Kodak E-6 5l kit question

Yesterday I was about to mix the final litre of working solution from a Kodak E-6 5l kit. I noticed that a small pile of clear crystals had formed in the first developer bottle. I assume the first developer has gone bad, but I would like someone to confirm this. What do you think?

I opened the kit in July and have mixed 1 litre working solution when needed, and haven't had any problems so far. I have topped up the bottles with Tetenal Protectan every time. How long can I expect the concentrate to keep after opening?

Thanks,
Trond

I haven't used E-6 enough to be an 'expert' but if you cannot disolve the crystals I would assume the dev is bad. My only experience with this kit dying has been the bleach going bad - once this happens you learn to tell the slight difference between the normal dark red and brown. Kodak's updated guidlelines for storage uses 18 months from manufacture as the life span of the kit. All Kodak chemistry has a manufacture date in the code - very simple - if the code is '0549' it means it was made in the 49th week of 2005, '0613' would be the 13th week of 2006. Hope this helps.

Bob

I had the same problem with two batches of first developer. I called Kodak and they told me it was ok to use as long as gentle warming redissolved the crystals.

However, if you used some of it and there were crystals already formed, then the ingredient that crystallized will be higher in concentration than intended when it redissolves. This is not good.

Therefore, they said to only try to redissolve the crystals in unopened bottles to insure that everything was evenly mixed.

I have not tried this yet. I still have one of the bottles in my lab unopened. I gave the other one to a friend who wanted to see what was going on.

PE

Thanks for the helpful answers! I don´t remember seeing the crystals there the last time, but I won´t take any chances. I have an unopened kit, and I´ll make sure to check for any crystals or deposits every time I mix some of it.

Trond

Lopaka said:

My only experience with this kit dying has been the bleach going bad - once this happens you learn to tell the slight difference between the normal dark red and brown.
Bob

Click to expand...

I always thought the bleach was a very stable component.

Chemical longevity

Trond,

I have had good luck with freezing my working solutions as opposed to trying to store the concentrates. If you're interested, you can read this thread on Photo.net

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Er4r