developer goes weird

[Firelance]

Normally when I make a dilution of Neutol, my paper developer, it looks a bit yellowish. After using it for some time it turns out to be dark yellow. And after that time, let's say a month or 2, I refresh it.
That was how it used to be.

Today, if I make another dilution, it does turn out to be yellowish again, but now after 2 weeks of usage the developer doesn't just turn dark yellow but almost red!!!

How the heck is this possible?
Might it be bad for the prints? It might be possible that some of my prints weren't really as black as they should have been today.

 

[oriecat]

Crazy. Has the weather changed? Maybe it got too hot? I dunno. I think I would dump it personally.

 

[Firelance]

Mm I was thinking of the plastic dish where I put the developer, I noticed it's really dirty and I can't get it cleaned...

 

[ksmattfish]

If you can't seem to get true blacks then your developer is exhausted.

The stains on the developing tray shouldn't really affect it, particularly if they are from the same kind of developer.

Darkening is usually a sign of aging in the developers I use, but I've never used Neutol.

For me the only time I've had developers go bad prematurely has been when I've accidentally contaminated them. Once I put Tmax film dev in a jug that once held selenium toner. I had cleaned the jug as thoroughly as possible, but it totally whacked the developer in less than 2 weeks. Lost 3 rolls of 6x9 negs of the coast of Oregon that way.

 

[Firelance]

I bought a small bottle of Neutol at a local photostore; which actually stopped selling darkroom stuff a few years ago, so old stock might be -in this case- off...?