I go through five litres of Xtol every two weeks. you guys aren't out enough. to address the 'why use Xtol' query, there is a rather significant improvement in tonal scale and grain reduction with TMax films using Xtol. other developers pale, with Xtol clearly rising to the top. Ilford's HP5+ pushes gloriously in Xtol, and I prefer Xtol to DDX for D3200. results with HP5+ were so good, I find little use for the faster films.(posted 8649 days ago)the dreaded failure mode is a curse. it is unpredictable, and as Dan mentioned, even a robust, well-working batch is prone to failure with no indication. having said that, my last four packages of the 5 litre samples have behaved in grand fashion. I use it only as a single-shot developer.