Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/23

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Subject: Re: [Leica] XTOL Suddenly Dying: Storage
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 10:33:49 -0500

At 06:46 AM 1999-01-23 EST, Bob Bedwell wrote:
>
>I have not been as careful as several of you have in
>storage practices.  I do not have gallon glass amber jugs and frankly I don't
>know where to get them.  My best friend is a pharmacist at a very high-volume
>pharmacy and he hasn't seen any glass gallon jugs come into his store for
>years.  I have een using those brown plastic jugs that you purchase in the
>camera shops.  

Well, you CAN still find gallon glass jugs, brown or otherwise:  apple
cider and the like come in them, and my local pharmacy, at any rate, can
special-order them.  But I do not store XTOL in gallon jugs;  I've NEVER
stored a developer in a gallon jug.  I use 1 liter (34 oz) or 500cc (17 oz)
brown glass bottles as my primary storage, and these I can buy over the
counter at my local pharmacy.  For overflow storage, when I run out of the
regular bottles, I use quart clear-glass V-8 bottles (yes, yes, yes:  I
drink the V-8 first, and wash the bottle).

I have had bad, bad experiences with plastic;  even the best plastic allows
air in through its porosity, and this dramatically reduces the longevity of
the developer.

Stop-bath, fixer, and Photo-Flo I do store in glass gallon jugs.  C-41
chemistry and Ilfochrome stuff I store in quart glass bottles.

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!