Weak XTOL

I've been using XTOL since it came out and have been a big proponent of the stuff. Until yesterday, I'd never gotten the dreaded underdevelopment and thin negatives. I've always been religous about storing it in full bottles, and I suspect that was where I made my error. I made a fresh batch exactly four weeks ago and sealed it into full 16 oz plastic bottles. One week ago I used half a bottle with no problem, but didn't squeeze the air out of the bottle like I usually do. Yesterday I used the other half and got thin negs. It isn't very controlled, but I typically record the density of my film leaders as Dmax, just to see what I'm getting. The usual value for FP4+ and XTOL 1:3 has been 2.0 to 2.1. This thin roll was down around 1.72. Not a disaster, but no fun to print either. I can't prove that oxidation was the problem- it might have been a change in water or some other unknown, but I just wanted to add my little datapoint to the pile!

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