Should I start developing at home?

Don't worry too much about chemical shelf life, at least not for now.
Storing it in a dark place and oxygen-free seems to be the most important part, and you will easily get way beyond the usually mentioned 6 to 8 weeks shelf life.

I had the same concerns when I started developing at home about a year ago, and bought my first C41 kit (a Rollei kit with separate bleach and fix).
I, too, shoot about 8 to 10 rolls of color film a year and mainly wanted to develop at home because of speed and convenience (lab turnaround time is >1 week here).
My kit is a 500ml kit (500ml dev, 500ml bleach, 500ml fix), packed in soft packs, rated for approx. 14 to 16 rolls iirc. I've just developed my 10th roll after little over a year with it, and all still works fine for me.
I don't use a stabilizer for final rinse, just a wash with distilled water and photo flo. Works for me.
Sure, there might be some color casting present, but I can still manage to get things to my likings in post-processing, as I only scan my color work and do no darkroom printing with it.
So far I have found accurate temperature management and fresh film to be the most influencing factors of all (I process one roll at a time and use a large bucket of hot water to keep things stable at the correct temperature).

About the Cinestill kit, I've no experience with it myself, but I know of someone who also managed to use it for over a year without issues.
From what I understood, when the kit goes bad it will slowly show its exhaustion, and at the point where you're no longer happy with the results, it's time to replace.
I'm still happy with my results, but I'm starting to get to the point where I will replace my kit anyway, just for peace of mind.

If you have a good oxygen blanket you don't need anything more than that, and some kind of lid to prevent air currents from blowing it away. I've got Dektol that I mixed at double stock strength and stored in pickle jars with butane -- in 2005. Still good, though the solution is as dark as weak coffee (some developing agents change color more than others as they oxidize -- p-aminophenol, as in Rodinal, and metol have strong oxidation darkening, phenidone not so much).

grat said:

Well, that's one way to make sure you won't contaminate your developer.

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yea I hate it with shuggaah gets in my caffneol, pickles get in my stop and cod gets in my fix

I was thinking more along the lines of "Let's spread some salmonella and see what develops!"

... but that's silly. The photochemistry would annihilate the bacteria.

jnantz said:

I wouldn't use any photo chemistry anywhere close to where I make or consume food, not even caffenol...

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My gut feeling is the same.
In my case it’s the kitchen sink and worktop, or not at all. Probably not at all given the kitchen is mainly the wife’s domain.

All kidding aside, while I understand the underlying caution involved in such attitudes, the reality is that preparing food creates a more hostile environment than mixing chemicals.

If you're not keeping your kitchen clean enough to be safe from any chemical preparation / use you might do in developing photos, you're probably not keeping it safe enough to defend against salmonella, botulism, or other forms of biological contamination that can result from day-to-day preparation of food.

Any surface involved in the prep or use of chemicals gets scrupulously cleaned afterwards. But the same is true of any area used for food preparation as well.

grat said:

Any surface involved in the prep or use of chemicals gets scrupulously cleaned afterwards. But the same is true of any area used for food preparation as well.

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Better if it's before and after -- I wouldn't want to, say, wrap a filet mignon, or tenderize a round steak, on a cutting board that wasn't thoroughly cleaned after cutting raw chicken or pork. Just to be sure, I'll give it a good cleaning before I start, as well as afterward. Same is true for chemicals -- except I'm unlikely to pour a pile of sulfite on the counter top and then sweep it off into my mixing vessel; but I do clean up the graduates and bottles after emptying, and before filling.

Donald Qualls said:

Better if it's before and after -- I wouldn't want to, say, wrap a filet mignon, or tenderize a round steak, on a cutting board that wasn't thoroughly cleaned after cutting raw chicken or pork. Just to be sure, I'll give it a good cleaning before I start, as well as afterward. Same is true for chemicals -- except I'm unlikely to pour a pile of sulfite on the counter top and then sweep it off into my mixing vessel; but I do clean up the graduates and bottles after emptying, and before filling.

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Generally true-- cross-contamination (*chorus of yells in the background*) is always an issue, but again-- if you clean up every time you finish, then there's not much to do before the next task.

Similarly, when developing, I put down the sacrificial cloth, covered in a heavy duty paper towel.

Aside from the blindness in my left ear, and the finger growing out of my chin, I don't seem to have suffered any ill effects........

if someone is careful and thorough &c. that's one thing but there's people who are kind of cavalier .. my pov is to err on the side of caution and be the outlier saying one shouldn't do it not only because I know of people who have gotten sick from photo chemistry exposure but whether coincidence or as a result of carelessness I know of someone who got worse than sick because of carelessness.. for me at least I'd rather not let photo chemicals ( color is the topic of this thread right? ) anywhere near where I prepare food, just like I don't use pyro or selenium toner &c. ... life's too short.

Good info all, thanks.

Donald Qualls said:

You could make an argument that you've got this backward. Yes, printing is easier in B&W -- but C-41 is in many ways simpler than processing B&W film. One temperature, one time, same for everything (and pull or push is the same for all C-41 films, too). Modern kits aren't any more steps than B&W film, either -- color developer, blix, maybe stop bath if you choose, then wash and final rinse. In the ways that matter (complexity, learning curve) C-41 may actually be easier than B&W (every film/developer combination has its own characteristics).

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In my experience, black and white is easy and forgiving until it's not. Each developer/film/contents of the photo lend themselves to different developers and sometimes you'll end up getting smacked in the teeth by some combination like an underexposed photo of a forest canopy on a soft film developed in rodinal giving you grain you can literally see in the negative without magnification

At the very least, disregarding the ferricyanide bleach and separate bleach/fix arguments, with C41 as long as your developer is correct, you throw everything in a water bath and a sous vide and you're good.

laingsoft said:

At the very least, disregarding the ferricyanide bleach and separate bleach/fix arguments, with C41 as long as your developer is correct, you throw everything in a water bath and a sous vide and you're good.

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Yep, and you can get a very workable sous vide unit for about $30 plus shipping, if you do an eBay search. Mine (+- 1F from 0F to 212F, timer for up to 8 hours, automatic coverage shutoff) was $32, and after I ordered, I saw cheaper ones.

Kodak used ferricyanide bleach in the C-22 process, and still gives it as an alternative for ECN-2. Modern EDTA/PDTA bleaches have significant advantages, but ferricyanide works (best to include a stop bath and water rinse between color dev and bleach, however, to ensure you don't get active developer in the fixer, which causes magenta cast => blue positives).

Pretty sure Santa is bringing me a Sous Vide.