Just received HC-110

Jessestr · Apr 25, 2014

Hi all

Just received my first bottle of HC-110.. However on the bottle it says 01/2016 as expiry date.
I've read on the internet that HC-110 is good for 4 years in a tightly closed bottle.. Is the bottle just that old or do they always put a shorter amount of time on the bottle?

Bought it from macodirect.

Thanks

darkosaric · Apr 25, 2014

HC-110 will last almost as Rodinal - no limit. Don't worry about it at all.

markbarendt · Apr 25, 2014

View that date as a challenge.

bdial · Apr 25, 2014

I think they mean after it's been opened for the first time, at least that's been my interpretation.
Like Mark says, view it as a challenge.

darkosaric · Apr 25, 2014

I have half opened bottle of HC110 - I use it mostly for HP5+ and sometimes for testing new films in comparison to Rodinal; it is opened around 3 years ago - still works like new.

Jessestr · Apr 25, 2014

Thanks

I'll take the challenge!

Gerald C Koch · Apr 25, 2014

The following website contains a wealth of information on this developer. http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/hc110/

MattKing · Apr 25, 2014

As part of the ISO 9001 et al certification standards manufacturers are required to put expiry dates on just about everything that might get used up.

Some times I think that the expiry date on HC-110 relates to how long the package style will remain current, rather than the developer itself.

wblynch · Apr 25, 2014

I just used the dregs of a four year opened bottle of HC-110. It was all orange and goopey and it still worked wonderfully!

I have had Ilfosol-3 fail on me after only four Months! And D-76 after 8 months. But HC-110 seems to be in the cockroach family of developers.

K-G · Apr 25, 2014

The expiry date was probably set by one of Kodak's lawyers.

Karl-Gustaf

Red Tractors · Apr 25, 2014

I've used HC-110 that was so old it was dark brown, still worked great. Don't worry about it.

NB23 · Apr 25, 2014

Jessestr said:
Hi all

Just received my first bottle of HC-110.. However on the bottle it says 01/2016 as expiry date.
I've read on the internet that HC-110 is good for 4 years in a tightly closed bottle.. Is the bottle just that old or do they always put a shorter amount of time on the bottle?

Bought it from macodirect.

Thanks

Oh the internet.

Who came up with the "4 years" theory?

markbarendt · Apr 25, 2014

NB23 said:
Oh the internet.

Who came up with the "4 years" theory?

Kodak?

MattKing · Apr 25, 2014

markbarendt said:
Kodak?

There is nothing in Kodak's datasheet for HC-110 (J-24) that says anything about storage life for the concentrate. There is detailed information about storage life for the intermediate stock solution that almost nobody here uses, and for the various working dilutions.

markbarendt · Apr 25, 2014

MattKing said:
There is nothing in Kodak's datasheet for HC-110 (J-24) that says anything about storage life for the concentrate. There is detailed information about storage life for the intermediate stock solution that almost nobody here uses, and for the various working dilutions.

They stamped the bottle right?

winger · Apr 25, 2014

MattKing said:
As part of the ISO 9001 et al certification standards manufacturers are required to put expiry dates on just about everything that might get used up.

Some times I think that the expiry date on HC-110 relates to how long the package style will remain current, rather than the developer itself.

And there's probably an upper limit of how long off they can make the date. I've only used HC-110 a few times and only on older films that would likely be all fog otherwise and it worked fine. The bottle I used was already opened when I got it from the photo and fingerprint unit in about 2005 and I've used it as recently as 2012. It's also worked well more recently as the redeveloper for Mordançage.

(At the lab where I worked, we had to put expiration dates on the working solutions we made. Total BS. And even on the distilled water we made.)

MattKing · Apr 25, 2014

markbarendt said:
They stamped the bottle right?

Nope.

Tetenal or, before them, Champion did .

I wonder if the Kodak manufactured HC-110 ever had an expiration date on it.

FWIW, the bottle of HC-110 replenisher I have at hand does not.

markbarendt · Apr 25, 2014

MattKing said:
Nope.

Tetenal or, before them, Champion did .

I wonder if the Kodak manufactured HC-110 ever had an expiration date on it.

FWIW, the bottle of HC-110 replenisher I have at hand does not.

It is packaged as "Kodak" right.

I'm not suggesting it won't be good longer, just that Kodak is at least magically in charge of manufacturing and labeling.

markbarendt · Apr 25, 2014

winger said:
And there's probably an upper limit of how long off they can make the date. I've only used HC-110 a few times and only on older films that would likely be all fog otherwise and it worked fine. The bottle I used was already opened when I got it from the photo and fingerprint unit in about 2005 and I've used it as recently as 2012. It's also worked well more recently as the redeveloper for Mordançage.

(At the lab where I worked, we had to put expiration dates on the working solutions we made. Total BS. And even on the distilled water we made.)

The Smucker's jam I have on the counter is actually classified as a no perishable, no expiry, no warning to refrigerate.

mhcfires · Apr 26, 2014

I am about to finish a bottle I opened about five years ago. It got lost in the back of a shelf. It still works well, orange in color and about as viscous as the new stuff.

NB23 · Apr 27, 2014

markbarendt said:
Kodak?

There's no 4 years limit defined by kodak.

The expiry date is to favor a product turnaround, anyways.

markbarendt · Apr 27, 2014

NB23 said:
There's no 4 years limit defined by kodak.

The expiry date is to favor a product turnaround, anyways.

Did Kodak tell you that?

The manufacture date would be a better choice in my opinion to suit your reasoning, like car companies getting the 2013's of the lot before the 2014's arrive.

Again, I'm not suggesting that it can't be used past that date, but it's Kodak's package, somebody at Kodak seems to have decided/defined that it was important enough to spend some money to put the "expiry" date on it, and companies hate spending money.

brianmquinn · Apr 27, 2014

In my opinion expiration dates are there to help the company out in several ways.
1. It gets you to buy a new bottle when you fear it has gone bad when you look at the date.
2. If there is any problem with a bottle they just tell the customer that the company is not liable since the bottle is "out of date".
3. It makes it easier for reseller to rotate stock.
The last point can work against the company when resellers do not sell all their stock then decide not to order as much in the future as they fear it will go out of date and they will take a loss.
"Best before" is a better way of putting it rather then "expiration date". If it was good the day before it went "out of date" it will be good the day after that.

I worked retail for many years and different companies did it differently. The the chips we sold had a buyer readable date. Anything that did not sell was taken back by the vendor.
The chocolate had a code only the company rep. could read. They also gave us credit if their product went out of date. Kodak made us take a loss if the film went out of date.
We never ran out of chips or chocolate as a result but sometime ran out of film as we did not want to have too much stock on hand. Those days Kodak lost out.

markbarendt · Apr 27, 2014

Good points Brian,

The physical properties of films and chemicals do normally degrade/change with age, just like we do. Doesn't mean whstever it is becomes worthless, just different.

It is important to consider this though.

One of the struggles I had when just learning to print was with old paper. Was trying to save a buck or two and found some old paper to buy. This made it much harder for me to learn because some was showing fog, some wasn't; it wasn't predictable. It was really frustrating.

As soon as I bought some fresh paper to practice with all-of-a-sudden printing became much easier.

Once I got my feet under me that old paper became more usable and a fun place to play.

Played that same game with expired film too. Learned where to draw my limits.

Heading to Monument Valley next month and will hopefully shoot off 2-300 frames of Portra VC that expired back in 2007 that I picked up second hand. I'm not a bit worried about it.

If I was getting paid for this I'd use fresh, if I was just starting I'd use fresh.

My C41 developer though is far enough past date and had been open long enough that I bought new this month even though what I mixed last week worked fine.

fotch · Apr 27, 2014

I know why the date it there!

Just received HC-110

Jessestr

darkosaric

markbarendt

bdial

darkosaric

Jessestr

Gerald C Koch

MattKing

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wblynch

K-G

Red Tractors

NB23

markbarendt

MattKing

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markbarendt

winger

MattKing

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markbarendt

markbarendt

mhcfires

NB23

markbarendt

brianmquinn

markbarendt

fotch

Just received HC-110

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