Old Darkroom Chemistry

[Marco S.]

I recently aquired a box of 1 gallon Dektol packets, and a few Bromophen packs as well. It seems to be around 15-20 years old.

Also two bottles of KRST, one in a brown Kodak bottle and one in a tall quart plastic one. The glass bottle has some grey sediment on the bottom as does the other.

Not being sure how old this stuff is, is it still safe to use?

Marco

 

[Stephanie Brim]

You may want to test it first.

Developer in cans lasts quite a long time, but I'm not so sure about developer in bags...it may be too far gone.

 

[Ian Grant]

The Ilford Bromophen has a date code a letter then a number. So for instance C68 means 1968.

I have some packets of Ilford Hyfin and Microphen from 68/69 and these have deteriorated and the developing agents oxidised despite the polythene packaging being intact.

No harm in trying the Bromphen a quick test strip will tell you if it's gone off, also the colour when dissolved.

The KRST maybe fine, the deposit is selenium.

Ian

 

[marcsv]

I recently aquired a box of 1 gallon Dektol packets, and a few Bromophen packs as well. It seems to be around 15-20 years old.

Also two bottles of KRST, one in a brown Kodak bottle and one in a tall quart plastic one. The glass bottle has some grey sediment on the bottom as does the other.

Not being sure how old this stuff is, is it still safe to use?

Marco

This happened to my college a few months when we got a donation of old chemicals. In the lot were old bags of dektol and about 20 cans of dektol. the ones in the cans were less brown (oxidated?)compared to the other packs although both batches still reacted to photopaper as suspected, we opted to use the canned dektol.