Shelf life of fixer????

[Greg McCary]

Does anyone know what the shelf life of fixer is? I had to buy a one gallon mix instead of the quart size. A gallon will probably last me several months. Also should I keep it in the fridge?

[SmartWombat]

It's an oxidation reaction that reduces the fixer ability to fix, so keeping it in the fridge will slow the reaction. As will reducing the surface area exposed to the air. So use a tall narrow container not a squat wide one.

Have you made up a gallon of working strength fixer? It ages quicker when diluted.
Whose fixer? What does the product datasheet, or website say about shelf life?

[Greg McCary]

It's an oxidation reaction that reduces the fixer ability to fix, so keeping it in the fridge will slow the reaction. As will reducing the surface area exposed to the air. So use a tall narrow container not a squat wide one.

Have you made up a gallon of working strength fixer? It ages quicker when diluted.
Whose fixer? What does the product datasheet, or website say about shelf life?

No it is not mixed. It is Kodak. I just googled it and it appears to be a shelf life of two months. I am not sure I could go through a gallon in just that amount of time. Maybe I will just divide the powder and mix it quart at a time.

[SmartWombat]

If you divide the powder, make sure it is thoroughly mixed before you divide it.
During shipping the different densities and sizes of the particles in the powder will tend to settle and you could end up with something that's not chemically right.
I used to make all my own developer and fixer with formulae from the Ilford manual of photography.

[Greg McCary]

Thanks for the advise Paul. Will shake well.....

[Franglais]

If you want to test how good your fixer is then:

1. Take a piece of spare film (example: the leader you cut off when you loaded the film in the reel)
2. Put a spot of fixer on the leader and wait for a few seconds. The spot should start to become transparent
3. Pour some fixer into a transparent container and drop the leader in so that the film is immersed
4. Time how long it takes for spot to disappear i.e. the whole leader becomes transparent

With fresh fixer it should take less than the recommended fixing time. If it starts to take much longer than the recommended fixing time then your fixer is exhausted

[Greg McCary]

Thanks Charles that is a great tip.