Need an inexpensive (relatively speaking) water chiller

[Tori Nelson]

I've been looking for months now for a used one, that wouldn't cause me to take out a second mortgage, but to no avail. It's getting close to the time of year that will make some sort of chiller a necessity. Does anyone know of a way to rig up some sort of homemade unit that will help with this problem? As long as I stay around $300.00 or less I can manage. Thanks in advance!

Tori

[Bob Salomon]

Have you asked the folks at Nelson's? Or at George's?

[Ed Richards]

If you do not need a lot of water, an ice chest with a long loop of hose in it as a heat exchanger should work. Or an ice chest with a couple of gallon jugs of water.

[Tori Nelson]

Bob, I haven't done business with Nelson's for years but I will check with David (George's) on Monday.
Ed, I have heard about running water through an ice chest with copper tubing and filled with ice and in the past I've kept water jugs in the darkroom fridge. I'm just hoping to find a reasonable way to run the correct temperature water through my print washer, mixing for trays isn't too hard it just requires more prep work to have things ready.

[John Cahill]

How about one of those cheap mini-fridges the college kids love for their dorm rooms?. You could coil a few loops of soft copper tubing in it and out through the sides. And still have room for a coupla brewskis.

[Peter De Smidt]

Hi,

I'm not sure I understand the problem here. You're washing prints, right? And you're water is warmer than 68F? That's not usually a problem. In fact the print will wash faster. If it gets really hot, the prints might become easy to scratch, but that has to be in the mid-80s.

-Peter

[Brian Ellis]

I washed prints for years in Florida where the water temperature was in the low, maybe even mid, 80s for almost half the year and never had any problems. I really think a cooling system for print washing is overkill unless your water is almost boiling or something.

[John Kasaian]

How about a coil of hose for fresh water, inside a container filled with salt water circulated by an aqarium pump?
I haven' the foggiest idea if it would work, but it would be pretty cheap:)

[Helen Bach]

I agree with Peter and Brian. When I lived in Singapore I often used water in the 90's.

If you do require cold water, it would be helpful to know how many degrees you would like to lower the temperature, how accurately you would like the temperature of the water controlling to, roughly what flow you require and for how long (ie total volume of water per session/cycle). This will allow us to make a rough estimate of the cooling load, and an assessment of what methods might be practical.

Best,
Helen

[Arne Croell]

In Alabama the water is over 80F in summer, too, and I haven't had any problems with print washing. For processing film in my Jobo at 75F, I got (similar to what was mentioned before) a whole coil of copper tubing for fridge connections (because that one is soft and easy to bend further) at Home Depot, made a spiral out of it and put garden hose quick disconnects at the ends to connect it easily to the "cold" water line and the processor. That spiral goes into an empty large bucket filled with ice water. Works like a charm for 5-6 hours, then I need new ice.

[Helen Bach]

For film I use the method suggested by Jobo: put ice packs (not bare ice) into the water bath and set the thermostat. I wash film by fill-and-dump, so controlling the temperature of running water is never a requirement.

Best,
Helen

[Tori Nelson]

I assumed (yes, we all know what that means) that It wasn't a good idea to was prints in warmer water, but if no one else has had a problem with doing this then you have all saved me a lot of money and space under my sink. THANKS!!!! For mixing chemicals, I don't mind using refrigerated water when the piped water is to warm, it's easy and doesn't take that much more time. Thanks again everyone for answering!

Tori

[robert amsden]

I got a well for darkroom cold water,Stays about 60 year round. also flushes toilet and water for hot tub.

[J D Clark]

Tori,
I'm in Oceanside, and have the same problem that you do. I use ice in gallon zip lock bags to cool solutions in the trays, most critical for developer of course. The other trays I get close to the working developer temperature.

For film washing, a few years ago I built a chiller with a copper coil in a bucket of water. It worked great at keeping the wash water at about 72, however, after about 15 minutes I had used up all the ice in the house, so that solution wasn't really workable in the long term.

After that experiment, I just use wash water at whatever temperature it comes through, with the consideration that warmer water washes the chemicals out more quickly (I'd like to have a temperature/time chart for that!). I do shorten my wash times a little when the water is warm.

John Clark
www.johndclark.com



I assumed (yes, we all know what that means) that It wasn't a good idea to was prints in warmer water, but if no one else has had a problem with doing this then you have all saved me a lot of money and space under my sink. THANKS!!!! For mixing chemicals, I don't mind using refrigerated water when the piped water is to warm, it's easy and doesn't take that much more time. Thanks again everyone for answering!

Tori