Lee Shively
Member
This is along the same lines as the recent thread on preserving powdered Dektol.
I checked my chemicals a week or so ago and noticed the gallon jug of Dektol stock solution was dark brown. That seemed kind of odd, since it had only been mixed a week or so prior to that and the jug was 3/4 full. I poured it out and rinsed out the jug to mix some new Dektol but some things came up (as things always do) and I never got around to doing it--or printing either. Today, I tried to mix up a batch and the powder was brown coming out of the envelope and the solution went dark brown immediately. I tossed it out and tried another package and the same thing happened. Luckily I had just gotten some LPD so I mixed it instead.
I've mixed a lot of Dektol over the years but I've never had the powder to oxidize in the package. All the envelopes have the store date "08/03"--presumably meaning they were new in stock in August of 2003. I bought all three envelopes together about four months ago. I've never gotten outdated chemicals from the local photo store but this store has recently started to carry very little in the way of darkroom supplies.
How old is too old for Dektol powder?
I checked my chemicals a week or so ago and noticed the gallon jug of Dektol stock solution was dark brown. That seemed kind of odd, since it had only been mixed a week or so prior to that and the jug was 3/4 full. I poured it out and rinsed out the jug to mix some new Dektol but some things came up (as things always do) and I never got around to doing it--or printing either. Today, I tried to mix up a batch and the powder was brown coming out of the envelope and the solution went dark brown immediately. I tossed it out and tried another package and the same thing happened. Luckily I had just gotten some LPD so I mixed it instead.
I've mixed a lot of Dektol over the years but I've never had the powder to oxidize in the package. All the envelopes have the store date "08/03"--presumably meaning they were new in stock in August of 2003. I bought all three envelopes together about four months ago. I've never gotten outdated chemicals from the local photo store but this store has recently started to carry very little in the way of darkroom supplies.
How old is too old for Dektol powder?