stop bath

[big paul]

ag is selling stop bath in 5L (tetenal ) any idea how long it will last once open ,will I have to decant in to smaller bottles or will it be OK in its original container ..




www.essexcockney.com

[John King]

Stop bath should not 'go off' - unless it is the non-acetic acid type that grows a fungus if exposed to the air. The last lot of acetic acid stop bath I bought from AG was clear and didn't have the added chemical in that changes colour when it is fully used.

[Richard Gould]

I've kept Acetic acid stop bath for a year or two in opened bottles, it has never gone off on me, however, if it is the oudorless citric acid type then it can grow a fungus when exposed to air, so if it is acetic acid type fine, if citric acid the no, however, for the best value then I get the clear type with no indicator dye, my nose tells me when it is exuasted, if the smell of vinegar is not there then ditch it
Richard

[Mike O'Pray]

It is acetic acid and quite strong as the dilution is 1+50 so 5L represents great value at £21.58 when compared to Kodak's 0.47L at 1+63 at £8.82

Depending on how long you intend to live, it might be the only stop bath you will ever buy :D

Mike

[big paul]

I have just been to my doctor and she says I am ok at the moment to buy some, but don't leave it to long ..thanks for the great answers . :-)



www.essexcockney.com

[Terry S]

I've always found that stop bath, of the acidic type, seems to way outlast baths of developer and fixer, when made up at the same time for my Nova slot processor.

For this reason, my last purchase was of 5 litre containers of Ilford developer and fixer (which works out to be MUCH, MUCH cheaper compared overall to single litre bottles) and a much smaller bottle of stop (about 1 litre I think).

I bought some thick plastic 1 litre bottles to put the dev and fix in and I top these up with the 'special gas' (can't think of its name off hand) each time I use some and they have lasted fine. At the moment I believe they are about 5 years old, which is way past the time manufactures say they will last. As they are about to run out and need to be reordered, I still have just over half of a litre of the stop bath concentrate left, so won't be ordering any more of that at the mo!

As Mike has said, 'it might be the only stop bath you will ever buy' if you order a five litre bottle of it. :)

Terry S

[big paul]

don't worry I have a reason to live as long as I can (that is not a lot after 60 ) I bought a spare 150watt light bulb for my enlarger and found another one in the cupboard so now I have two and would love to see them out.. :-)


www.essexcockney.com

[Mike O'Pray]

If ever come to the conclusion that 5L was more than you'd ever use in the darkroom, I wonder if you could dilute it for fish and chips? Only said half in jest as I wonder if there is anything else in normal vinegar that gives it a better taste than photographic acetic acid?

I recall that my mother way back in the 50s wasn't very keen on the normal brown malt vinegar so she got the clear stuff that was probably straight acetic acid.

We all got used to it on our fish and chips pretty quickly :D

Mike

[Slixtiesix]

Stop bath should last almost indefinitely. I´ve been using the odorless citric acid type with yellow indicator for years now, never had a problem. I have some bottle around that I had opened 10 years ago and it is still working. It seems to last v e r y long even when mixed with water, unless you had enough film/paper run through it.