Ilford Rapid Fixer question

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photophorous

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I've been developing film for several years now, but I've always used Kodak fixer, mixed from powder. Well, I've had enough of the powder. I bought some Ilford Rapid fixer liquid concentrate. It's supposed to be diluted 1:4 for use. My question is this. Do you dilute it at the time of use then toss it after one time use? I usually just do one or two rolls at a time. With the old Kodak stuff I would mix up a full 32 oz container, dump the used fixer back in when I finished a roll, and repeat until it was all exhausted. I feel like dumping the Ilford after one shot is wasteful, but I don't know what else to do with it since I can't put it back in the concentrate bottle. How do you folks do this?

Thanks,
Paul
 
I use it about 3 times before I turf it, and i've never had a problem. I just keep it in a glass container until I develop again.
 
Ilford Rapid fix is all I use now, after, like you, getting tired of the Kodak powder. I mix up a 64oz. batch in a brown chemical bottle and get what seems like 25 - 35 35mm rolls out of it. With a few paper prints to boot. I think if you go online, Ilford has in it's datasheets some info on how long the fixer should last, and if that don't do it, you can do your own fixer check thusly (if I remember correctly):

Take one of your left over exposed and unprocessed leaders (that you've cut off your roll before loading onto the developing spool) and drop it in some 1:4 fix for the proscribed fix time. If it clears in that time, your fixer is still good. Simple. Or, someone please correct me if I'm wrong or missing sonething, I did this only once quite some time ago......
 
Mix 25 oz. of the fixer straight from the original bottle with 100 oz. of water. Store in a gallon jug. (I use empty windshield washer fluid bottles as it is cheap). Use the fixer (I use 2 minutes) and pour it back in the gallon jug. When the clearing time finally gets double the original time (20 seconds increasing to 45 seconds for me) set it aside to dispose in an environmentally responsible manner and mix fresh fixer. I usually get about 25 rolls from a gallon of 1:4 mixed fixer.

Too bad the Kodak C41 Flexicolor fixer is no longer available in gallons. That was cheap, worked fast, and lasted a long time. I used that for years.
 
I use the Ilford Rapid Fixer all the time now since I can't buy Ilford's Hypam anymore here in Japan. I mix 1.25 l (1 liter water + 250ml Rapid fixer concentrate) and this lasts ~ for 10 rolls of 135-36.
 
On the cover label it says "1 litre to make 5 litres (1+4)" but on the inside (i.e., with the label pealed away) it says "Mixing instructions...dilute concentrate 1+3 with water." Which is correct?
 
You should be able to keep the working strength fixer for several weeks in a closed container. One liter will fix approximately 17 rolls of 36 exposure or equivalent. The way to tell is to place a dot of fixer on the clipped end of an undeveloped piece of film. When it clears dip this in fixer, and you can see clearly exactly how long it takes the fixer to clear the film.

With use the time to clear will stay about the same, then at around 17 rolls the time to clear will dramatically increase. When the time to clear doubles the original time, it is time to discard (hazardous waste disposal) the fixer.
 
jmcd said:
You should be able to keep the working strength fixer for several weeks in a closed container.
Click to expand...

Has anyone ever had fixer go bad from sitting on the shelf? I have not. I frequently have fixer that is 3-4 months old and it seems to work the same.
 
I had fixer mixed in a bottle for about six months, and still worked fine. I could have used it for a few rolls more, but preferred to mix a new batch.

Just to make sure, I always run a test before developing a roll, because I don't have a workflow for this. The Ilford fixer has never let me down. And yes, I also moved to this one after using the Kodak Professional fixer in powder for a while. I don't think I mixed it correctly, as it always took forever to fix any film. With this one, I could fix everything in about two minutes... but I always fix for as long as I develop.

So, there you go. And, BTW, the proportion for film is 1 part developer and four parts water.
 
Go to the Ilford website, click on Products/Catalogue and then select the product you want. Click on Fact Sheet and you'll find everything you need there including capacity with and without replenishment.
 
I use a one-shot dilution for films:

1+14, for 5 min (agitate for the first min, then 10 sec every min) at 20C.
 
I don't like using fixer one shot since I don't think dumping silver down the drain is a good idea for the environment. I mix it up 1:4 in 1.5 liter volumes. I think that amount is good for 36 rolls, but I usually mix up a new batch after about 20 to play it safe. It's in the data sheet - 24 36 exposure 35mm rolls per liter.
 
On the cover label it says "1 litre to make 5 litres (1+4)" but on the inside (i.e., with the label pealed away) it says "Mixing instructions...dilute concentrate 1+3 with water." Which is correct?
 
J J Kapsberger said:
On the cover label it says "1 litre to make 5 litres (1+4)" but on the inside (i.e., with the label pealed away) it says "Mixing instructions...dilute concentrate 1+3 with water." Which is correct?
Click to expand...

Yeah I noticed this too. I'm guessing either will work, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that 1:4 clears any film I've ever used.
 
Last edited:
J J Kapsberger said:
On the cover label it says "1 litre to make 5 litres (1+4)" but on the inside (i.e., with the label pealed away) it says "Mixing instructions...dilute concentrate 1+3 with water." Which is correct?
Click to expand...

1:4 is correct. Ilford switched to a different packaging company who made some mistakes in the labeling. Or so we were told at the store where I work.
1:4 definitely still works though.

-Brian
 
RE: Pouring fixer down the drain.

I own a camera store, and we recover all the silver we can with a variety of methods, besides EPA is always watching 'us' like a hawk.

We get calls about dumping fixer all the time from customers. My response is that since you aren't using industrial amounts of fix, etc., and flushing a toilet puts several gallons down the drain, that under those circumstances it is of little consequence due to dilution.

It is my understanding that the form of silver from processing is not likely to cause any problems, something about the 'ionic form'.

If you want to check on the current state of the issue, go to www.pmai.org, search "silver" for information on silver recovery, discharge, et.

Even though this is geared to processors, nonetheless it is good general information. There are downloadable .pdf files on a variety of related topics and issues.

Hope this helps. Anyone who has a question about this issue can call PMA directly and get referred to their environmental compliance contact.
 
Melvin said:
Yeah I noticed this too. I'm guessing either will work, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that 1:4 clears any film I've ever used.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Melvin and BTMarcais.

Question (Melvin): how do you know that it's cleared your film? Isn't fixer a preventative for long term degradation? Can you know immediately that your film is sufficiently clear such that 10 years down the road it won't have degraded?
 
Ilford says double the clearing time so I go by that. I just test it periodically on the clipped leader.
 
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