shelf life of HC110 - how long is "indefinite"?

[Konical]

Good Evening, Bethe,

John makes a good point. The formulation was changed somewhere along the line. I think it was at least fifteen, probably twenty years ago. The really old HC-110 was noticeably more viscous and had a decidedly putrid smell. The newer stuff has almost no smell at all, and that would be the way to tell if you have "old" or "really old" HC-110.

Konical

[Jim Chinn]

I bought a small bottle at a swap meet a few years ago that was 10 years old, but unopened. Worked fine. With that knowledge I bought several gallons of the stuff when kodak quit making paper a couple years ago, fearing that kodak chemistry might be next on the chopping block.

As others have suggested, you should do a test, just to be on the safe side.

[hexarrg]

I have a bottle of HC-110 that is closing in on two years old. Instead of yellow the bottle now appears burnt orange and the syrup has these red streaks in it. I'm not recommending this exactly but I just got two of the most beautiful negs I've ever shot out of this scary looking concoction. That being said I bought a new bottle as those beautiful negs might have just been a happy accident. Stuff still definitely develops film though.

[gainer]

When you play with developers long ehough, you run into anomalies. XTOL has been known to go bad without change of color. Rodinal gets pitch black without going bad. HC110 has organic solvents that can change color without affecting the activity. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of developers? Only the test strip knows.

[juan]

The old HC-110 was much darker when new than the newer, which was yellow when new. The change was made in about 1983, IIRC. My 10-year old bottle is now about the color of the pre-1983 stuff.
juan

[Marcus K]

I have noticed that if I have a bottle of HC-110 about half-full sitting for about six months it starts to turn to an orange color (it starts out yellowish). This is due to oxidation. Completely full bottles don't seem to do this (little oxygen present). As far as developing times go, I have experienced some noticible difference between older HC-110 and a brand new bottle. I needed to increase time for the older stuff. As mentioned earlier experimentation is the best way to find the correct time.

Also, Has any body tried out the new line of Kentmere chemicals available from freestyle.com? They're supposed to be direct replacements fro Kodak. They have a HC-110 equivilant called K-110 http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_pro...pid=1000002629

[MattKing]

I could be wrong about this, but I believe the orange colour results from water/moisture.

Matt