Gas tight lids?

[ciniframe]

My question is, will amber bottles with lids advertised as air tight help save my mixed Ilford paper developer. With my regular amber bottles with the paper seals, no matter how tight or full the paper developer has a life of 6 months maximum. I mixed the last batch of concentrate 4-4-21, used it once for only an hour in tray and now just reopened the bottle to develop a few prints and it is already fairly brown, not black (dead) yet, but I can see it’s on the way.
For the concentrate I used an argon bottle to fill the void but the mixed developer had only a 1/2 inch air space from the cap.
It’s just hard to predict how much darkroom time I’ll spend but it is tiresome to waste 95% of the normal capacity of paper developer for us occasional users.

 

[Randy Stewart]

If I understand correctly, you are presently able to save used working solution paper developer for up to 6 months. I think most folks discard used paper developer after use and would not expect to save it for reuse for more than a few days. I think you have already maximized your storage options.

 

[ciniframe]

If that is true then I really need to find a way to mix one use paper developer economically. Perhaps some version of caffinol.

 

[samcomet]

For what it is worth - I bought a small hand pump and stoppers from my local liquor shop that is usually used to evacuate air from partially drunk wine bottles. It seems to work for me and my developers. Perhaps worth a try? I use Fomatol LQN until the recommended number of prints are made before disposal. It sometimes takes me a couple of months time to reach max use with no serious side effects to my printing. Cheers,
Sam

 

[Donald Qualls]

I really need to find a way to mix one use paper developer economically. Perhaps some version of caffinol.

In my experience, Caffenol derivatives tend to be slow working, meaning you'll get paper development times of 10 minutes or so instead of two. Not to mention most of them produce some staining (adding ascorbate helps this a lot, but that adds cost).

What I'd recommend for maximally economical paper developer is to buy raw chemicals and mix your own D-72 (= Dektol). Use half the water specified, and the concentrate will literally keep for years (I've got some that's fifteen years old, kept in a glass pickle jar with a rubber seal cam-lock lid and blanketed with butane). Then, for one-shot paper developing, dilute 1+7 instead of 1+3 (because you're first diluting to standard stock solution strength, then to working strength), and develop two minutes at 20 C. You should be able to do a session, a dozen or more prints, for under a dollar if you buy the metol and hydroquinone in larger than minimum quantities (the smaller the bottle, the more each gram costs) and get the sulfite from an Amazon or eBay seller.

 

[gone]

Take a look at this, and it might save you some time. https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/long-lasting-paper-developer.18354/

Like you, I spend more than enough time in the darkroom as it is, so anything I can do to cut that time down a little helps. I never even thought of using reusable paper developer. Fresh chemicals and papers mean there's less variables in the print making process. It's just one less thing to go wrong and be on my mind (unless you're using Kodak's Dektol, which comes out already black if you got stuck w/ the faulty packaged ones). To me, there's few things worse in darkroom work than making a print and afterwards saying, wow, that wasn't supposed to happen, what in the world went wrong?

 

[ciniframe]

Thanks for the ideas. It has been so easy to order Ilford liquid concentrate for develop and fix but the convenience is getting expensive taking old oxidation ruined developer to the hazardous waste location after little use.
Momus, thanks for that link, very enlightening.
Donald, that sounds like a good solution (pun intended) also. I had forgot about Photographers Formulary, have to check then out.

 

[mshchem]

Top off the air space in your working solution with water. I keep Bromophen working in a full bottle for a week to 10 days. Most of the time I mix up a liter, use 1 session and dump, unless I'm coming back to use in a day or two.

 

[MattKing]

Use slightly concentrated (4 litres instead of 5) X-Tol as a print developer. It works out to be more expensive if you do a lot of printing, but for low volume work, that won't matter a lot.
When it is used up, add some stop bath or vinegar to neutralize it, and then discard the rest down the drain. It's ascorbic acid based, so quite benign.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

Just use something heavier than air to block oxidation. Butane or Bloxygen. One little spritz and you are good for a long time. I've had developers last for more than a year. Use glass containers.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

Thanks for the ideas. It has been so easy to order Ilford liquid concentrate for develop and fix but the convenience is getting expensive taking old oxidation ruined developer to the hazardous waste location after little use.
...

Not sure where you are located, but in most places, discarding used developer into the municipal sewer system in small (i.e., non-commercial) amounts is allowed and perfectly safe. Small amounts are fine for septic systems as well (I printed extensively in a darkroom with septic system for years - never a problem - that in addition to regular household effluent). The thing that needs to be disposed of properly is your used fixer. The best solution there is to take it to a commercial photo lab for silver recovery if one is in your area. HazMat people don't recover the silver from photochemicals, they just incinerate everything and then sequester the solids... Not really the best option for fixer.

As for getting your developer to last longer. If you only make a few prints at a time, consider a low-volume regime, like a hand-rolled (homemade) drum with very little chemistry. Sure, it's nice to watch the print come up in the developer tray, but you can get by with 250ml of developer (or less) with a drum and re-use that several times before it exhausts. Or use a paintbrush or sponge to develop with, using a small amount of developer. Or dilute your developer more and use longer developing times (tossing developer after each session, of course).

Best,

Doremus