Chemical storage - why don't they......?

[Photo Engineer]

JOBO containers are the best IMHO. I have kept color developers in full containers for nearly a year and partially full bottles of color developers under nitrogen for about 6 months or more.

They are super!

PE

 

[Removed Account2]

Get an old siphon fill it with N2O, that is used in whipping cream. These small cream chargers are the same size as Co2 chargers ordinarily used in these siphons for drinking purposes. Be sure to leave out any trace of moisture! Now whenever you open a bottle, pour as you would normally, then after the session, just put the spigot inside the bottle and carefully expel the dry gas inside the bottle, expelling the oxygen in the process.

I was considering Co2 gas, but decided that could alter pH, which N2O apparently will not. I understand N2O is also known as laughing gas, so be careful, at least until the film is developed!

 

[pschauss]

Use Rodinal and HC-110. Then you don't have to worry about the air in a half empty bottle.

 

[Pavel+]

Shoot and print more. Don't give that Oxygen stuff a chance! Simple!

 

[Alex Bishop-Thorpe]

The most interesting method to prevent oxidisation that I've seen is the system my university has in place. It's a variant of the floating lid solution -
Dozens of little hexagonally shaped disks of plastic that float and bob around on top of the liquid. You put in enough and they sort themselves out, filling the space snugly and reducting the contact with the air. I have no idea if it's the most efficient answer to the problem, but I always thought it was the most ingenious. I asked a technical officer about it and he said they had been there since before he started working, so I never knew what they were called or if they were still on the market...

 

[Andrew Kleinfeld]

I use Grolsch beer bottles, 16 ounce, the kind with rubber stoppers that clamp into the top. You can buy similar ones without the beer in a home brewing store. I mix the whole 5 liters of Xtol, fill each bottle to the top (the last one is only partly full, because a 16 ounce bottle holds a little more if you fill it to the top), and the full ones work a year later, no problem. I just use the partly filled one first.

 

[jonw]

They did make metal containers with floating lids and bottom spigots at one time. I have 2 of the cans with no lids. I also have a heavy duty plastic container with floating lid and spigot. These were very handy, but have vanished as time went by.

PE

I was fortunate to acquire 2 of the heavy duty plastic containers with the floating lid and spigot when I purchased an 8x10 enlarger earlier this year. The bulk purchase also included large heavy plastic "dipping" tanks with float lids. This combination of containers allow me to mix chemicals which will last at least 6 months and permit me to save lots of time in prep work. It sure makes life easier for me in the darkroom....be it developing film or making prints. Now I need to make more time in 2011 to use my darkroom.