Weird Q: Photoflo?

[MartinP]

Ilford Ilfotol works fine as an alternative, there are quite a few others too of course . . . Agepon, WAC, RWA, Mirasol and RA50 and that's just from a quick look at two online shops.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Kodak chemicals aren't made by Kodak anymore, so at best it's a marketing issue. Photoflo and Ilfotol
seem identical anyway, or you could batch your own. I'd never dream of using a gardening product;
it would be hard to know exactly what else is in it, even if you read the MSDS, which only needs to
list hazardous ingredients which are non-trade-secret. The unavailablility of certain things in Australia seems to be totally unrelated to Kodak mfg itself - I've heard the same thing about HC110
there.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Has anyone tried using other sources of surfactants for film drying? I know dish detergent is frowned on,

The active ingredient in Photo-Flo is Triton X-100. The following formula is similar to Photo-Flo.

Distilled water 600 ml
Propylene glycol 250 ml
Triton X-100 75 ml
Water to make 1 l

This formula omits the antifoaming agent in Photo-Flo which can leave greasy spots on the film. It is also hard to obtain in small quantities.

 

[Mark Fisher]

I'm with Dan....I add about 4-5 drops per liter (much less than 1:1000) and a splash (a tablespoon maybe) of isopropyl alcohol. I went with a lower amount of photoflo because it tended to leave marks on my film in my water (Lake Michigan). Photoflo and alcohol act in different ways to change the surface tension. There are other surfactants like SDS or igepal but I figure that Kodak had smart chemists so I'll go with photoflo.

 

[WayneStevenson]

I reuse it until I've run enough rolls through it that it starts going pink. Though I can't imagine the alcohol in it at the 1:200 dilution not preventing mold growth. Though aren't you're only going to get mold if you have contamination to begin with.....

 

[E. von Hoegh]

I reuse it until I've run enough rolls through it that it starts going pink. Though I can't imagine the alcohol in it at the 1:200 dilution not preventing mold growth. Though aren't you're only going to get mold if you have contamination to begin with.....

Good lord.
I put a drop (or two for sheet film) of 1:3 "stock" solution in the final distilled water rinse and pour it down the drain.
This is the last stuff your film sees before drying, why do so many risk fungus and other contamination???