Water chiller options?

[Kirk Gittings]

It would seem to be OK just to connect waterline to chiller and feed directly to water jacket/tempering bath, fill 'em up with cooled water before session, and process... Once you fill a jacket/bath, it will be slow to change temp, so you have a temperature window to work with...

I think that is something you can get the hang of...

Steve K

True but.........Water is expensive here so I try to conserve it.

[LabRat]

True but.........Water is expensive here so I try to conserve it.

You don't have to leave the water running... Just fill a tempering bath/water jacket before dev operations (does not have to be oversized/too big), have lunch/dinner while solutions come to temp, process, and dump bath in garden... The tempering bath could just be smaller than a picnic cooler or a deep basin container that holds some chem bottles etc... The sink bath can just be some oversized trays... Just an amount of water that cools, and changes temp slowly...

Steve K

[ShannonG]

Sounds simple but what i do is mix my dev. (for my 4X5 dev.tanks ) if the temp is too high i put it in the fridge,for awhile,if its too low i put it in a hot water bath for a bit.unless your dev. times are supper dupper long it will hold its temp close enough..my temp for most developers and films is 68.im in iowa ware the water temp changes a lot.

[HMG]

If I understand, you want to chill water for a water bath for develop, stop, and fix. And you want to maintain proper temp long enough for marathon developing.

My first thought is why not get the water bath (and your water for chemicals) down to the required temp with ice or ice bath and bring the ambient temp in your darkroom down to 70 or 72 deg. So I assume getting and keeping the darkroom temp to 72 or so isn't an option. There are portable air conditioners that might help.

Another (but somewhat McGyverish) solution is to use a small freezer or refrigerator (which you have) to chill water to desired temp. Do do this, you'll need a controller like this (there are non-digital versions that should be cheaper). So now you have a 70 deg (for example) environment for your water bath. Now there's 2 options.

1. Put a 5-10 gal jug of water in early enough to bring to right temp. Use a small pump to move that water to and from your water bath. I'm guessing the volume of water would be large enough to keep the temp close enough to the desired target. The larger volume of water the better. Feed the water bath from the bottom of the jug and return to the top. This would be my choice.
2. Instead of recirculating pump, use the large jug of water as a "jockey box", running your water through copper tubing in the jug to cool the water down. Again, the larger volume of water the better. And the smaller (diameter) of copper tubing the better.

[Luis-F-S]

Is there a cheapish ($100) water chiller option over the counter that works? Or if not a DIY option that I could build?

Kirk, I think from the above, the short answer is no. I bought a 32 GPH water-cooled Elkay chiller years ago after the emulsion slid off my 8x10 negatives from too hot a wash temperature. It wasn't cheap, but it works and if and when it dies, you can be certain that I'll buy another one! I've moved it with my last 3 darkrooms. You may be able to find a used water fountain chiller that you can adapt for a lower price, just remember that you will need some type of a control valve to maintain temperature. If you use the "cold" tap as the hot side of the control valve, your chilled water supply will go a lot further than if you use the "hot" tap on the hot side of the valve. Good luck. L

[jnantz]

Someone above mentioned a wort chiller, and that's exactly what I would do for the occasional use like this...

Here's a photo of what they look like:

https://www.google.com/search?q=wort...-K9X3MKz00M%3A

You can put one in an insulated ice cooler and supply chilled water to your DR all day long with a bag or two of ice.

Depending on the flow, it would be easy to get 50 degree water out of something like this, even much cooler, so you can then set the cold/hot mix exactly where you want it. Keep feeding ice in as the ice melts, and you will have a fairly steady flow.

Since it is for the occasional use, this would probably work better and you can put it in storage easily when not needed.

You can make one by getting 1/4" or 3/8" flexible copper tubing at the home center and coil it to fit whatever you want to put it in, and then put some flared or compression connections on the ends to connect it to your water supply at the sink and then to the Jobo or whatever you are connecting it to.


---Michael

+1

"morebeer" often times has them on sale .. and over $50 i believe is free shipping.

[Ivan J. Eberle]

If you develop in trays and standard tanks, not as easy as with a Jobo... Gravity feed an ice chest to the cold water solenoid hose bib. I scavenged an old fridge to do a heat exchanger thing once upon a time, fridge was free