CHARLES ELIASON , Feb 07, 2012; 05:39 p.m.
Being used to mixing powdered developers with heated water in order to get the powder to dissolve effienciently I mixed XTOL accordingly. While researching and reading about XTOL I discovered that one of its benefits is being able to mix it using room temperature water.
Have I compromised the chemical in any way by using heated water ?
My wife owns a coffee shop and heavily filters her water for chlorine, Iron, and has a reverse osmosis filter in the line as well. So, I generally use filtered, heated water from one of the large brewers to mix with. (They have a large tap on the side to pull hot water from.) It's set at 190 F.
Thanks,
Charles
peter carter 
, Feb 07, 2012; 06:38 p.m.
That's a good one. Time will tell....
CHARLES ELIASON , Feb 07, 2012; 07:53 p.m.
That is funny. I'll make sure to go ahead and use it.
peter carter , Feb 07, 2012; 08:09 p.m.
Like it's 11ish a bag. Through a test roll through it. I don't expect there would actually be an issue.
Lex Jenkins 
, Feb 07, 2012; 08:29 p.m.
As my granddad used to counsel me, when all else fails, read the instructions. On alternate days he mostly cussed because he didn't heed his own advice.
Kodak's MSDS for Xtol reads:
Inhalation: May be harmful if inhaled. Airborne dust irritating. In contact with strong acid or if heated, sulphites may liberate suphur dioxide gas. Sulphur dioxide gas is irritating to the respiratory tract. Some asthmatics or hypersensitive individuals may experience difficult breathing.
The technical data sheet reads:
"Ascorbic acid-based black and white film developer."
Ascorbic acid is known to break down in heat, which is why nutritionists recommend against over-heating foods containing vitamin C.
Whether this affects Xtol as a developer, I don't know. But Kodak's instructions recommend using water at "normal room temperature, about 65 to 85 degrees F."
In my limited experience with Xtol, it dissolves readily in room temperature water. Some users report premature exhaustion of Xtol after mixing it in hot water. There's probably no need to use very hot water, 190 degrees F as you've described.
CHARLES ELIASON , Feb 07, 2012; 08:35 p.m.
Hot it may be, but to make my wife's espresso and coffee clientele happy you wouldn't believe the filtration involved.
Jim Norman , Feb 07, 2012; 09:02 p.m.
On the other side is the risk of using water too cool, which inhibits or causes the dissolving process to fail. I agree with the "follow the instructions" advice. XTOL is a great developer.
CHARLES ELIASON , Feb 08, 2012; 10:07 a.m.
The one thing that I have learned from this escapade in chemistry is to read the manufacture's MSDS sheet for the particular product that you may be working with. After all, these are chemicals that could produce harmful byproducts that you may not be aware of as Lex pointed out from information that he pulled from the MSDS sheet for XTOL. That information is not included in the product packaging. Who would have thought that temperature could create such an effect, not me anyway.
If I had been a film photographer and operated a darkroom in college I probably would have had higher grades in chem 101.
Thanks for the responses,
Charles
peter carter , Feb 08, 2012; 11:09 a.m.
The big thing here, XTol is one of the products you can mix with tap water.
However you can still use the filtered water; just let it cool first. I have a distiller and water strait out of the still is quite warm. I let my water cool for at least 4 hrs before I use it. I have a 20 liter jug with a tap. I just fill that first and use it from there.
CHARLES ELIASON , Feb 08, 2012; 11:30 a.m.
This morning I mixed a fresh batch using filtered water. The water temp was 70 deg F. The chemicals dissolved perfectly. I wish Dektol mixed as easy.
