Ilford DDX Eats factory Packaging

I have a quart (or whatever that metric thingy is) of Ilford DDX, which I bought a couple of months ago. The other day I went to open it to mix some more and the top was stuck on. I nearly had to tear the bottle apart to open it and when the lid finally came off there was some crystallization around the lip of the bottle and the inside of the cap.

One of the first things I noticed with the Ilford chemicals is that they were still using cardboard "seals" on all the bottles. Apart from being about thirty years behind the times, cardboard seals were always crap for anything that had the reopened and closed multiple times. I assume that the "seal" let air in which caused the solution to crystallize. I'm going to invest in a stainless steel container to keep it in going forward.

Has anyone else had this problem? The stop, fix and wet all look good for now, but I'm wondering if I should repackage those.

Never had a problem getting the top off DDX containers. Perhaps glass would be a less expensive alternative to stainless steel.

Ilford no longer make their own chemistry it's sub-contracted. I never had a n issue when they made them themselves and they didn't use cardboard seals. I'm still re-using Ilford developer bottles some of which are well over 30 years old.

You need to tell Ilford so they can take it up with their sub-contractor.

Ian

I never has a problem with Ilford chemical bottles. The developer I use is decanted into smaller glass bottles, and the fix is diluted as per instructions into a 5L plastic bottle. The only Ilford I keep in it's original plastic bottle is Ilfotol and I never has any problems with it.

DDX for me has always come with a foil seal on the top of the bottle opening. I do not peel it off - I just poke enough of a hole in one side to pour it slowly and a small hole in the other to let in air while I pour. I've never had a problem with the cap sticking.

To prevent the problem of crystals sticking caps in place wipe off any solution with a clean paper towel before recapping the bottle. If there are some crystals in the cap then use a moist paper towel to remove these too.

Chemistry crystallizing in cap threads is kind of a risk in some cases, regardless of seal type. Chemistry is ideally kept in the bottle, not in/around the threading after all.

I've been looking at bottle options, and I'm very tempted to switch to pre-measured glass bottles over using more bulk storage methods. That way bottles would always be either full or empty, with no half full bottles of anything kicking around during random breaks between processing sessions.

faberryman said:

Never had a problem getting the top off DDX containers. Perhaps glass would be a less expensive alternative to stainless steel.

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The problem with glass is that it starts getting a bit heavy and hard to handle around the one quart size. Also, stainless steel will completely block light, eliminating another potential for degradation. Amazon had a 1 liter stainless steel "growler" with a bail type cap for just over 11 bucks. It seemed worth the investment.

Luckless said:

I've been looking at bottle options, and I'm very tempted to switch to pre-measured glass bottles over using more bulk storage methods. That way bottles would always be either full or empty, with no half full bottles of anything kicking around during random breaks between processing sessions.

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That would seem to result in a lot of bottles lying around. If your concern is oxidation, carbon dioxide is easy enough to make/acquire and it will pour into the bottle and displace the air. Even blowing gently into the bottle will reduce the O2 content by about 5%.

thuggins said:

That would seem to result in a lot of bottles lying around. If your concern is oxidation, carbon dioxide is easy enough to make/acquire and it will pour into the bottle and displace the air. Even blowing gently into the bottle will reduce the O2 content by about 5%.

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True that it would be lots of bottles, but the other side of the coin was that I could then grab a bottle off the shelf, pour the entire contents for use, and not touch the rest of the waiting chemistry till it is needed. Plus with properly sized and measured bottles, then it naturally limits the amount of O2 that can be in the bottle without the effort of fussing with CO2 or other displacement gasses.

I hate the bottles that both Kodak and ilford are using- the uncoated paper dissolves

I frequently use glass bottles and still get some crystallization around the threads unless I wipe them off with a wet paper towel.

I also tend to get rid of any paper seals and use the plastic from ziploc bags in its place. Seems to work well and is easily replaced if needed.

That thin foil? I guess you don't make an inlay for the cap, but place a somewhat larger cut-out onto the neck of the bootle before screwing on the cap.
But, what then is the difference to the plain cap? I guess caulking the neck via the thread.

But keep in mind that PE caps might tear by time. If the thread is tightly packed, it may work out fine, but over time the cap might tear.

These days in the U.K. there are small airtight bags of wine in supermarkets. I think you may be in the U.S. if the metric system is strange for you but if there are any such winebags where you are ,thuggins, buy a bag then drink the wine( it's a dirty job but someone's got to do it), remove the tap, rinse out bag,fill with 1L of DDX squeezing the bag until the DDX gets to the neck. Replace the tap and you have an airtight bag that collapses as you dispense the DDX.

pentaxuser

pentaxuser said:

These days in the U.K. there are small airtight bags of wine in supermarkets. I think you may be in the U.S. if the metric system is strange for you but if there are any such winebags where you are ,thuggins, buy a bag then drink the wine( it's a dirty job but someone's got to do it), remove the tap, rinse out bag,fill with 1L of DDX squeezing the bag until the DDX gets to the neck. Replace the tap and you have an airtight bag that collapses as you dispense the DDX.

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That is an interesting idea and it would eliminate the problem with O2 at the top of the bottle. And we do have wine-in-a-box here. There are just a couple of problems. I'm not a wine drinker and I've never seen scotch-in-a-box (I've been to the UK and didn't see it there, either). Also, you may want to check the type of plastic used for O2 permeablity. The bags are likely LDPE, which is fairly permeable as plastics go. According to the charts on the interwebs, PET is about the best for keeping out O2.

BTW, the stainless steel bottle arrived and looks like it will work great. The DDX label even peals off and sticks to the new bottle.

I do like the idea of a piece of plastic bag over the top of the bottle and the threads. That should work great.