Rodinal storage

[George Collier]

I just bought a large (17oz?) bottle of Rodinal. I use it occasionally, and will take a while to use up the bottle. I've never bought the large one before, but with what I hear about Agfa products disappearing, I decided to grab this one. Can I pour off amounts into small bottles (like old Rodinal 4oz) for longer term storage? I have some small bottles made for chemistry labs, with good seal caps, but something makes me feel funny about transfering it to other containers.

 

[joeyk49]

I don't see why not...if the old bottle is clean. I would try to keep as much air out of them as possible.

OR...you can send the rest to me for "safekeeping"...

 

[jim appleyard]

Don't bother pouring off the Rodinal into smaller bottles, it will last for decades as it is. I recently finished some Rodinal (worked fine, BTW) that came in the old glass bottle with the cork. I don't know how long it has been since Rodinal was bottled that way, but I would guess about 30 years. I think you will most likely finish yours off well before 2036.

 

[Brac]

There is no need to worry about Rodinal disappearing as the Agfa photographic chemical business (unlike the films) was bought by another company and most of the chemicals, including Rodinal, are being made again. There are several threads on here which confirm this!

 

[rbarker]

In my opinion, if your usage volume is low, it won't hurt to pour off portions of the big bottle into smaller ones that can be filled to the top to minimize air in the bottles, even though Rodinal lasts a long time.

I, too, had some old glass bottles of Rodinal with the rubber stoppers, from which developer would be extracted using a hypodermic needle (creating a vacuum in the bottle). I dumped mine, however, as it had a lot of sediment and had turned a nice deep black color after a mere 30 years of storage. I don't think current packaging (screw-top bottles) would last that long, however.

 

[battra92]

As stated before, Rodinal is not going anywhere, and even if it was there is R09.

That said, you should be okay the way it is. Rodinal does last practically forever and I have a feeling that the 250ml bottle I bought of R09 will last until I graduate from college (this winter) unless I shoot a lot of slow film.

 

[Gerald Koch]

If Rodinal were still supplied in glass bottles I wouldn't bother to transfer it. But the present plastic bottles that Agfa used are not all that good in fact I have had one split on me. Real mess to clean up!