Kodak Rapid Fixer

[neil poulsen]

How reliable has Kodak Rapid Fixer been these days? I've heard of photographers purchasing bad product.

Can one tell just from the appearance, if it's bad? Or, does one find out the hard way, by "processing" prints?

If bad batches are easy got detected, then they can be retuned.

[Kevin Crisp]

I reported my experience, which was three bottles, unopened, going bad, with obvious sulfur-colored solids in them. Sino Promise did send me an email telling me to return them to Freestyle, which I did. Then they sent an email saying they had been exposed to excessive heat. That didn't happen on my watch. My prior experience was that in the box it lasts more or less forever, and the official Kodak word had always been "indefinite" life for the concentrate. They all looked fine when I bought them, they just went bad rapidly in storage in my darkroom at room temperature.

Is this problem common? I don't know - I've bought some since that is fine.

[Michael R]

How reliable has Kodak Rapid Fixer been these days? I've heard of photographers purchasing bad product.

Can one tell just from the appearance, if it's bad? Or, does one find out the hard way, by "processing" prints?

If bad batches are easy got detected, then they can be retuned.

I honestly wouldn’t bother at this point. The Ilford equivalent is just as good. pH aside (and the Kodak and Ilford products are close in pH anyway), rapid fixer is rapid fixer.

[LabRat]

Rapid fixer formula is quite robust in liquid form, but there are a few giveaways if it turned... The formula is fairly simple (without hardener), mostly ammonium thiosulfate, a lot of sodium sulfite and different additions to make it more acetic where the thiosulfate is more efficient...

The tell-tale signs it has turned if there is a light colored sludge at the bottom of bottle, and a strong smell of sulfur... Advisable to mix some working strength fixer and insert a undeveloped strip of B/W film (35mm?) and it should mostly clear in about a minute... But also for long term storage of stock solutions, they should be diluted at least 1:1, as concentrated solutions tend to turn more easily... But I have less of idea what some of the current commercial solutions will do nowadays...

Steve K

[Doremus Scudder]

If you don't need the hardener that comes with Kodak Rapid Fixer, just buy the Ilford product. It doesn't come with the acid hardener, that you just have to get rid if you buy the Kodak product and don't use hardener.

Doremus

[paulbarden]

I gave up on Kodak fixer over a decade ago. I used Ilford Rapid Fix (sometimes Hypam) for years but now I use TF-4 and TF-5 exclusively. It washes out faster than other fixers.

[Chester McCheeserton]

I reported my experience, which was three bottles, unopened, going bad, with obvious sulfur-colored solids in them. Sino Promise did send me an email telling me to return them to Freestyle, which I did. Then they sent an email saying they had been exposed to excessive heat. That didn't happen on my watch. My prior experience was that in the box it lasts more or less forever, and the official Kodak word had always been "indefinite" life for the concentrate. They all looked fine when I bought them, they just went bad rapidly in storage in my darkroom at room temperature.

Is this problem common? I don't know - I've bought some since that is fine.

Curious - Did you purchase the fixer from Freestyle?
I've no definitive proof but noticed some weird stuff happening with their arista brand rc paper for my students that seemed like it might be heat related.

[Paul Ron]

i have noticed Kodak rapid fixer 2 part concentrate doesnt last very long after mixing. it gets cloudy n smells like sulfer. i mix small amounts at a time now.

[Michael R]

i have noticed Kodak rapid fixer 2 part concentrate doesnt last very long after mixing. it gets cloudy n smells like sulfer. i mix small amounts at a time now.

Generally the more acidic a fixer is, the shorter the shelf life. Sulfurization is accelerated under acidic conditions which is why a neutral fixer will typically last longer. An example would be Kodak’s Flexicolor fixer but there are several others commercially available neutral/near neutral products available (Sprint, Formulary TF-5…). Neutral fixers will also tend to wash out of paper faster.

It’s also easy to make a rapid fixer yourself as long as you have a reasonably priced source for ammonium thiosulfate solution. Once you have that all you need is some sodium sulfite and a little sodium bisulfite (or acetic acid or boric acid).