Caffenol chemicals?

[titrisol]

It is. Caffenol is a relatively expensive developer and I wonder if an LCA would support the eco-friendliness often attributed to it.

Eco friendly? It was never the point

 

[koraks]

It's touted as such by many, though.

 

[AntonKL]

the controls are not very predictable

The pH can vary a lot depending on how exactly you mix it, if you dissolve the soda first, the CO2 formed during neutralization will make bicarbonate with the excess soda. If you dissolve the vitamin C first and slowly add the soda, the CO2 escapes and the final pH will be higher, especially if you use just a small amount of water for mixing and then fill up to the final volume.
You can avoid this entirely by using sodium ascorbate in place of AA, but then the pH might even end up too high.

 

[Greg_E2]

So the order to mix things is also important, not just the amounts of each?

I often see the coffee and the soda mixed together, then the vitamin C added to this, is this correct or should we really be splitting the water into thirds, dissolving each, then mix coffee with soda, then with vitamin C? Or a different order altogether?

 

[fs999]

It is. Caffenol is a relatively expensive developer and I wonder if an LCA would support the eco-friendliness often attributed to it.

At 17 € per 1Kg is not very expensive...

 

[fs999]

So the order to mix things is also important, not just the amounts of each?

I often see the coffee and the soda mixed together, then the vitamin C added to this, is this correct or should we really be splitting the water into thirds, dissolving each, then mix coffee with soda, then with vitamin C? Or a different order altogether?

I dissolve in hot water first the soda, vitamin C with Kbr as second and mix them together. Then with tap water dissolve the coffee and mix all together.

 

[koraks]

At 17 € per 1Kg is not very expensive...

One liter of caffenol is around €1.50 if I shop around in regular consumer channels. If I do the same for, let's say, pyrocat 1+1+100, it's around €0.15. That's 1/10 the cost. Store-bought Adonal/Rodinal is around €0.30 for 1l at 1+100.

I'm not so much talking about financial cost, but the bulk of stuff that goes into it. This comes at a cost, too. The material needs to be synthesized from feedstocks, purified, packaged, transported etc.

What's the point of caffenol, really? It's not particularly cheap. It's most likely not particularly environmentally friendly when compared to functionally similar alternatives. It stinks to high heaven and has a tendency to stain the emulsion (but not an image-wise stain that might be desirable). It's slow. It's unpredictable/non-standardized unless you ensure that you get the exact same coffee and the manufacturer doesn't change something about that product. It takes up more shelf space than alternatives. It needs to be mixed at time of use from dry ingredients and it's not possible to make some kind of concentrate that can be stored. And it has no image properties that are particularly unique or desirable.

Really the only thing I can see it has going for it is that there's a novelty/fun factor to it, and technically speaking, it gets the job done. Evidently, it's not my cup of coffee; I see why people would try it once or twice for the "hey, neat"-experience. But it's beyond me why people would stick with it. What's the point in using a product that's not particularly good at its job, is relatively expensive and comes with a couple of downsides in practical use?