The 'Dreaded Xtol Failure" happens with one or 5 litre packs, with tap water or distilled water and with stock or diluted developer.(posted 8617 days ago)It has happened to a number of careful darkroom workers in varying locations.
It is unexpected and sudden, showing up with a batch of fresh developer as well as with developer that developed film the day before.
All my developer is used one shot and dumped, stock or diluted does not matter. Xtol has proven to be unreliable and I can't use it even though when it works (most of the time) it is very nice. How do you explain to someone that their film was 'lost' due to the developer not working right? Or, come home from two weeks shooting only to have a batch of film with no image on it? (while the same image from the other side of the film holder does just fine developed in ID11 or Rodinol).
Until The Yellow Peril gets their act together, Xtol is not used in my darkroom.