life of dry chemicals

Someone dropped off 4 gallons of Edwal speed fixer. Anyone ever use this stuff. I use some of their products I like them a lot. Along with the fixer, well also got about 6 packages of Kodak hypo clear, and some Microdol X.
As a non user of Kodak products I don't have a clue how long these powerders can be kept before use. I do know that they now put a date of their chemisty (or so I have been told). none of these packages are dated.

I hate to throw a "gift horse" away, but students don't need to be using materials that might fail. We seem to do enough of that on our own.

In the past I have tossed out stuff and then had second thoughts.

We are very lucky that folks in this area have been generous, on the other hand sometimes it is hard. Like having a gallon of photo flo sitting around.
trying to figure out what else one can do with the stuff.

Re Edval I cannot help, but if the Kodak packages are not open (even small cracks) and not flakey, chances are very high they are OK.

Jorge O

The Edwal fix should keep well. Its a version of Rapid Fix. If theres no precipitates in it, use it.

Ann:

The way Kodak used to date their products is as follows: Somewhere printed on the package, not on the lable, there should be a 4 or 5 digit number. The first two digits represent the year and the remaining digits the day of the year. For example, I retained an old empty Kodak HC110 bottle. The number printed on the bottle toward the neck is "9845". This translates to 1998, Feb 14. Sometimes this date can be hard to find given all the other numerical and computerized crap printed everywhere. I hope this helps.

Truly, dr bob.