How to keep remained chemistry quantities alive?

[ivovarna]

If I mix 1 ltr from 5 ltr kit of E-6 chemistry, how long may I keep the

unmixed quantities without their characteristics change?

Is there any technique to preserve them for longer?

 

Thank in advance.

[ronald_moravec1]

Small bottles, 4 or 8 oz. Add marbles to keep the level up. Use butane lighter refil spray or Protect to displace air.

 

The first developer is most sensitive and I used to buy extra of that one component as it is cheap. I did not purchase kits or I supplimented them as I wished. Color developer warrants care also.

 

The others are far les sensitive if at all.

 

Whatever you do, cross contamination is the biggest threat so use the same conters for the same chemicals every time and wash wash and wash some more. If you do contaminate, you will never detirmine where the problem occurred so be careful.

 

Specialty bottle co. There are others.

[ivovarna]

Thanks, Ronald.

 

In this case will be better to find use small bottles which will be filled to maximum (with no air)and then the cap sealed.

This will split the 5l kit to 5 1l kits without any air in the bottles. Once the small bottle is open, all the quantity should be used. I hope this will extend the life of the chemistry.

 

 

What about if freeze the concentrates?

[g._armour_van_horn]

Once you mix the working solution, you only get about ten days, but I've gone past a couple of months without seeing any difference in the concentrates. Of course, eliminating the oxygen above the concentrate will drastically increase the time you can store the two developer concentrates, as will refrigeration or even freezing.

 

Another option for displacing the oxygen would be to visit any wine store, they sell products designed to do just that for partial bottles of wine. Might be more expensive than some solutions, but probably really easy to use.

 

Van

[ivovarna]

Thanks Van,

 

will the freezing change the characteristics of the concentrate?

I am afraid I will have some components of the liquid separated after defrosting. And probably will not achieve the original viscosity.

[david_lyga]

Your name sounds VERY Russian. I do not know from where you are writing but I am about to tell you how you can keep color developer FOREVER in perfect condition, even in diluted form. Mix your complete developer concentrates according to instructions. To store it (permanently) do as follows: get clear, brittle plastic bottles that bottles water, soda, juice, almost always are sold in. ( I get mine from trash cans in Philadelphia!) Rinse them well and then fill them COMPLETELY, up to the rim.) Cap them well. This is ALL you have to do to preserve the developer, even in diluted form. (In fact, I dilute the developer TWICE what the manufacturer reccommends for greater economy and develop for a little longer.) These bottles have a hard plastic which does not readily 'breathe' like the more pliable, softer plastic bottles that detergents, alchohol, etc come in. The only problem is the need to continually transfer aomounts from bottles that are not completely full into smaller bottles. I have bottles ranging from 1000ml down to 10ml. The smaller bottles are glass with tight fitting caps (medecines, etc.) You have to begin collecting these bottles so you have a supply but it is worth it: I kept RA-4 developer (diluted) for over THREE YEARS and it was good as new. -David Lyga.

[ivovarna]

Thanks David,

I am Bulgarian, thats why the name sounds so Russian :))

 

Will use marble or glass to top up the bottles. Obviously the oxygen is the only problem for these chemicals.

 

Thanks

[rob_landry]

Don't freeze the concentrates, but you can freeze the working solutions just fine. No problems with precipitation when thawed because the working solutions are mostly water at this point. I've posted on this many times here. Dan Schwartz has also had success freezing.

[pedrito]

Very interesting the point of freezing and refrigerating. I store my diluted chemicals on milk white bottles, to protect solutions from light and they are very air tight too.