got a bottle of TF4 on Monday, and thought the cap was leaking, but turns out the bottle cracked at the seam near the top. PF sent a replacement, but UPS did not pick up the defective bottle.
The question is, is this stuff in the defective bottle still good? How subjective to oxidation is it? I can transfer it to amber bottles if you think it will still be good, or not.
Thanks in advance.
I'd be more concerned about what got into the bottle. A crack is small, and if some of the contents leaked out, some contaminants may have gotten in. I guess you can't know for sure unless you try some out.
Okie dokie, thanks. I'll give it a whirl and see. I hate to waste it if still good. The crack was indeed small and must have occured close to deliver time because only 6 to 8 ounces is missing from the bottle. The solutions were well mixed when I opened the box, and by the looks of the styro peanuts I figured much more would have been missing from the bottle. The invoice was completely soaked. I think my UPS man drop kicked it onto my porch or something.
Fixer does not oxidize like developer. Just pour the TF-4 in the broken container into another container and put it to use. You got two bottles for the price of one. No need to use amber glass.
I have been using TF-4 for the past few years. I mix up 2 liters for film and 4 liters for paper. Shake well before adding distilled or filtered water. I store these working solutions in wide mouth Rubbermaid bottles from Wal Mart and pour the used fixer back into the Rubbermaid bottles and re-use it several times. It can be filtered through a coffee filter if it picks up any particles.
Another thought. The fixer might have frozen and expanded, causing the plastic bottle to crack. The shipment could have remained outdoors over night in an unheated truck.
Freezing and thawing will not hurt the fixer. It should still be useable.
Gem,
You probably got that right about the freezing, I did not think about that! Part of the solution coagulated on the bottom, even after vigorous shaking (fun trying to shake/mix it well in a cracked bottle without getting it everywhere). Ever see that with TF4? I'll shoot a couple test shots to run through it before I sacrifice an important neg. Thanks for the thoughts DJ and Gem.
I've never had a bottle of TF4 that did NOT have a bunch of it as sludge at the bottom. Getting the concentrate all back into solution is the only hard part about using TF4 for me--apart from that, I really like the stuff.
Charlie
Tf-4 is bottled by Photo Formulary in the form of a super-saturated solution. The white stuff on the bottom is normal precipitant. It is not un-dissolved particles.
Merely shake the bottle and pour the resultant milky solution into a measuring device. Add three parts water, let the solution stand for a while, and it will turn clear. Because you added more water, the resulting solution will no longer be super-saturated.
Filter out the black silver compounds that result after the fixer has been used.
If you filter out the white "sludge'" you are filtering out the ammonium compounds that have naturally precipitated out of the super-saturated solution.
Before you dilute it add enough water to make the full gallon. The part that was lost was probably all water...EC
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