color of fresh selectol soft?

[splanken]

I am a Dektol user, and I need to use a lower contrast developer for a print. I mixed some selectol-soft but was surprised that it was quite "tea" coloured from the packet. Is this normal, or should it be a white powder? The stock solution is quite dark tea. English PG tips coloured...

[aduncanson]

I mixed up some stock on 12/15/08. It is now just out-of-date (but I will probably still try using it again.) I just poured a little into a white tray and found that it is a bit tea colored; perhaps the color of green tea, and that it how I recall it looking when it was fresh.

I left some slightly used dilute Selectol Soft in a partly filled, poorly sealed jug with the intention of getting back to it soon. Six weeks later it stank like rotten eggs.

[Chuck Pere]

My new stock solution is more of a weak tea color. It does go dark pretty fast with age unless kept in a full bottle. I keep mine in many small bottles. A friend gave me some older packages to try and it mixed up very dark brown straight out of the package. These were very old pre-plastic packs. Sounds like yours may have been starting to age before being mixed

[Bill_1856]

Normal, but shouldn't affect the results.

[John O'Connell]

I remember Selectol-Soft being a little brownish even in powder form. It is definitely tea-colored in stock solution.

[mandoman7]

Oxidation of developers in powdered form seems to give that coloring a lot of times. I used to buy a lot of bulk outdated chemistry and your post reminded me of those days. Fresher chemistry usually means a clearer solution, but sometimes you're in the middle of a process and you don't want to throw out 2 gallons of chemistry just because of a slight discoloration.
The key to dealing with chemistry is to establish and record standards for reference. The strength of developers is always relative, so as long as you have a method of comparing performance, and/or a reliable supplier, the discoloration will be noticed but not something to be alarmed about.