"expired" chemicals

msteen1314 · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 11:23 am Post subject: "expired" chemicals

Just a quick question regarding unopened chemicals.
I was recently given the following bottle and dry powder chemicals and hoping that someone out there could comment on there usefulness.

Kodak fixer (powder) exp 2007
TMax Developer (liquid) exp 2009
Ilford Stop bath (liquid) exp 2005

all liquids appear to be airtight with no discoloration (Tmax)

any thoughts would be appreciated

Martin

hexi · Expire: 2011-11-18

hi

powder ca be kept... years. same for the stop bath. i cannot say about the developer, you have to try it, but if the bottle isn't open it might work flawlessly

msteen1314 · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 4:54 pm Post subject:

thanks Hexi for your reply
Martin

philslizzy · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 4748 Location: Cheshire, England

I used a pint of Foma developer that was made up last summer, it had had 6 or 7 films through, I doubled the dev time and it was just fine for me.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

If the liquid isn't discoloured from oxidisation then it should be fine. Just test it on an unimportant film first.

David · Expire: 2013-01-25

I use expired chems regularly. Powder, even if oxidized, will have some life after reconstitution. I've used liquid Rodinal that's redder than a Repulbican cardinal and it's been fine. My experience with Kodak's TMAx liquid developer was that it has exactly zero developing power, but it had expired about 15 years earlier.

For fix, if the fix has flocculated (stuff has gathered in the bottom of it), then it's shot and won't fix film properly.

For you, I would not for any reason use the TMax developer. I would expect the images to be very weak at best. The fixer and stop will both be fine. Actually, stop isn't even required for film. I use running tap water instead (two rinses) and that removes enough developer to preserve the fixer. Stop serves only to halt the developer's chemical reaction so that if any gets into the fixer it doesn't then weaken the fix.

ForenSeil · Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 2726 Location: Kiel, Germany.

Unopened fixers and stop baths do generally virtually never degrade. You could use 100 years old "expired" chemicals, if they were stored well they will work like new.

With developers it depends a lot on which the active ingriedients are inside. Most dry developers kept air- and lightight will also work for many decades but liquid developers/solution generally have a shorter shelf life, especialy if opened. Still especially classic developers like Rodinal solution can work for years above expiration date and are pretty failsafe, negs will only get thinner over the time.
Only best modern ascorbate developers like Xtol-solutions are only reliable for less than 6 months, but powder can be stored very long aswell.