Lauder Chemicals

[Too Many Cameras]

I picked up a number of unopened Lauder chemicals (liquid) in gallon units a few months back. They were off Craig's List and I suspect they're probably about 10-15 years old. There's two gallons of concentrated paper fixer, one gallon of concentrated film fixer, and one gallon of concentrated paper developer. I know the former owner had been an LF photographer (for a few months until he realized it wasn't easy) so I imagine the chemicals are fairly high quality. But I wanted to know if anyone here has used them before and how they compare to other brands. I've used very old chemicals before (the Microdol-X and Selektol I'm using right now came out of cans), so I'm okay with their age. Any opinions on Lauder?

[Sevo]

If the bottle has not decomposed, the developer should be fine. YMMV regarding the fixer, as by their MSDS all Lauder fixers contain acetic acid, which makes them somewhat unstable - all acidic fixers will eventually decay even in closed concentrate bottles. Watch out for a white or yellowish precipitate at the bottom of the bottles - if there should be any, the fixer is not safe for use any more, and will under-fix and cause brown spots on negatives and prints!

[BradS]

I've used their raid fixer for years. It is high quality stuff at a nice price. In my own experience the fixed goes bad after about a year in partially filled containers. Not sure of the shelf life if left in full, un-opened containers. It smells awful (rotten eggs) and develops a bit of precipitate when it goes bad.

[Too Many Cameras]

Dang it. All the fix has a thick precipitate layer on the bottom. Well, at least I have the developer to use. Thank you very much for the feedback. It would have been awful to use the film fix and lose a batch of photos.