Fixer shelflife and performance

[jamie_robertson2]

<p>I'm looking for a concentrated fixer with a very long shelflife that, once opened, will happily sit on a shelf in a sealed bottle for a few years without going off. Also, do fixers make any difference to the quality of your negatives? i.e. are certain brands better than others or can I use anything? This is strictly for black and white use only.</p>

<p>One last question, do most of you use a stop solution when developing your BW negs or do you just use water? Or do you just pour out the developer and throw the fixer straight in there?</p>

[trevor_martin]

<p>I've had a sealed bottle of artista premium premium odorless fixer on a shelf for over a year and it worked just fine. It also worked fine after opening as I went through it over a few months, fixer doesn't go bad as quickly as developer. I don't think that your choice of fixer would have an effect on the quality of the negatives. The only major difference I'm aware of is hardening vs non-hardening fixers. Hardeners are required with the majority of modern films, and they increase washing times as well. Brand name doesn't matter much, I like the arista odorless fix from freestyle myself.</p>

<p>I used to use a citric acid stop bath back when I was using stainless steel tanks, at the time I felt that since they drained so slowly I thought a stop was needed, although to be honest I'm not sure if it was really necessary. Now that I've gotten back into doing occasion developing again I'm using plastic tanks which drain quickly so I just use a water stop. You definitely want to use at least water, it will help your fixer last a little longer.</p>

[jpo3136b]

<p>Water rinse between developer and fixer; sometimes use an acetic acid and water stop bath.</p>

<p>I can't think of a fixer I've used that I haven't liked; although, if you use plain hypo, it'll cloud up faster. For my own prints, I've kept on using it (not recommended) with no trouble. </p>

<p>Probably one of the things to safeguard against would be over-using that one batch of fixer. It can be used over and over and over, with little apparent physical change in the solution; so, I guess that can be deceptive. I go by what I've put through there, and then just use fresh next time. </p>

<p>I've had more failures from re-using old wet solutions than anything else. I'm a big believer in "mix fresh." If you just mix it up that day, or the day before, then you will probably see a dramatic drop in the incidence of processing problems.</p>

<p>For tank solutions, I find that no matter what it is, if you use that working solution more than three times, the whole thing will just die on you. Mix fresh, and you'll dramatically reduce that problem. The cost of most working solutions comes out to pennies per frame anyway; so, the re-use it strategy doesn't really save you anything if you have entire rolls that come up far below standard.</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>Fixers won't have any effect on your negatives unless you misuse them (fixing too long, that kind of thing). I purchased too much Ilford fixer one time, and had opened several bottles, using just a small amount. It was probably a couple years before I got back to using it again, and it worked fine. I personally like to use stop, because my processes are pretty rigid, but when I worked with a wire service and we had to get a pic on the wire, we would skip the stop bath, but then we weren't worried about how archival anything was. Also, many automated processing machines don't use a stop bath.</p>

[jamie_robertson2]

<p>Thanks people. I would probably just mix up a batch of fixer each time I process a film and then chuck it straight afterwards. It's the shelf life of the concentrate left in the bottle I was most concerned about. I'll probably not bother using a stop solution. I'll just use water.</p>

[bill_clark___minnetonka_mi]

<p>For film:<br /> I have two jars of fixer. One is labeled #1 and the other #2 Fixer. I use masking tape and write on it with a Sharpie pen. Two bath job!<br /> I use, please remember I'm cheap, mt Alessi spaghetti sauce jars. They have a large mouth, kinda like mine!<br /> Nice sauce too!<br /> They hold about 18 ounces. <br /> Good for 120 film.<br />When the time takes too long, I will throw away the #1 then put #2 in #1 and start fresh with #2 jar! Musical solutions!<br /> Agree with John O to not use them too much. Throw away. Fixer is cheap. And I like that!<br /> When I dump the fixer back into the jars, I use an old wash rag to wipe off the top edges and sides as this seems to help with the life of the top.<br /> Our family likes Alessi! Got plenty of lids to use when the time needs replacement. <br /> Hope this helps you!</p>

<p> </p>

[jamie_robertson2]

<p>Well Bill, I'm in the UK so I'll have to make do with Dolmio sauce jars ;-)</p>

 

[frank.schifano]

<p>Jamie,<br>

Just about any fixer concentrate will last quite a while once opened. Only once did I have some start to go bad on me and that was after it had been opened at least two years. I'd forgotten that I had that half empty bottle sitting there after I'd switched over to using a different fixer. Anyway, it did still work, though its capacity had been diminished.</p>

<p>On the subject of image quality, believe me, brand makes no difference. Fixer is fixer, and whatever is the most economical for me to use is what gets used in my darkroom. I prefer using a rapid fixer over the old school sodium thiosulfate fixers, but either type works fine. Using water as a stop bath is OK, but remember that its not terribly effective. It takes quite a few changes of water to completely stop development and to clear the film of developer. An acid stop accomplishes in seconds what takes minutes with a water rinse. It eliminates the risk of inducing dichroic fog which can happen if you carry active developer over into the fixing bath.</p>

[nicholas_rapak]

<p>I have used Kodafix solution for a year before it started to get the white specks of death in it. I used the fix one-shot (per day, not per film), and kept the concentrate in an airtight container, filled to the brim. The specks only occurred after the amount of concentrate was not sufficient to fill up the bottle. </p>

[chris_waller]

<p>I had a 5 litre bottle of Ilford Hypam in the darkroom for about 3 years and it was fine.<br>

Re: stop. I always use an acid stop bath (Kodak Indicating stop).</p>

[jamie_robertson2]

<p>OK, thanks folks. Looks like I'll be getting the stop and the fixer. I'll be buying the cheapest I can find. Your advice is genuinely appreciated.</p>

[jon_wilson]

Would this Kodak fixer in sealed bottle be any good? I bought about about 4 years ago<div></div>