I have authored a couple of threads regarding Xtol failures in the past. Since Kodak replaced my earlier 1 litre packages of developer with new ones manufactured in Nov of 2001, I have not had any more failures and my confidence in the material is slowly being restored. I think it's a great developer although I personally have had trouble with air bells using it. I have not had a similar problem with any other developer in the 20 years I've been developing film. A prewet seems to solve the problem. Ilford does not recommend prewetting film as it washed out the built in wetting agent thereby risking uneven development.(posted 8165 days ago)