Replenishing Fixer and mixing Xtol

[brothernature]

I use both the eco-pro Fixer and developer (which either is or is very similar to Xtol as far as I know). Two questions:

1. I have a 5L jug of fixer that I mix up. I develop 32 rolls at a time. On the back of the bottle it says the fixer is good for roughly the equivalent of 30 rolls of 35mm film. Since I'm using a 5L jug, and not storing just the amount that goes in each tank, I'm guessing I can get more than 30 rolls out of a 5L jug, right? I know I can do tests to see if the fixer is still effective, but what's the limit in terms of keeping the fixer "clean"? I'm guessing after more and more use you're risking contaminants showing up on the film.
2. For mixing Xtol, does anyone have any tricks for efficient mixing? No matter how slowly I pour the powder in, I always spend a lot of time crushing little particles at the bottom.

Thanks!

 

[pthornto]

1-not sure about that fixer capacity. Presumably the manufacturer would give a conservative value. Perhaps test as you get closer to 30 rolls. I do a clearing test of some old leaders trimmed off and fix for 2-3x the time it takes to clear the film.
2-the last little bits of powder are tough to break and take time. I generally warm up a big bottle of water to 35-40 deg C and use that which helps dissolve things. It is important to get most everything dissolved from pkg A before adding pkg and more water.

 

[Freakscene]

I use both the eco-pro Fixer and developer (which either is or is very similar to Xtol as far as I know). Two questions:

1. I have a 5L jug of fixer that I mix up. I develop 32 rolls at a time. On the back of the bottle it says the fixer is good for roughly the equivalent of 30 rolls of 35mm film. Since I'm using a 5L jug, and not storing just the amount that goes in each tank, I'm guessing I can get more than 30 rolls out of a 5L jug, right? I know I can do tests to see if the fixer is still effective, but what's the limit in terms of keeping the fixer "clean"? I'm guessing after more and more use you're risking contaminants showing up on the film.
2. For mixing Xtol, does anyone have any tricks for efficient mixing? No matter how slowly I pour the powder in, I always spend a lot of time crushing little particles at the bottom.

Thanks!

All (not quite) about fixing is here: Kodak T-Max 400 Fixing Query

Don’t go past 6 g/L silver in the fixer, or later on your films will go funky because you didn’t fix them properly. If you want to do it properly but do not want to measure the silver content, stick to the manufacturer recommendations of 30 rolls per litre of concentrate. If you do measure, don’t be surprised if you get to 6 g/L before you get to 30 rolls. A lot of it depends on whether your shots are high or low key, exposed on, under or over and ultimately how much unexposed silver gets fixed out of the film.

Get a magnetic stirrer and a stir bar (often called a ‘flea’) - a used or cheap one from an online source is fine. If you get one with a heater don’t heat the developer over 30C and the first few times you use it don’t turn it on and walk away.

Marty

 

[brothernature]

All (not quite) about fixing is here: Kodak T-Max 400 Fixing Query

Don’t go past 6 g/L silver in the fixer, or later on your films will go funky because you didn’t fix them properly. If you want to do it properly but do not want to measure the silver content, stick to the manufacturer recommendations of 30 rolls per litre of concentrate. If you do measure, don’t be surprised if you get to 6 g/L before you get to 30 rolls. A lot of it depends on whether your shots are high or low key, exposed on, under or over and ultimately how much unexposed silver gets fixed out of the film.

Get a magnetic stirrer and a stir bar (often called a ‘flea’) - a used or cheap one from an online source is fine. If you get one with a heater don’t heat the developer over 30C and the first few times you use it don’t turn it on and walk away.

Marty

Thank you, Marty.

If I wanted to be lazy about it and not measure silver amount, would mixing a new 5L batch of fixer every ~80 rolls be a safe enough bet?

I'll look into using heat and a stirrer.

 

[Freakscene]

Thank you, Marty.

If I wanted to be lazy about it and not measure silver amount, would mixing a new 5L batch of fixer every ~80 rolls be a safe enough bet?

I'll look into using heat and a stirrer.

That should work, and that is how a vast majority of film photographers did it for decades. The other thing you can do is use a small piece of undeveloped film in daylight and measure the clearing time - then measure it occasionally as you work. The fixer is getting close to the end of usability when the clearing time doubles in comparison to fresh fixer.

Depending on how long it is likely to be between shooting your first and 80th roll of film, you may be better off mixing five 1L bottles and throwing them out after 17-18 rolls. The pH changes that happen with use tend to make some amorphous sulfur precipitate out, which is an ongoing reaction in fixer, although Eco Pro has a neutral pH which helps slow this reaction. You should be able to understand what works best by looking at your fixer and noting when the fine white powdery grains appear in it.

Edit - your best option is to get one 1L bottle and to mix 1L of working solution at a time and store the rest as cencentrate - the concentrate stores better than working concentrations solutions. Sorry, I didn’t think that through enough.

Using film has become expensive enough that even if you are just experimenting, I think it’s worth doing the laundry work properly.

Marty