Preserving E6 chemicals

[JeremyC]

I am thinking of buying the 5 Litre Tetanol E6 kit rather than the 1 litre kit as I have a fair bit of hand processing I want to do but I wanted to know if anyone has any practical techniques or experience for syphoning off the chemicals without exposing each container to the open air. This is to preserve the batch so I can return to it later.

[nikonr10]

I am thinking of buying the 5 Litre Tetanol E6 kit rather than the 1 litre kit as I have a fair bit of hand processing I want to do but I wanted to know if anyone has any practical techniques or experience for syphoning off the chemicals without exposing each container to the open air. This is to preserve the batch so I can return to it later.

No , As soon as you open ,or break the seal air will get In . I buy the one 1l then use it 6 times can use up to 8 times . Have heard of freezing the unused chemcials . I build up my film's then do the processing with two lomo tanks , save alot of bucks, that way take's more time .
With freezing never done it, As have a Kid and his health come's first , with no space for a outside freezer. That the pain of the 5 litre kit , unless you shoot that much E6 film .

[JeremyC]

Hmm, if there was a just a practical way of piercing and then pumping out the chemicals without air getting in, I'm sure its something a chemistry lab does every day but perhaps not at home.

[nikonr10]

Hmm, if there was a just a practical way of piercing and then pumping out the chemicals without air getting in, I'm sure its something a chemistry lab does every day but perhaps not at home.

Only other way is to buy the tetenal protective gas to with the Tetenal E6 kit / misspelling last post , will help keep it longer . But will still go .

[JeremyC]

Only other way is to buy the tetenal protective gas to with the Tetenal E6 kit

That makes sense, I suppose any non reactive liquid, lighter than the chemicals in the kit would work. You would just add it and then draw out developer, bleach, etc as needed using a pipette without disturbing the covering fluid and all you might need to do is top it up.

[Angus]

I work in laboratories, albeit school labs rather than industrial.....but we certainly have no way of opening a sealed chemical bottle without letting air in. Most chemicals we get in as powders or concentrated solutions with relatively long shelf life and we make up solutions as necessary which will have shelf lives of anything from a few days to a few months.

The E6 kits are ready made mixtures of solutions and as such don't have a very long shelf life. There's not much you can do other than perhaps decanting to concertina bottles to limit contact with the air. But they will go off. Professional labs "in the day" will have used so much of the stuff that shelf life wasn't an issue. The small cottage industry processors today wait until they have enough films to use a whole batch of chemicals.

[richard p. t.]

Buy the 5 litre kit. By a number of small bottles of the size of 'dose' of chemical concentrate you usually use. For instance, if you usually mix up 1 litre at a time, then that would be 200ml of first dev, etc. So buy some 200ml bottles. Then dispense the chemistry concentrates into these bottles, with no or virtually no air. They will then last a long time as concentrates that way. A year would be no problem. If you can't use that amount of chem in a year, then you better stick to the 1 litre kits.
What you don't want to do is dilute the concentrates with water (making working strength chemistry) until you are ready to use it. Diluted and partly used, the colour developer only lasts a couple of weeks.
You don't need to fuss about a brief exposure to air as you dispense the concentrate into bottles. That is nothing.

[nikonr10]

Buy the 5 litre kit. By a number of small bottles of the size of 'dose' of chemical concentrate you usually use. For instance, if you usually mix up 1 litre at a time, then that would be 200ml of first dev, etc. So buy some 200ml bottles. Then dispense the chemistry concentrates into these bottles, with no or virtually no air. They will then last a long time as concentrates that way. A year would be no problem. If you can't use that amount of chem in a year, then you better stick to the 1 litre kits.
What you don't want to do is dilute the concentrates with water (making working strength chemistry) until you are ready to use it. Diluted and partly used, the colour developer only lasts a couple of weeks.
You don't need to fuss about a brief exposure to air as you dispense the concentrate into bottles. That is nothing.

That's the pain with the 5L Tetenal E6 kit which works so much cheaper than the 1L kit , Would be good if there made a 2/3 L kit ,
All part of there market , As Richard points out it's the colour developer when mixed > also just use the spray .
Keep it easy .

[mosesfilm]

What is the efficiency of the 5 Litre kits? How much Super 8 can be developed? Thanks.

[nikonr10]

What is the efficiency of the 5 Litre kits? How much Super 8 can be developed? Thanks.

It's not really unless you plan to developed a lot of e6 films ?
with one 1L done easy 6 100d super 8 films .