About xtol

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Znerken

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I have as some have noticed been sceptical to mix chemicals myself, but I am thinking of making the big step.
I have a few question:

Is it as much stress as I am making it, or am I over stressing?

I am concerned about the health. How does it affect my lunges? I have asthma

Can I store it in a wine bladder for a year? Is it hard to pour it in the wine bladder and get the oxygen out?
 
I would suggest to OP to skip powder chemicals.
Kodak HC-110, Stop bath and PhotoFlo. Plus Ilford rapid fixer.
All are liquid and lasts very long.
 
There is no official XTOL formula, Kodak have changed the formula as noted by a change in ingredients on the pack then changed it back again over the last couple of years.
There are a number of home brew formulas such as MYTOL primarily using Ascorbic Acid which is more readily available than the isoascorbate. Dimezone S is also allegedly in XTOL, which you may have difficulty sourcing, as it is more stable than Phenidone in solution.
Anchell & Troop quote the most accepted formula ( a close approximation), the patent is famously vague giving several alternatives:

Part A (Dry Formulation):
Sodium sulfite 10 g
Diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, pentasodium salt (40%) 1G
Sodium metaborate (8 mol) 4.0 g
4-Hydroxymethyl-4-methyl-1-phenyl-3-pyrazolidone 0.2G

Part B (Dry Formulation):
Sodium sulfite 75 g
Sodium metabisulfite 3.5 g
Sodium isoascorbate 12 g

If I were to advise a beginner in mixing developers XTOL is probably near the end of my list.
( just checked not there at all!!)

Try D23 first, two ingredients readily available and it works very well, build confidence from there.
If you want XTOL buy it.

Am I reading this wrong you DO want to buy it, the health hazard of XTOL is well below most other developers. If you are concerned mix it under a kitchen cooker hood extractor, better if the oven is off, so any dust/fumes are taken away from you.
 
I just finished my last pouch to make 1 liter of stock solution of D-76 and so I tackled one of the numerous pouches to make 3.8 liters of stock solution I had bought before the prices jumped four years ago. Thus a recycled 5 liters plastic can did it perfect instead of my usual brown glass lab bottle which I use when I'm making 1 liter of stock solution (attached photo).

Quite frankly there is nothing easier than preparing one's developer from a pouch of Kodak powder. You gently pour the powder in the empty bottle or can, then you fill it with very hot water until the mark you've made, then you close the bottle/can and agitate it a lot. You allow it to rest overnight, you adjust the level once the solution has cooled and you're done.

There is absolutely no reason to fear anything. Just wear a basic mask if you think that your asthma may be woken-up. But the risk is lower than what it is when you breathe some dust in your blankets.

I wouldn't bother with mixing the chemicals myself. Just stock X-Tol pouches and prepare your stock solution when you need it.
 
I mix xtol in open air and wearing a mask making sure I do not breathe the mixing stuff
I store it in pharmacy brown glass bottles of 1 and 0.5 liter
 
Znerken said:
But there's nothing like xtol. If there was a liquid xtol solution, I would.
Click to expand...

How do you know, if you never mixed and used it? Don't go by Internet word of mouth - while many people are proclaimed fanboys of one developer or other, that really means nothing more than that they have only learned that one (or forgotten about others). At the end of the day I've seen excellent results with just about any developer - it is the photographer and the film far more than the process.
 
I keep my developer (Ilford Perceptol) in an old glass wine bottle of 1 l. I have special wine bottle corks with a pump (Vacuvin) so I can pump all air out of it and my developer will not oxidize. Works.

Erik.
 
The Vacuvin rules ! 😉

Yet the main concern with X-Tol may be that you must prepare 5 liters of stock solution if you buy the Kodak pouches. If you develop very few rolls a month, you can be another victim of the "sudden death" the ascorbic acid developers are (in)famous for, even when stored in a full glass bottle with almost no oxygen in it.

The solution might be the Fomadon Excel, which is said to be the very same developer as the X-Tol, and readily available in pouches to make 1 liter of stock solution. I have used X-Tol (only to discover that I couldn't distinguish the results from the ones I had with D-76) but not the Fomadon Excel so I can't vouch for it.
 
sevo said:
How do you know, if you never mixed and used it? Don't go by Internet word of mouth - while many people are proclaimed fanboys of one developer or other, that really means nothing more than that they have only learned that one (or forgotten about others). At the end of the day I've seen excellent results with just about any developer - it is the photographer and the film far more than the process.
Click to expand...


Because my lab used X-TOL, and I prefer the look on those negatives compared to the other developers I have tried.
 
I make up 5L of XTol at a time in a bucket and then store it in well sealed 1L plastic bottles. I wear a simple mask as used for DIY (from Asda/Walmart) whilst mixing. I have used the same batch for up to a year without any problems.


Xtol: Don't Drink! by Monz, on Flickr
 
I mix it up in a laundry with an exhaust fan running.

I've had two batches go off at around 6 months. They were stored in accordion-type compressible plastic bottles which I've since discontinued in favour of dark glass wine bottles with screw caps. I intend to buy small glass beads to put into the bottles to exclude air as I use the developer. I haven't tried the wine bladder idea but it sounds like it would work.

However I'm currently using Fomadon LQN liquid developer as it's cheaper and easier to source where I live, and the results are still excellent. I use it as a one-shot developer and it couldn't be easier; dilution is 1:10. I'll give Fomadon Excel a try next to see how close it is to XTOL (still one of my favourite developers).

I think the idea of wearing a mask while mixing XTOL is sensible. I wore plastic gloves as well. Definitely mix up powder chemicals in a space with an exhaust fan.
 
ChrisLivsey said:
If you are concerned mix it under a kitchen cooker hood extractor, better if the oven is off, so any dust/fumes are taken away from you.
Click to expand...

Not the best idea IMO, as a typically positioned kitchen hood extractor (immediately in front and above your head) will pull up any fumes / airborne powder towards the height of your head, the area where you are breathing. An effective darkroom fume hood should be positioned low and away from you (opposite side of the source of fumes), and this typically isn't the case in kitchens. Also, I personally would not handle any darkroom chemistry in a room where foot is prepared or consumed.

Masks for hobby use are useless and can give a false sense of security, if you want to use masks make sure they are industrial grade type of masks that are specifically designed for this type of hazard and application.

How to safely dissolve powder developers

The good news is that there is a simple, cheap and safe way to mix Xtol:

  • Wear eye protection and approriate gloves (nitrile). You will need a pair of clean scissors or a clean cutting knife. Fill a large beaker (5 liters) with 4 liters of de-min water of about 30° C.

  • Put bag A in the beaker, so it is partially submerged under water. Cut bag A in two with a pair of scissors under the water level. This will prevent any powder from getting airborne. Rinse the two halves of the bag under water until no powder is left in them. Remove and discard bag

  • Stir with stirring rod until part A is completely dissolved. Take you time. This can take 15 minutes or longer. After part A is completely dissolved, repeat the same procedure with part B.

  • After the powder has dissolved completely, top up with demin water to 5 liters and fill into empty wine bladder of appropriate size. Pour gently and slowly. After the bladder is filled, replace valve of wine bladder and push out remaining air. Let sit for 12 hours before use.

If done this way, Xtol stock will keep up to 12 months or longer. As with any developer, after prolonged storage of solutions (>6 months) it is advisable to do a header/clip test before developing to avoid nasty surprises
 
Seriously though, if you are not working all day in a photo lab, and are not already allergic to the ingredients of a particular developer, do not worry - the amount of casual exposure you get in home processing is unlikely to make you allergic. There is some peculiar US obsession with "fumes" - but you are merely working with fairly harmless ready-made developers, not in a galvanizing workshop. Xtol in particular ranges somewhere between a kitchen and a hairdresser's in terms of allergen exposure - if there are foods you cannot handle without gas mask and hazmat suit, you should keep off home processing, if you need no special protection when going to the barber, you need not worry at all. For anything in between, wear gloves and do not drink the chemicals...
 
Preparing developer at home off manufacturers' powder pouches without any particular protection other than not doing it like a pig is way less dangerous than going outside and breathing solid carbon particles we're now all totally surrounded with, getting exposed to cosmic rays, eating meat full of antibiotics or crackers filled with palm oil, and wearing clothes made in China with chemical agents of unknown origin trapped into the fibers.
 
Thank you everyone. You make really good points! Is it hard to get the chemicals in to the wine bladder?


By the way, I resonated that when I clean the bathroom I probably get more exposed to chemicals compared to what I will do when mixing up a developer once or twice a year. Let's face it, we all use pretty strong chemicals to clean our toilet etc.

If I throw it after 6 months, will I make the chance of the developer going bad really low?

I think I will make the go!
 
I mix XTOL, as well as D-76 when I buy it in four liter size, in a big white plastic bucket used for no other purpose. It is simple enough to transfer to bottles. I just pour some from the bucket into a one liter beaker and then use a funnel to transfer to bottles.

I currently use green scotch bottles or wine bottles for storage. I save the ones that have good, tight-fitting, reusable corks. But I like Bill Clark's idea of using soda bottles. The caps have got to be the best when it comes to sealing. If they can keep the fizz in Coke or 7-UP, they can keep air out as well! Brown is favored, to protect from light. They don't make brown soda bottles, but all we need to do to protect from light is keep our bottles in a box under the darkroom sink!
 
No, it is not hard to get the mixed developer into the wine bladder. I haven't done it for some time, but I just use a funnel that is for darkroom use only. The beauty of the box wine system is that you never worry about keeping air out.
 
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