Paper and chemical storage query

This may well be a bit of an esoteric enquiry however, I am wondering about the storage of chemicals and paper. For this I am considering: raw chemicals; stock solutions; working solutions and b/w fibre paper.
How should they be stored for: ultimate situation; optimum situation and pragmatic situation? You could take into consderation for "pragmatic" that there is a dedicated darkroom area in a domestic apartment and the rest of the rooms are normal habitation, not a photo lab situation!

Any options welcomed.
sim2

I store both film and paper in a freezer; lasts nearly indefinitely. Since I live in the desert southwest of the USA, I store my stock chemistry in a small fridge that runs at a constant 50 degrees F. I always use working solutions as "one shot" so, therefore, don't store these solutions. As for storage life of the stock chemicals, that's highly variable depending on what solution we're talking about; most liquid film developers don't last much beyond a year, acidic acid and fixers last a fairly long time. Color chemicals have a very short shelf-life.

Good luck!

Best regards,
AlanH

You can get away with more with low humidity, but no reason to at least keep film in the freezer. I generally keep the odds and ends paper in the darkroom with chemistry, and the good stuff in a closet in the hall. If your darkroom is vented and your chemistry is capped well, there should be no problem.

Alan9940 said:

Since I live in the desert southwest of the USA, I store my stock chemistry in a small fridge that runs at a constant 50 degrees F.
Good luck!

Best regards,
AlanH

Click to expand...

Now the OP can save on buying a fridge. For about 10 months of the year or even 12 months in bad years the U.K. is colder than your fridge

pentaxuser

Alan9940 said:

Color chemicals have a very short shelf-life.

Click to expand...

Color chemistry can have a long shelf life if you store it properly; as long or longer than b&w. I have stored unused Kodak C-41 and RA-4 developers in glass bottles, filled to the top and tightly sealed, unrefrigerated, and they have lasted years, still giving excellent results. It is all about preventing oxidation. Bleach-fix can last months and bleach and fixer years.

Are you concerned about storage life or safety or both?

As pentaxuser indicates, in the UK we just don't have the temperature extremes that (e.g.) the desert states or the southern very humid of the US have to worry about, so it's a bit moot to worry about temperature.

Cool, dry and dark is good for everything

If you're storing raw chemicals, take care to keep oxidising agents, corrosives, strong acids and strong alkalis all well separated, so that they can't come into contact with one another.

Make sure everything's capped tightly.

Keep out of children's reach.

(Also keep the chemicals out of children's reach )

Make sure it's all labelled clearly and correctly.

If you want "ultimate" then make a list of everything you intend to store and then consult the MSDS for each and comply with all the safety & storage suggestions. Once you've installed all the dedicated storage cupboards and bins and bought all the gear for handling (suit, headgear, eyegear, respirator, fume hood, automatic extinguishers, aircon and so forth), you won't be able to afford film

pentaxuser said:

Now the OP can save on buying a fridge. For about 10 months of the year or even 12 months in bad years the U.K. is colder than your fridge

pentaxuser

Click to expand...

LOL! Might have to get a small heater to get to 50C most months!

Personally, I have sorted the oxidisation of liquid chemicals to a practical level. I am now considering the potential effect of raw chemicals and stronger stock solution chemicals either on each other or on the paper and best/practical options for storing paper.

Fridge would seem to be optimum option for paper and film. Practical?
Optimum and practical for chemicals?

I maintain strict separation between papers and chemicals. Chemicals live in the dark room and papers are stored in my print finishing room (a post name for a spare bedroom)

Home made stock solutions are stored in brown glass winchester bottles clearly labelled. The nastier ones (like potassium Dichromate bleach) are labelled to remind me to wear the appropriate PPE. These are kept separate from powered chemicals.

I got into the habit of using marbles to fill the airspace in the bottles for some mixtures that may be sensitive. Fx2 solution A comes to mind. I also had problems with reusing bottles for different developers, so, I avoid that. Mixing with distilled water or boiling water for 10 minutes before use is recommended. The film dev cookbook has a nice description of the this.

Adrian Twiss said:

I maintain strict separation between papers and chemicals. Chemicals live in the dark room and papers are stored in my print finishing room (a post name for a spare bedroom)

Home made stock solutions are stored in brown glass winchester bottles clearly labelled. The nastier ones (like potassium Dichromate bleach) are labelled to remind me to wear the appropriate PPE. These are kept separate from powered chemicals.

Click to expand...

Thanks for this reply - I am considering seperating storing the chems from the paper, I was thinking of chems in a cupboard outside the darkroom and paper in the darkroom (primarily as this room has the least wide temperature swings during the day esp summer). Interesting you are the other way around!

Darkrooms can be quite humid - something to do with all the water around.

I can't spring for a separate refrigerator, but we do have an older one in the garage, it runs at between 30 and 40F. Is this likely to precipitate BW developers? I've been using D 76 at 1 to 1, so I have the stock solution to store.

Any thoughts on this temp range for color solutions, C 41 and E 6?

I've had really good luck at storing tray-used chemistry with a spray of butane on top. I use liquidol and lith developers. Liquidol has a long tray life, and it has kept for weeks in a closed container with a layer of gas on top (not the stock solution, but poured from trays after printing). Since liquidol isn't a powder, I can splash a bit in if the dev seems weak.

I store fixer the same way, but it doesn't usually keep as long.

I start every print session with a fixer test, which tells me the condition of the fixer and the developer in a minute or two.

For lith, I've pretty much stopped measuring old brown - I just save the dev from a print session, gas it, and next time I use it as "water" and replenish it with A&B. Getting great results and big color that way.

For raw chemicals each MSDS gives somewhat terse storage instructions such as "Store in a cool dry place away from heat and flames." Chemicals and film/paper should never be stored in the darkroom.

Never store solutions in the refrigerator. Low temperatures can cause certain chemicals to come out of solution. Once this happens it can be very difficult to get them back into solution. For example Metol in high sulfite developers such as D-76. Remember the warning to completely dissolve the Metol before adding the sulfite. Metol is very nard to dissolve in concentrated sulfite solutions.

Gerald C Koch said:

For raw chemicals each MSDS gives somewhat terse storage instructions such as "Store in a cool dry place away from heat and flames." Chemicals and film/paper should never be stored in the darkroom.

Never store solutions in the refrigerator. Low temperatures can cause certain chemicals to come out of solution. Once this happens it can be very difficult to get them back into solution. For example Metol in high sulfite developers such as D-76. Remember the warning to completely dissolve the Metol before adding the sulfite. Metol is very nard to dissolve in concentrated sulfite solutions.

Click to expand...

Thanks! That was my suspicion...