Shelf Life of Stop Bath.

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Hi,

I am wondering what the shelf life is of Stop Bath once its mixed up to use. I am using an Ilford Indicator Stop Bath.

I cant seem find much info on the ilford web site at all.

Thanks, Paul

-- Paul (paul.jjones@rmit.edu.au), October 09, 2001

Answers

Stop baths are more often "rated" by the number of prints (or rolls of film that they will effectively stop development of. Indicator stop of course changes color when its potency is used up. Shelf life doesn't really apply to stop baths. Another way to test is to feel the print after its been through the stop bath - the general slipperyness of the developer should be gone.

To answer your question about general capacities of a stop bath, go to Ilfords tutorials on processing RC and fiber based prints, some capacity infornmation for their various chemistries is listed there.

-- Paul Swenson (paulohoto@humboldt1.com), October 09, 2001.


Hi Paul,

Thanks for the reply.

So if i put my stop bath in a storage container it should fine to use the next time i develop some film? and will just be exhausted when it changes colour?

I also dont seem to be able to find the tutorials on the ilford web site, do you know the link to them?

Thanks, Paul

-- Paul (paul.jjones@rmit.edu.au), October 10, 2001.


Stop bath doesn't spoil with time, but it does collect debris. If you reuse it for film you should periodically filter it. I use coffee filters. Same with fixer.

-- Tim Brown (brownt@flash.net), October 10, 2001.

The shelf life of stop bath is indefinite. As long as it has not turned purple, it is still good.

As for the tutorials, go to http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/bw.html and download the .pdf files for the RC and FB versions of Multigrade paper. There are pretty good instructions there.

Currently, there is not a fact sheet for the chemicals posted on the web. The version that was there was getting out of date, so we have removed it, and hope to have an updated version posted shortly.

David Carper ILFORD Technical Service

-- David Carper (david.carper@ilford.com), October 10, 2001.


i dont use indicator type stop so to tell i just check pH with pH strips, it's cheap, quick, easy (there's a rare combination).... if it starts loosing acidity i add another ml acetic acid

good luck

joe

-- Joe Holcombe (joe1013_@excite.com), October 11, 2001.



I use 24% acetic acid bought from the grocery store and mix my stop baths with it. Never had any problems, and I never keep the used bath.

-- Patric (jenspatric@mail.bip.net), October 12, 2001.

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