How long do paper chromatography supplies last?

Looking to do juice buckets and/or frozen must this spring. This will be my first attempt at non kit grape wine. I have a good PH meter already (Milwaukee 102) and have been making a list of supplies I need. The one that pops out the biggest is the $55-70 for a full paper chromatography kit. Since I am planning on only doing 2-3 buckets in spring and fall I think the kit should last me years. But is there a life span on the various components that I should consider i.e. do the liquids or paper go bad after a year? 2 years? etc.

Keep them cool and lids on tight and you should easily get 2-3 years. Also you should remember that even though you will only be doing 2-3 juice buckets a year, you may end up doing 3-4 test to check progress. This is a good investment.

I found this post and I have a question too. My kit is 2 years old and always stored in cool (50s winter, low 60s summer) place with caps tight.
I went to do a chromatography tear this am and found white chunks in the Malic solution. I have always had a black chunk floating in the tartaric since I got it. Is this normal??

It looks like mold in the malic standard, not sure about the black chunk, but really I don't bother with using the standards these days. Regarding the developed location of the spots, once you see one chromatogram you've seen them all.

My current chromatography kit is 3 years old and all I have had to repurchase is the developer solution. Like @stickman I don’t bother with the standards anymore, which also saves on the little pipettes. You get a lot of test paper, it is a worthwhile initial investment and inexpensive to repurchase the solution alone.

BMarNJ said:

My current chromatography kit is 3 years old and all I have had to repurchase is the developer solution. Like @stickman I don’t bother with the standards anymore, which also saves on the little pipettes. You get a lot of test paper, it is a worthwhile initial investment and inexpensive to repurchase the solution alone.

Click to expand...

Thanks good point, I will stop using the developer. I go through the Pipettes fast so that will help.