Long lasting developer

juan · Sep 7, 2023

D-23 has many positive traits, most discussed here.
The Mason jars have coatings on the lids to resist acid foods such as tomatoes or fruits. This they don't usually corrode. I have found that they do corrode with some chemicals after a few years. Amidol is one that I remember. I have sodium sulfate and sodium meta or ate that has been in such jars for a decade with no trouble.

MattKing · Sep 7, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
Just another reason to hop over and visit your former colonies while picking up lenses and film. But take warning that English has not been spoken here for years.

Off-topic diversion here:
Ironically, there are parts of the US in particular where the form of English used is actually older than what you would hear in UK or Canada or any of the rest of the Commonwealth.
A lot of southern US is like that.
The same applies to the US legal system - e.g. the "grand jury" - which was no longer in use in England by the time Canada came into being.
And now, returning to our thread's topic:
There are many discussions about developer longevity. It is usually a good idea to approach the issue with some perspective. It is often advantageous to have to discard a reasonably small volume of unused developer once every several months than it is to compromise the ease of use and performance by choosing a developer you don't like. And in many cases, discarding a bit isn't very expensive.
Traditional HC-110 was actually never designed to last as long as it did.

Sirius Glass · Sep 7, 2023

MattKing said:
Off-topic diversion here:
Ironically, there are parts of the US in particular where the form of English used is actually older than what you would hear in UK or Canada or any of the rest of the Commonwealth.
A lot of southern US is like that.
The same applies to the US legal system - e.g. the "grand jury" - which was no longer in use in England by the time Canada came into being.
And now, returning to our thread's topic:
There are many discussions about developer longevity. It is usually a good idea to approach the issue with some perspective. It is often advantageous to have to discard a reasonably small volume of unused developer once every several months than it is to compromise the ease of use and performance by choosing a developer you don't like. And in many cases, discarding a bit isn't very expensive.
Traditional HC-110 was actually never designed to last as long as it did.

Similarly Quebecois is an earlier form of French which was essentially "frozen in time" at the early French settlement in Canada. Now back to the topic.

Trask · Sep 7, 2023

L Gebhardt said:
You can get plastic lids with water tight seals for mason jars. That should stop the corrosion.

I’ve also been testing out Kombucha bottles. The Kombucha we can get at the grocery store comes in 500ml or 1500ml thick clear glass with a somewhat wide mouth. The darkroom is dark even with the door open so I’m not too worried about the clear glass. The caps seem like large soda bottle caps, so I may replace them with large rubber stoppers. I may test aging a few 500ml bottles of XTOL just to get an idea of shelf life in glass. In PET it seems good for up to about a year. Hopefully glass is longer.

I've been using brown kombucha bottles for a couple of years now, and they've worked well for me. I use the 500ml bottles as that allows me to break down a larger volume of mixed developer into these smaller quantities that can be used up while the other bottles sit undeteriorated.

mshchem · Sep 7, 2023

Goodness, time to advocate for an Adox Rodinal purchase every other year. Don't be like me who has cans of Dektol and Microdol-X from the Nixon (first-term) administration

Tim Stapp · Sep 8, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
Similarly Quebecois is an earlier form of French which was essentially "frozen in time" at the early French settlement in Canada. Now back to the topic.

You never cease to astound me! Thank You!

P C Headland · Sep 9, 2023

MrclSchprs said:
Juan, Phenidone in Propylene Glycole does not last longer than a few months before it turns dark and loses (some) activity. Does TEA preserve Phenidone's activity better and longer?

I've got some PC-TEA that I mixed up just over 10 years ago, it's now a similar consistency and colour as treacle (black!), but still appears to work as good as the day it was mixed. Stored in brown, glass bottles.

I recently mixed up some 510-Pyro with Phenidone and TEA that was purchased and opened in 2013, it seems to work just fine. No special steps were taken to preserve the raw chemicals other than screwing the lids on the containers.

The 20 year old Agfa Rodinal also works just as good as the day it was first opened.

(Disclaimer: All tests and results completely unscientific, YMMV and all that...)

Richard Searle · Sep 9, 2023

Beutler lasts. I have some last 3 years. You'll have to mix your own. Only 3 ingredients.

Philippe-Georges · Sep 9, 2023

Rodinal, lasts for about 50 years as a concentrate in an amber glass bottle, I checked it!
And never mind the sediment, you don't need it...

super_claret · Sep 10, 2023

Thanks to all for their input. Think I’m going to try some Adox Adinol.

The reason I wanted to keep clear of powders was because I thought you had to mix a stock solution, just as say a packet of ID11 which makes 1 litre. The problem with this is that it tends to go off quicker. Are there some powdered developers which you can mix for a one shot dev, by adding say a teaspoon to 500ml water?

juan · Sep 10, 2023

I don't use D-76 and others like it for exactly your reason - I have to throw too much away. If you mix your own developer you can mix one-shot with some. D-23 with only metol, sodium sulphite, and water is one.

gwtg · Oct 24, 2023

Just used some MC-Pyrocat that was stored in a full liter Brown glass for over 6 years. Dev A was a deep straw color and the negs look good. The smaller 100ml bottles I dispense from had oxidised with Dev A and Dev B had some crystals on the inside neck. I dumped those and replaced the Dev B bottle to be on the safe side.

pentaxuser · Oct 24, 2023

mshchem said:
Goodness, time to advocate for an Adox Rodinal purchase every other year. Don't be like me who has cans of Dektol and Microdol-X from the Nixon (first-term) administration

Was that when Dektol and Microdol X were less tricky as well

pentaxuser

Long lasting developer

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency