Pyrocat HD in Glycol shelf life

[Kirk Gittings]

Just checking in with other's experience here. I tend to develop film once a year-usually over an intense two week period. I bought the large size from PF last year and developed a lot of film in February-first time I had any amount left over worth saving. When I was caught up I added very clean marbles to reduce air exposure, put the cap on tight and stuck the bottles in my darkroom fridge. I got the PC out yesterday, shot some test negatives and did a run, the developer is dead as a doornail. I half expected this and that is why I ran test shots. I'm not complaining. The stuff is very economical and I had used most of the bottle.

Would that be typical shelf life exhaustion in your experience? Could I have done anything else to preserve it better? One of these days I'll get into mixing my own but for right now what do you think about off the shelf shelf life of this and my methods?

[Peter De Smidt]

My bottles are a number of years old, and they're still going strong. No marbles. No fridge.

[Kirk Gittings]

I'm curious then what I did wrong. Any ideas? I use separate pipettes for the A&B solutions-virtually no chance for cross contamination.

[Peter De Smidt]

Are you shaking the B solution before using? I do. Contamination would usually be the most likely reason for early developer failure, but in your case that's unlikely.
I'm using the Pyrocat-MC in glycol. Maybe it has a better shelf life?

[BarryS]

I've used three year old Pyrocat-HD in glycol from PF and it worked perfectly. I mix my own now and compared freshly-mixed with the dregs of PF Pyrocat--the negative density was exactly the same--no loss of activity. I use two dedicated pipettes for aliquoting, and have noticed it can be hard to rinse out the part A due to the viscosity of the glycol. No marbles, no fridge, my developer is stored on a darkroom shelf.

[domaz]

My experience with Pyrocat in Glycol from the Formulary is the same as yours Kirk. After 9-10 months it just dies with little warning. My new policy is after 6 months throw it out.

[Keith Fleming]

Despite my doubts, could the refrigeration be the culprit? That seems to be difference in these posts.

Keith

[Richard Wasserman]

It does seem odd Kirk. Do you have any idea when PF mixed it? Maybe it already had some age when you received it. I mix Pyrocat in water and it lasts at least as long as yours in Glycol has, I don't do anything special, no marbles, etc. Maybe it is time to mix your own? It's easy to do and guarantees having fresh chemicals.

[IanG]

I make up my own Pyrocat HC in water, I've some that'll be 4 years old in March and it's still fine. You must use glass or high density plastic bottles for storage, also fresh Metabisulphite as it gives off SO2 which prevents the Pyrocatechin from oxidising.

In Turkey I have some double strength Part A in Glycol that's still fine after about 5 or 6 years, I made it double straighten to cut the weight flying with it.

Someone commented on one of the forums that the PF bottles weren't good enough, even with Glycol there has to be a small amount of water to dissolve the metabisulphite. I made this mistake once using some smallish lower grade plastic bottle and the Pyrocat (water only) wasn't lasing a month. Low grade plastic bottles allow oxygen to diffuse through the wall into the solution.

Ian

[Kirk Gittings]

I have been storing the PF PC in the brown plastic bottles they came in. Maybe that is it?