Chemisty in the basement; still good?

[brofkand]

I have some fresh Dektol, Rodinal and fix on order from Freestyle. It will be here next Wednesday.

In the meantime, I remembered I have a jug of D-76, Dektol, and Fix that I mixed in April or May (exact dates are written on the bottles). They have been in my basement since then (I mixed them shortly before I left for home from college). They have not been in a temperature-controlled environment, and the basement flooded about a month ago due to heavy rain.

The chemistry is in black plastic jugs. Is there any chance it is still good, or should I pour it out and mix fresh when my shipment comes in? Keep in mind the basement is dark, and stays around 80 degrees in the day and close to ambient at night (so 65-70).

I hadn't expected to do a lot of B&W work over the summer, but the Mamiya 645 1000s I just bought is begging to be used. I suppose I could run a roll of film through my Nikon FG and test the chemistry that way, unless there's a fail-proof method to tell it's bad without doing that.

Thoughts?

 

[Ian Grant]

The mixed chemistry will be fine. That's not old, it'sstill relatively fresh.

Ian

 

[Dennis S]

The chemicals were at the most ideal place and temperature that was available so there should be no problems I had undiluted fix that was 3 yrs old and still worked with limitations .

 

[ozphoto]

For the fix, just drop a piece of unprocessed B&W film into it and see how long it takes to clear.
If it takes longer than a couple of minutes it's useless. Throw it - fix is cheap enough to replace and it isn't worth the pain of finding out later, your film and/or prints aren't fixed properly.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I have taken XTOL that is undiluted and over six months old and not had a problem.

OTOH hypo does not do well after two months.

YMMV

Steve

 

[fschifano]

Obviously, you should test it to ascertain the quality of the chemicals. But I'd be surprised if they've gone bad. The developer might be a bit dodgy if the bottles were not full to to top. Otherwise, it should be fine as long as the flood water didn't seep into the chemistry bottles.

 

[brofkand]

No, the flood water was only around 5" high, and the bottles were on a table.

I was pretty much expecting (and figuring for) a total loss of the chemicals, but it seems the general consensus here is that is not the case. I will definitely still test the chemicals before I use them for production work, but so far what I'm hearing is promising!

Thanks!

 

[wogster]

No, the flood water was only around 5" high, and the bottles were on a table.

I was pretty much expecting (and figuring for) a total loss of the chemicals, but it seems the general consensus here is that is not the case. I will definitely still test the chemicals before I use them for production work, but so far what I'm hearing is promising!

Thanks!

Take 3 pieces of film, they don't need to be large, a commercial film tongue is big enough for all three, expose to white light. Take one and put it in a small dish of developer. Take take another piece, and put a drop of fixer on it, wait about 30 seconds and then immerse in a small amount of fixer, time how long it takes for the spot to disappear. When the fixer is done, remove both pieces rinse them off under water and pat dry.

The one from the developer should be black, like the beginning of a roll of film that was light struck when it was loaded in a camera. The one from the fixer should be completely clear, the third piece is to check the other two against.

If the piece from the developer is still a little grayish, then I would toss the developer and mix fresh. If the fixer takes a long time to clear the film, say more then 4 minutes with rapid fixer, 10 minutes with hypo, then toss it and mix fresh.