)
Both of these steps are done in the dark. The following steps may be done in room light.
Wash: 3:15 (75 - 105 F)
Fixer: 6:30 (75 - 105 F)
Wash: 3:15 (75 - 105 F)
Stabilizer: 1:30 (75 - 105 F)
This is from memory, so double check me.
Extending wash times can't hurt. For each of the two washes, I fill and empty the tank a few times to get rid of the bulk of the remaining chemicals (bleach the first time and fixer the second), then I do four 1:00 washes, using a four-35mm-reel tank, swapping the bottom roll to the top after each minute, and restarting the timer only once the tank has been filled again. For 120 and 220, I do two-minute increments instead of one-minute increments. For my ten-sheet 4x5 Jobo Expert tank, I do an initial 30-second rinse of each tube, then four one minute cycles with rotation, and then rinse each tube individually for 30 seconds again.
HOWEVER, adding a wash between developer and stabilizer can affect your negatives. The way I have had it explained to me, with a pre-bleach wash step, the negs continue to develop a little bit in the wash, and the layers develop in a mismatched way because the lower layers have the developer washed out later than the top layers. Because color balance is controlled by each layer's density, a mismatch can change color balance, and can make obtaining "proper" color during printing difficult or sometimes just plain impossible if it is a severe enough mismatch. I have had this happen to my negatives when I was first doing color film. I figured I would try to be good to my bleach and rinse out the developer fully before pouring in the bleach. Results were ugly until I figured out what was going on. Bleach acts as a stop bath as well as bleaching the negs. It is not so important with black and white to stop development ASAP, but it is important with color due to the multiple-layer construction of the emulsion.
Each gallon of this chemistry is good for 15 rolls of 135, 11 rolls of 120, 5 rolls of 220, or 38 sheets of 4x5. If you want to reuse the gallon after these limits, you can, but you have to add time after the limit is reached. You can do up to three reuses of the gallon. For the first reuse, your developer time increases from 3:15 to 3:23. I forgot the times for developing the second and third reuses. I have done two reuses, but not three. (My chemistry is usually over the hump by then anyhow, so I have been leery of trying to use it on its last legs both calendar-wise and capacity-wise.)
, thankfully PE, no. I generally do a 5-7min final wash at 95-100deg F. kodak says that you can use it up to 105def F in their literature.
