Despair of XTOL-R Death

Joel_L said:

..... What I did was mixed the stock solution at double strength and stored in brown glass bottles. I purge my bottles with Argon after each mix. I've always mixed one shot at 1:3 ( for 1:1 end result ).....

Click to expand...

I have also done this on occasion. I had difficulty getting it to dissolve in the smaller volume of water. I have resorted to warming it a bit more than Kodak's instructions. I use tap water that has been boiled and allowed to cool sealed from the air in the hope that there is less oxygen dissolved in it: I'm not sure if it makes any difference to keeping qualities.

Do you have any tricks to help dissolve it?

john_s said:

Do you have any tricks to help dissolve it?

Click to expand...

I do remember having to keep things warm, not warmer than the instructions. It did take a while to get everything to dissolve but it did. I have not had any issues with precipitate after the fact either.

I'm finally down to my last 500mL bottle, I have a new kit on hand, I will mix it the same way. I think I used distilled water but don't recall for certain.

To add more fuel to the fire: from my clear plastic 1L bottle collection that's been sitting out on the shelf for 4 months I just popped it open and did some P3200 at 1:1, no worries.

Here in my warm, moderately humid climate, I find that replenished Xtol in 5 l 5x7” tanks crashes in about 6 months. I tried it for a while, because it’s readily available, and it’s a perfectly good developer, and I always test it before use, but having to return it to full bottles at the end of a processing session or heaven forbid refrigerating it, would cancel out the convenience factor of having a replenished tank developer, so I’ve gone back to ABC Pyro even for rollfilms, which I like better anyway, and I’m likely to stick with it until I run out of pyro and can’t affordably get any more in Hawai’i.

If I start shooting enough film that I’m processing every few days and replenishing, maybe it would make sense to use replenished Xtol, even if it does crash in 6 months, but right now, I’m not shooting that kind of volume.

I wouldn’t use a replenished developer for rotary processing. Too much aeration with a low volume of developer for that. Replenished developers are best for tank lines, where you leave the developer in the tank all the time, and replenish as needed.

I never leave any developer in a tank. All developers get returned to tightly sealed bottles.

Sirius Glass said:

I never leave any developer in a tank. All developers get returned to tightly sealed bottles.

Click to expand...

A perfectly reasonable approach for a low-volume home darkroom, but replenished developers are designed for labs with standing tanks that are in constant use.

David A. Goldfarb said:

A perfectly reasonable approach for a low-volume home darkroom, but replenished developers are designed for labs with standing tanks that are in constant use.

Click to expand...

I agree but most here are of the low-volume home darkroom persuasion.

David and Sirius: I tend to agree based on a short experience. I can do high volume, but only for an amateur. And when I manage it, that's 2 rolls every other night and that's hardly high volume. More, it's unsustainable due either to work or travel (my kids live out of town) or both. So I'm giving ID-11 a run for it's money. A bit more grain on scanning then XTOL, but not the end of the world.
One of the very difficult things about a lit like this is that we don't necessarily identify the context of our experience, detail our equipment and so forth before commenting. Thus, "XTOL-R is easy!" vs. "XTOL-R won't work reliably" may simply reflect different contexts, and a reader will have no idea, perhaps simply think it's a difference of preference or opinion. I "now" believe if you really want XTOL-R to lead to comparably repeatable results, it takes a lot more than a casual user like me has available. Testing equip for one. Barring that.... one-shot is more reliable. And in close reading, casual folks go for XTOL-R like me: when it works, it's great. But when it doesn't.... there you are.

So I'll probably get back to XTOL 1:1, or another dilution, but for XTOL-R... I'd want some real expert advice and equipment.

JWMster said:

And when I manage it, that's 2 rolls every other night and that's hardly high volume.

Click to expand...

That volume is more than high enough.

JWMster said:

XTOL-R... I'd want some real expert advice and equipment.

Click to expand...

You already have the equipment (once you got rid of those accordion bottles).
And the data sheet plus a couple of suggestions here is sufficiently "expert" unless your target is something like the requirements of a professional lab.

David A. Goldfarb said:

A perfectly reasonable approach for a low-volume home darkroom, but replenished developers are designed for labs with standing tanks that are in constant use.

Click to expand...

Of the words you used here David, one needs changing. The word "are" needs to be replaced, and your final phrase should read "replenished developers were originally designed ...."
X-Tol and T-Max RS are designed to be replenished by those with a much wider set of uses, including both by the commercial deep tank users, and the much lower volume users like photographic hobbyists.

I have keep replenished XTOL going for years even with relatively low film usage. Of course I had the same results with high film usage.