Did I just ruin 1 liter of HC-110?

Hi

I wanted to transfer my HC-110 liquid into smaller glass bottles last night and everything went well for the two 250ml bottles I had.
But, after filling my 500ml bottle to the max and tightened the cap and then proceeded to lift the bottle to place it away from me, the whole bottle BROKE and the contents spilled out all over the floor(!).

(possible over-pressure because the bottle was filled to the brim and then the cap was screwed in place).

I did all this in the shower, because I expected a mess, this area is dust and dirt-free as well.

The liquid is very thick, so I had a few seconds to react.
So without thinking much, I grabbed a undeveloped RC-paper I had laying close by (a paper which was exposed wrong but never developed) and used that and a squeegee, to scoop up the content and pour it into a new bottle before everything went down the drain.

It was only after, while cleaning up that I realized that the paper, naturally, had started to develop (funny looking patterns ) and while I stood there like an idiot thinking how cool it looked, I started to wonder if I had just polluted my HC-110 with silver or stuff that will reduce the developer storage time or strength because of this.

Should I just toss out the content and buy another bottle of HC-110?

My personal view, is that the silver is embedded into the paper. Over the silver, there is a gelatine layer(?), which means that there is probably no silver in the HC-110 which can cause a chemical reaction....

Or....?

Views?

I would throw it out. Who knows what kind of shower residue is now mixed with it. If you really want to keep it though shoot a test roll and develop.

With as short a time it was exposed to the paper, and in such high concentration, I think your HC-110 will be just fine. I wouldn't sweat it. But in the future, remember that in its original bottle, HC-110 can be stable for years, almost like Rodinal, so there's really no need to decant it. I'd save decanting for more volatile developers, or other chemicals for convenience (like Photo-Flo).

Ok Terry. ^^
I'm new to HC-110, the bottle says 2 years for concentrate and six months for mixed solutions.
(This is the version where you can measure up one part HC-110 and pour 31 parts water and get Dilution B, I know there exist a version that need to be diluted 1+7 first, before you can do the 1-31 for dilution B?).
I was thinking maybe the air in the original bottle would cause deterioration (especially when you get to 1/2 bottle). Good to know that it will last for very long, even in the original bottle.

I did use a few minutes to clean up the mess (glass and stuff on the floor had to be removed).
I am mostly worried if It's possible to get carry-over from the paper and into the developer (like silver or anything that would cause a reaction in the bottle over time).
The reaction caused by the developer to the paper I am less worried about, due to the, as you mention, high concentration of the developer and short contact time between developer and paper before it was back in the bottle. The concentrate strength is probably 100%.

Donkee: I agree, but there is probably just some Dove-soap residue perhaps It was bone-dry when I started the procedure and the shower area is squeegeed dry after each shower, so the tiles should probably not contain very much stuff......at least not minerals or salts that I believe would cause some kind of chemical reaction. (I am more worried about using the RC paper as a shovel to get the developer back into the bottle).

Just as a warning, I used a (standard?) brown pharmacy-bottle with a plastic screw on cap and on the 500ml bottle, filled to the brim, the pressure created by screwing the cap on, was apparently enough to create too much pressure inside it.
It broke almost immediately when I lifted it. (I didn't even use much force to screw the cap on).

The paper didn't cause any harm to the developer. I would be more concerned with broken glass particles entrained in the liquid, and for that reason alone would toss the developer. Why chance scratches or other causes ruining your film, new developer is cheap insurance.

I'm in the pitch it camp as well. Why take the risk of broken glass, and soap residues, hair, skin cells, etc. and scratch your negatives? Hc110 is not that expensive.

Yep, I thought about the glass stuff, so I used a funnel(?) with a very fine-metal-mesh-filter, to avoid any particles.
It is really fine meshed, I use it for paper chemicals and it stops dust which has landed in the developing trays during a darkroom session. The Hc-110 ran really slowly trough it because it's so fine.

Ok, I'll take your advice here to note.

I do have the two 250ml bottles who are clean and use those and toss the 500ml polluted one.
1 liter of HC-110 is indeed not very expensive, so you have a good point there.

If you want to keep the stuff for experiments, fine. But if you want to do serious work, get new.

You don't know whether the stuff was seriously contaminated or not. There could be dirt, soap, water, glass or any manner of stuff in that developer, now.

Use the contaminated developer for making photograms or pinhole pictures and stuff like that. If you ever have a hair-brained idea that you want to try just to see if it would work, you now have a stock of chemicals that you can try it with which you won't have to worry about messing up your good stuff or using up chems that you need for serious projects.

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Right?

Good point! =)

I may even use it on some photographic paper I hav laying around, to create some silly "paintings" and such, like I did with the RC paper this time (came out really cool, if it had been A2 sized paper I would have fixed it and hung it up on the wall and called it abstract art) =)

I do have a bunch of various brands of 35mm films, which I bought for testing purposes and since I've found my 100-400 ISO favorites in 35mm and 120 now, I can use the "danger hc-110" on those =)

Did you ruin your whole box of paper by opening it? Or did you take the time to close the lights while grabbing that one sheet?
Quite a weird story.

The hc is still good, I'm 100% sure.

I would just throw it out. If you want to save it, take a small sample and run a test. I've used the stuff over 25 years and concentrated HC-110 syrup ages very well and you don't have to put it into small bottles.

NB23 said:

Did you ruin your whole box of paper by opening it? Or did you take the time to close the lights while grabbing that one sheet?
Quite a weird story.

The hc is still good, I'm 100% sure.

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No, it was just a paper I had laying around (in the light) after I had mis-exposed it during a darkroom session. It was laying in a small bunch of papers that I use for burning and dodging, I usually keep papers I know I exposed too much or wrongly for burn/dodge purposes and have them lying close to the enlarger area

A couple of points ....

With HC-110, it is water that will cause the concentrate to deteriorate, because until the concentrate has water introduced into it, it is relatively immune from oxidation.

So I would toss the spilled concentrate, because it has obviously picked up some moisture in the process.

Although you could have some fun seeing what dilution you would need to use it as a print developer - I would suggest trying it first at something like 1 + 7 dilution.

And by the way, the "1 + 31 for dilution B" version of the concentrate (formerly the North American version) is the same one as the one that you can also dilute in two stages - 1 + 3, and then a further 1 + 7 dilution immediately before use. That latter method is just a different way to get to 1 + 31. The syrup that used to be most common in Europe started out more dilute - a 1 + 9 dilution resulted in dilution B.

Helinophoto said:

I may even use it on some photographic paper I have laying around, to create some silly "paintings" and such, like I did with the RC paper this time...

Click to expand...

One of the kids in the photography class at the college where I work did something neat for his "Photographic Experimentation" project that the prof. assigns at the end of the term, just before finals.

Most of them will do things like photograms, Sabbatier effects, double exposures or crazy contrast settings but he just took a sheet of blank paper, exposed it to room light, dipped his hand into the tray of developer and stamped a handprint on the paper then let it turn black before fixing and washing.

The image is just a black handprint with streaks running down the paper. It was so simple that I just had to smile when I saw it.

Was it a good photograph? Who's to say but it was playfully creative. Although I wouldn't think of haning a picture like that in a gallery show, I liked it just because the kid had the balls to pull it off.