How about storing them in the dark, like a box or cupboard? Problem solved.
I have a colleague who swears by keeping chemicals in opaque bottles, and says storing chemicals in clear containers will alter/prematurely expire them. Does this claim hold any water? I was reading through the thread on soda bottles keeping developers fresh longer, but does prolonged exposure to light cause any sort of changes?
Yes, you can't go wrong by storing chemicals in dark brown or opaque bottles or in a closed cabinet away from light.I have a colleague who swears by keeping chemicals in opaque bottles, and says storing chemicals in clear containers will alter/prematurely expire them. Does this claim hold any water? I was reading through the thread on soda bottles keeping developers fresh longer, but does prolonged exposure to light cause any sort of changes?
That makes sense; I don't have brown bottles, but I will try it with regular soda bottles. There aren't any entryways in my darkroom where sunlight could enter, so I think I'm safe to use the clear stuff. The reason I posed the question was because I want to transfer my chemicals out of their containers to soda bottles, which can be easily voided of air (as per the thread here: (there was a url link here which no longer exists) ), which I wouldn't be able to do with glass. I might poke around in some places about UV's effects vs. fluorescent/produced light and present my findings to my colleague. Thanks!I do believe that clear glass bottles will allow deterioration of certain chemicals by the absorbtion of UV present in normal daylight. That is why I always store my RA4 developer and B&W developer in dark brown bottles. The deterioration is almost eliminated and I have used RA4 some months after dilution of a stock solution to a working solution and stored in brown glass bottles.
Why not experiment with a small quantity of developer in plain glass and a similar quantity in brown bottles left in the open and see what happens.
Developing agents are not particularly sensitive to light. While I would keep the agents themselves in sealed brown bottles it is not necessary to do so with the solutions. In many cases we see brown bottles used in labs but remember that brown glass is the cheapest variety. Additional processing is needed to make other colors including colorless.
as long as you keep your eyes closed in the darkroom, light cannot harm your chemicalsI have heard and read, more than once, that when storing in "clear glass" bottles, some chemicals (developers) reacted with the lead used by the glassmaker to make the glass clear. Any truth in that? To be safe, I have always used brown glass or plastic to store developers in with no problems but always wondered. I have always believed in the saying "if it is not broken, don't fix it".........Regards!
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