I have been away from photography and developing for the last 8 months due to a family problem. All is OK now...
About a year ago I bought two 1 Quart bottles of Clayton F76+ developer. I have used about 1/2 of one bottle and never opened the other.
I recently went to get the bottles and found that the unopened bottle has turned a dark brown color. The puzzling thing is that the 1/2 full opened bottle looks like new. The bottles were tightly sealed and look good.
I keep the chemicals in a metal cabinet in my basement.
I really like the developer but I hesitate to use the unopened bottle. Anyone have any experience with this developer and it's shelf life?
As a follow up to all that are interested: I contacted Clayton and they say an unopened, sealed bottle should be good for 2 years and that I may have a bad seal on the bottle.
The great thing is that they are sending me a new bottle! They are very responsive and the customer support is great.
This is good to know. A Clayton representative contacted me directly with regards choosing a developer and supplied me with some useful information. From a customer interfacing standpoint, I highly recommend them.
I really like that developer. It gives results similar to Ilford DD-X and a quarter of the price per roll. Tri-X looks great in it, as does Kodak Infrared. I've settled on F-76+ as my standard developer for ISO 400 and above films. Rodinal works for slower films. Liquids are so much easier than powders.
This is good to know. A Clayton representative contacted me directly with regards choosing a developer and supplied me with some useful information. From a customer interfacing standpoint, I highly recommend them.