2 Year Old 1/2 full HC-110 Stock - Still OK to Use?

I plan on shooting a couple 120 rolls of Delta 3200 today and all I

have on hand for developers are Rodinal which I don't think is a good

choice and a 1/2 full bottle of HC-110 concentrate which is a little

less then two years old. I know HC-110 has a excellent shelf life but

as with everything there are limits. Is it safe to use? If so what is

the dilution B from concentrate? I forgot but I think it's 1:32 or

something around that.

Thanks,

Marc

You're right re dilution B. Well, close. The purists always express it 1:31. I like to think: 1 part hc110 and water to make 32 parts total. Same thing.

 

I have an previously opened bottle of HC110, about the same vintage, but close to full. Perhaps it helps if excess air was squeezed out, or displaced, with marbles or whatever? I would suspect the number of times the bottle was opened would be a factor. Will watch this thread for other responders.

I took almost two years to finish a bottle once. It was fine. I did keep it in the dark and tightly sealed though. Maybe a clip test of one frame if its a very important shoot?

I just used some HC-110 from a bottle (almost empty) of HC-110 I purchased in September 2003. It looks horrible but it worked fine.

The CONCENTRATE keeps approximately forever, even in a partially full bottle. It's water, more than air, that kills this stuff, because the chemicals aren't ionized in the glycol carrier of the concentrate; if it's kept dry, it could literally last forever.

 

The *stock solution*, OTOH, has about a 3 month life in a full bottle, more like a month in a partly full bottle. I rarely use stock solution, only when I'd need to measure less than 1 ml of concentrate (for a tank I have that uses 2 ounces of working solution for a roll of Minolta 16 film).

 

Dilution B is 1+31 from concentrate -- originally, one ounce of syrup and water to make a quart.