What is the shelf life of Kodak's rapid fixer?

[J Rollinger]

I have a 5 gallon box of Kodak Rapid Fixer that i want to use but im concerned that i would still be good. The shipping label on the box states that it was shipped to Calumet in Chicago May 30 2007. i have contacted Kodak about this and did not get a clear answer to when the fixer was made. They told that liquid fixer has a 2 year life and the powder has a 3 year life. The also told me that there is a four digit code on the box that states the year and week it was made.

Here are the only numbers that are on the box. 06 39 B1 0334w. Kodak told me that the 4 numbers must be together with no spaces. They also said that the 0334w would not be the date code due to the letter w, and they said the 06 39 would not be it either because of the space between them. I asked Kodak if the 2 & 3 year life of chemicals are written is stone and they said no. They stated they put the exp dates so people dont file a claim against them for using 15 year old chemicals. Kodak said the fixer i fine and not to worry about the date on it. I was wondering what everyone here on APUG thought about it and could i experience any issues with it?


Thanks!

 

[Ian Grant]

There's too many variables to be honest.

In practice it could last far longer and be fine, but with poor storage go off faster. Just do a clip test with a bit of film and working strenght solution and as long as it clears quickly there's no problem at all. The leader from a roll of 35mm film is ideal and because there's more silver content is better than testing with photo-paper.

I've been using fixer that's around 5 or 6 years old with no problems but if it smells of sulphur and has a yellow precipitate it's shot.

Ian

 

[J Rollinger]

Ian, thank you for your reply! So if the film clears fast its ok? I will go and test it right now. Im starting to think that Kodak and Fuji Hunt are scamming us with these dates! The reason Im say that i because of the conversation i had with the pro rep from Kodak. He asked me how i obtained the chems and i told him that i receive about 20 cases of Fuji Hunt C41, E6 and Kodaks rapid fixer from a closed lab and the ones with shipping labels had 07 shipping dates. I told him i have been using the Fuji Hunt chems and that they are perfect and then his reply shocked me! He said all the chemicals would be fine for 10 years and for me not to even worry and the only reason they are dated is so no one makes a claim from using 15 year old chemicals. Did he lie to me with that statement, or did he let the truth slip out? My bottle of Rodinal states it has a 6 month life span but tell that to people that have used 40 year old Rodinal! Are they scamming us with exp dates so we toss out the old and buy new from them?

 

[Ian Grant]

The truth about dates is the ISO 99001 Certification requires them to be shorter, so products that have always had very long shelf lives suddenly appeared with much shorter ones than we'd expect.

Certain foods, bottles of beer & cans, films you name it have much shorter expiry/use by dates than a few years ago.

Cans of Bully Beef (tinned beef) from the Boer War so over a 100 years ago are still perfectly safe to eat, they never had a use by date then but they'd be tasteless by now

In reality it's about suppliers & good stock control more than actualities for us as consumers.

Ian

 

[Sirius Glass]

IIRC during the Viet Nam war, the Department of Defense wanted drug companies to start dating the drug's end of life. The drug companies thought about the high temperatures and the high humidity that their products could be exposed to, realizing that they did not want to get sued, and then took it as an opportunity to short date their products and thus increase sales because DoD would dump anything they thought was old.

Other industries have followed this pattern.

Test the chemicals on a trial film, that will give you the correct answer.

Steve

 

[J Rollinger]

I filled up the top of a small tank lid with the fixer mixed 1+3. I dug through the trash for a leader and put it in the fixer, set the timer for 2 min ( 2min is when i would check rolled film for clear) at looked away. When i looked down at the leader in the fixer i noticed it was clear! I looked at the timer and only 30 sec has passed! Is this possible that the film cleared in less than 30 sec? I always wait 2 min before checking rolled film for clear.

 

[Denis K]

I looked at the timer and only 30 sec has passed! Is this possible that the film cleared in less than 30 sec? I always wait 2 min before checking rolled film for clear.

No, 30 seconds is much too long. You need to FedEx that entire 5 gallon box of rapid fixer to me. I'm trained and know just how to disposed of it -

Denis K

 

[Ian Grant]

So it's fine

Ian

 

[J Rollinger]

Thanks To everyone for all your help! I was down to my last bottle of Kodakfix and now i have 5 gallons. Thats 20 gallons mixed for film or 40 gallons mixed for paper! YES! i wont have to buy any fixer for a year!

Thanks again for all the help everyone!