Liquid Dektol shelf life

[allsystemsfail]

I see you can get Dektol in liquid form which makes 5 gallons of developer. My question is how long would it last once mixed in a floating lid container?

Rich

[Katie]

I've had some mixed up since a year ago, stores in gallon brown jugs in the fridge. Works great still!

[ROL]

Stock Dektol keeps 6 months. Read the directions on the container or spec sheet to be certain of any particular manufacturer's recommendations.

[Gerald C Koch]

Kodak does not make a liquid form of Dektol. All the catalog entries say "powder to make 5 galons."They do make Polymax T and Ektanol liquid paper developers. These are both Dimezone based developers. Because of the nature of the formula Dektol cannot be made into a concentrate much more concentrated than the normal stock solution.

[allsystemsfail]

I saw the 5 gallon mix which comes in a box and I guess I assumed it was liquid, but your right. My bad.

[Gerald C Koch]

I too saw the box in the illustration and it certainly looked like a liquid package. It gave the wrong impression of the product.

[allsystemsfail]

Ok, so now we've hashed out liquid vs powder. To my original question. IF I Was to mix 5 gallons of the POWDER form of Dektol, would I have to use it up quickly or would it last a month or two before losing strength?

[Katie]

Like I said, I mixed mine up last summer, stored them in 5 different 1 gallon dark brown jugs in the refrigerator (it's hot here in Texas) and am just about to open my last jug. Haven't noticed a difference from the first jug to this last one...

[Rick A]

Why not just buy a package of Ethol LPD and use as a replenished paper developer. My last gallon of the stuff has lasted well into two years and no change in properties. I'm finally down to my last half liter of replenisher and that should last until Christmas.

[Bob Carnie]

If you keep the container well stopped, I think you will be ok for a month with no issues.

I am preparing to mix Developer stock solution from a couple of scratch formula's posted in the articles here. I have saved up about 15 - 5 litre Developer containers- the kind that Ilford multigrade come in.. I use the Ilford developer for lambda printing mixed with Dektol but for all my enlarger printing I have used only Dektol. We have a couple of those large mixers so its time to put them to use.
I also plan to mix stock fix as well... I am planning of mixing in bulk and estimate that each time I mix I should have enough for a few months of work give or take a month.

I think this will save a ton of dough and it seems to be harder to get the Kodak chems and the prices are getting pretty steep.

Ok, so now we've hashed out liquid vs powder. To my original question. IF I Was to mix 5 gallons of the POWDER form of Dektol, would I have to use it up quickly or would it last a month or two before losing strength?