Can black and white chemistry be frozen?

[Jordan.K]

Can Developer, stop bath, fixer, and permawash be allowed to freeze accidentally without negative effect? Thanks in advance.

 

[lxdude]

Without negative effect? Wouldn't you want it to have an effect on your negatives?

 

[jon.oman]

I have heard that freezing D76 will ruin it. Once thawed, not everything goes back into sollution. I would think that there would be an impact on most chemistry.

 

[dpurdy]

In the past I have frozen paper developer.. Dektol. Upon thawing it took a little heating to get it all back into solution but then it was fine.

 

[msa]

I imagine most of the powdered stuff might actually separate when frozen, and you'd need to heat/agitate it to get it back into solution.

Honestly I think I'd just replace it if it froze.

 

[holmburgers]

If all it takes to reconstitute it is a little heat... that seems like an easy thing to do for indefinite chemical storage.

I'd like to hear an authoritative response, as it could be pretty useful for some people.

 

[msa]

I don't see how it's indefinite, the very act of freezing, thawing, and then having to work it back into solution is likely to degrade the chemicals. Even exposure to light can start to break things down.

If you want to store it for quite a while -- keep powdered materials in powdered form and mix when you will use it in the immediate future.

Besides, I strongly suspect that the energy cost of keeping stock or working strength chemicals frozen far exceeds their replacement cost.

 

[Jordan.K]

I was only referring to liquid chemistry and being frozen overnight by accident. However the idea of longterm is interesting.

 

[fschifano]

I wouldn't worry about the stop bath, but there may be some deleterious effects to the other chemicals. If, upon thawing them out, there are solids in the bottle, things are likely not good any longer. Dektol is one thing. It's a print developer and it has to be really bad before it doesn't work. With film developers, the situation is more tricky. It may work, but it may not work as you expect. The cost of replacement is almost the same as the cost of a single roll of film, so it hardly makes sense to even risk using it. With fixer, you can see if it works as expected or not. If it doesn't, there's o harm in mixing up a new batch and re-fixing. But with the developer, you won't know until its too late. Permawash will probably be OK if there are no solids in the bottle when it thaws.

 

[Robert Hall]

One would wonder if the energy to freeze it would be of any cost benefit. I guess that would simply depend on the cost of the developer and how long one kept it frozen.

 

[Jordan.K]

I am referring to undiluted NH5 fixer, undiluted stop bath, and undiluted Permawash that was left in a very cold area for a few days. Does the fact that they were undiluted mean anything different? Thanks.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

If you're going to use it, I would try it on something unimportant to gauge the effect of freezing temps on your chemistry without risk to potentially valueable work.

 

[msa]

The stop is probably okay, although acetic acid freezes as high as 17C.

Not sure about the wash aid, although it should be obvious by how much the film clears when it's used.

I wouldn't risk the fixer -- it may well be fine, but what's your cost of replacement film, not to mention the images? Probably best to replace that. You can do without the wash aid, and even without the stop, but the fix is critical.

 

[Robert Hall]

Wash aids are only good for about 4 hours in open air. They typically oxidize quickly.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Freezing black & white chemicals is a bad idea just waiting to happen.