New Dektol Mixes Dark Brown

**John Kasaian** · 6-Mar-2020, 17:33

I don't like surprises with chemicals!

**Robbie Bedell** · 9-Mar-2020, 13:36

I got a new bag of Dektol and it had a tiny hole in the side. It also mixed up a light brown but is OK..I think if any air at all gets in there in will oxidize for sure but seems to work OK if now too brown..Now how it got the hole in the side is a mystery..

**Jim Noel** · 10-Mar-2020, 14:23

In the days when Dektol, and D-76 it's predecessor, were packaged in metal cans this oxidation never occurred. It began when the company saved money with paper packaging and raised the price. A few years ago I was out of the packaged stuff and opened a can. It was still barely tannish.

**John Olsen** · 3-Sep-2020, 17:15

Update: When I started this thread there was a question about early expiration of the stock or decreased capacity in the working solution. Having just discarded my stock and working solutions yesterday, I can say that storage life is as claimed, at least 6 months, and the working solution doesn't show premature exhaustion.

I mixed up fresh stock and working solutions and the Dektol seems to be fine, despite its disgusting color. Next time I won't mix so soon after having the septic system pumped, if you get my drift. Anyway, my worries were unfounded.

**Mark Sampson** · 3-Sep-2020, 20:21

Jim, you're lucky. Kodak started putting developers in foil packages in 1974... Of course they never imagined that people would want to use products made decades before. The foil envelopes used thru the 2000s did well, as long as you didn't wait years to open them.
I did clean out our department's little stockroom at Kodak c.2004... I threw out all the foil Dektol packages that had brown stains around the hanger slot in the top of the packages. We hadn't used any Dektol in some years, had gone to machine processing and liquid concentrate developers (Polymax?)
I'm sorry to read of the issues people are having- but I'm happy to see that the developers still work. i'm also sorry to see, once again, that my once-proud former employer is still struggling. (I've been using Liquidol for prints, but who knows if that will be available again?)