Print developer life span ?

[vincent]

I just wondered, when you find your developer gone dark brown in its original container should you dump it or are there other signs to know that its past it's best by use date?

[Trevor Crone]

Vincent, as long as it is still giving me decent blacks and tonal range from any given paper I carry on using it.

[Mike O'Pray]

Vincent, I have only ever used Nova dev( a while ago and Ilford MG dev(currently) in my Nova slotty thing and both go a yellowish-brown after a few days in the slotty thing but stay that way for a few weeks.

I don't think I have ever used either when really dark brown but like Trevor, as long as it is giving me the kind of tonal range I know I get from fresh dev then I know it's OK.

I have had developer "die" on me once and it showed in weak prints and more conclusively in producing no change in print-look even when changing the grade on MG paper.

It can "creep up" on you and I found the best way to check if I hadn't done any printing for a few days or a week or so was to check the first print out with a known good print from the last session. If the dev is dying then it shows in a comparison.

I keep my stock MG dev in a cleaned our winebag in a former winebox and so far the dev out of the box has been clear. If it comes out a dark brown straight from stock then I'd be worried and I'd be surprised if it was any good but that applies to MG dev which is almost as clear as water in stock solution. I suspect that if it is any darker than a very light straw colour( say Chardonnay) it may not be worth keeping from stock but that's a bit of speculation on my part as my stock so far hasn't been anything other than light straw coloured and as I said I have only ever used Ilford MG dev and Nova. Both of which were clear as stock.

Actually come to think of it I have many moons ago used Ilford WT and Cooltone devs( presents from the 2006 Ilford tour) and they were clear as well as stock solutions.

Hope this helps


Mike

[Trevor Crone]

Vincent, I assume you are talking about the concentrate going dark brown and not WS?

[marty]

Hello, there.

Originally Posted by Trevor Crone

Vincent, as long as it is still giving me decent blacks and tonal range from any given paper I carry on using it.

The same for me, if we're talking about concentrate. If it's an old leftover of WS I don't even bother to try.
Cheers M.-

[Richard Gould]

I will continue to use the concentrate even if ii is dark brown and I have never had a problem,as long as it is giving good blacks and contrast it's fine,I find print dev concentrate keeps well Richard

[vincent]

Originally Posted by Trevor Crone

Vincent, I assume you are talking about the concentrate going dark brown and not WS?

Yes it is the concentrate that I was talking about.

Do other people have the practice of breathing into the stock container before putting the lid back on it. I read about this practice years ago and have carried it out since.

Thanks a lot Trevor and others for your advice.

[Richard Gould]

Vincent,never heard of that one, I know tetenal make a spray,proctectan,I think, but I have never used it,Richard

[marty]

Me neither, but I use the spray. It's a gas heavier than air, so when you spray it inside the bottle it goes directly above the liquid possibly squeezing out all the air. If using a glass bottle with airtight cap should stay that way indefinitely. With plastic bottles osmosis might bring again inside the air quite faster in comparison.

Cheers, M.-

[Richard Gould]

I rely on squezing the air out of the plastic bottle the doing the top up tight, it seems to work,Richard