ilford MG. oxidation possible?

[eddie gunks]

hi all,
i just read somewhere that my ilford MG paper developer will oxidize in the bottle. is this true? i bought the big jug to save money. did i shoot myself in the foot? it has been opened for 1 month. how do i tellif it is ruined? it seems okay.....but what do i know?

i will break it down into smaller bottles if thsi is true. thanks for the info.

eddie

 

[Konical]

Good Morning, Eddie,

Just about any developer will oxidize. Concentrates tend to last a long time if kept in full bottles. Assuming that the jug is close to full and has been kept capped, one month's passage probably won't cause any problem. If in doubt, just use some of it on a non-important roll of film as a test.

Konical

 

[eddie gunks]

thank konical.

i am using it for paper. it seems to be working fine, but i may not be able to tell if it is degraded as i just began using it. it is missing several printing sesions of liquid.

eddie

 

[Monophoto]

I had a partially used bottle of MG in my darkroom for well over a year. I made sure to close it tightly after taking out a few ounces for each printing session. It did gradually turn brown, but Dektol does that also so I can't say that's a bad sign. Frankly, I couldn't detect any problem with it other than I don't have any more of it and my local dealer no longer carriers it!

 

[Shawn Dougherty]

i will break it down into smaller bottles if this is true. eddie

That's a good idea with almost any developer.

 

[pentaxuser]

Eddie. Is the big jug the 5 litre size? There are tremendous savings in this size compared to the 1 litre. If your throughput is reasonable then I'd have thought 5L is OK.

Can't speak for the U.S. but in the U.K. we get 3L wineboxes which have an inner silvered bag that holds the wine and collapses as you empty it. Once emptied the dispensing valve can be carefully prised out, the bag flushed and refilled with dev. Gently press on the bag until the dev comes to the top then press the dispenser back in and put it back into the box.

You now have a dev dispenser which cannot be harmed by air.

So if you have wine boxes in the U.S and better still if you have 5L wine boxes then it's all systems go.

Credit here goes to Murray Minchin for this idea. I think he is just across the 49th parallel and of course has the benefit of a large section of the population, the French Canadians who appreciate the need for wine in life. A great civilising influence.However you've got California who may provide the same civilising influence or at least the wine.

Best of luck

pentaxuser

 

[MattKing]

I think you should ask Murray about how many French Canadian influences there are in Kitimat

vive le poutine!

Matt

Eddie. Is the big jug the 5 litre size? There are tremendous savings in this size compared to the 1 litre. If your throughput is reasonable then I'd have thought 5L is OK.

Can't speak for the U.S. but in the U.K. we get 3L wineboxes which have an inner silvered bag that holds the wine and collapses as you empty it. Once emptied the dispensing valve can be carefully prised out, the bag flushed and refilled with dev. Gently press on the bag until the dev comes to the top then press the dispenser back in and put it back into the box.

You now have a dev dispenser which cannot be harmed by air.

So if you have wine boxes in the U.S and better still if you have 5L wine boxes then it's all systems go.

Credit here goes to Murray Minchin for this idea. I think he is just across the 49th parallel and of course has the benefit of a large section of the population, the French Canadians who appreciate the need for wine in life. A great civilising influence.However you've got California who may provide the same civilising influence or at least the wine.

Best of luck

pentaxuser