Xtol failure?

[Shen45]

I know this has come up in the past and for the most part there is no longer any problems but is anyone still having any unexpected things happen with Xtol.

What water are you using to mix the powder into? And how are you storing it. I store D76 in 250ml bottles and get 9 months out of an unopened bottle [glass] without any sign of change. Is Xtol anything like that for storage life?

I have yet to test Foma 200 in the Xtol but I imagine 1:3 would be a good compromise as the film is reasonably contrasty.

Steve

[Mark Sampson]

1) It was the 1-liter packaging that caused the trouble.
2) Distilled water is always best.
3) I use 10 500ml brown glass bottles for one 5-liter package. That lasts quite a while.
4) Xtol will still go bad over time. If the older stock looks yellow, it's oxidized; dump and mix fresh. I noticed this when the bottle in question was over 6 months old.

[Bruce Watson]

I always mix XTOL in steam distilled water. Then I store it in old wine bottles using the VacuVin stopper system to pull a vacuum over the developer. I also dilute with distilled water which keeps any junk out of it. I've never had an XTOL failure, and I've been using it as my only B&W developer for around five years now.

I just used some XTOL stock that's a year old. Worked perfectly. But I'm just about out so it's unlikely it'll make it more than a year

[Eric Brody]

I mix with distilled water, dilute with distilled water, and like the others have not had a problem since the one liter package was eliminated. Mine is stored in a large container with a spigot on the bottom, and a floating lid. I try not to keep it longer than six months.

Eric

[Filmnut]

I have used Xtol for several years. I mix from the 5 L. pakage using standard Toronto, Ontario, tap water, and usually store it in a couple of containers, to extend its' life. It seems to keep for several months in partly filled container, and I haven't gone to the trouble of evacuating the container, although that would certainly be good practice.
The failures of Xtol I've heard of is that it will go bad quickly, and my experience is that, unlike other developers I use, it doesn't change colour when it is exhausted, so you might have bad developer, and not know it just by looking at it.
This VERY non-scientific, (Please don't flame me!) but if it has been sitting for a while, I will use a piece of film leader, or a piece of fogged paper and see if it develops to a good black in a minute or two. Exhausted dev won't.
Otherwise, if I have any doubts at all, I toss it and mix fresh.
Using these cautions, I have never had it fail on me, in nearly ten years of use.
Keith

[Toyon]

I don't use gas or a floating lid since I go through xtol pretty quickly. But I've had failures with xtol stored over 2 months.

[Ron Marshall]

Never had a failure with XTOL. Mix and dilute with distilled water.

[EdWorkman]

I had a problem with a 1 liter pack once- shoulda' known better than to mix it as it was sticky rather than powdery. Never have used distilled water, and ours has lots of calcium, albeit "softened" to sodium. I use it 1:3, based on the original Kodak instructions. Due to the odd [for the US] package to make 5 liters, I don't, but mix it in a juice jug that is a little larger than 1 gal but less than 5 liters. Since I listened in my math class in high school, I dilute that more highly concentrated stock to end up with 1:3, as in 1 mystock: 3.+ water and do 4 or 6 rolls of 120 in stainless tanks. And because the water is full of dissolved minerals, I rinse in distilled water/photoflow for a minute before hanging to dry .
Haven't tried it with tray development,yet. After a session I transfer the remaining stock to smaller full glass bottles. Since it doesn't discolor I toss the partial small bottle contents if I think I'll not develope for several weeks.

[Ed Richards]

Floating lid tanks are cheap, less than $20, and distilled water is also cheap. For that matter, Xtol is cheap, at least cheap enough to throw out if you have not used it up in 6 months. (If you cannot afford $20 a year for developer, you probably should not be doing LF)

So, if you want to avoid trouble, get a floating lid tank from BH, use distilled water, and toss it after 6 months or if it looks yellow, or if it is nasty when you open the pack.

That said, I NEVER develop irreplacable shots in the first batch of a newly mixed developer. Made that mistake once, then repeated it just to be sure.:-)

[Kevin Crisp]

I never use distilled water. I put it in full glass bottles after I mix it up. I've used 12 months after mixing date with no issues.