What's an excellent setup to easily regulate water temp, flow rate, and have filtration for the darkroom. I have seen water panels and wonder which is best and are there feasible alternatives.
What's an excellent setup to easily regulate water temp, flow rate, and have filtration for the darkroom. I have seen water panels and wonder which is best and are there feasible alternatives.
Is this for a commercial photo lab or a home darkroom?
There are three makes that I am aware of:
Delta/ usually built into their Plastic sinks.
Lawler Faucet
http://www.calumetphoto.com/ctl?quer...=search.Search
Intelli faucet.
http://www.hassmfg.com
Originally Posted by Adam Touffay
I vote for the Intellifaucet. It couldn't be easier to use and it's very accurate and stable, just set the temperature you want and walk away.
Hass Intellifaucet, low flow version.
If you're not looking for automation, a simple mixing valve with a thermometer at the output can work well and cost a lot less than a fancy thermostatic mixing valve. In this photo of my old sink from several years ago, you can see I have three kinds of mixing valves. I wasn't sure what I wanted then, either, so I ended up trying more than I needed. There's a Hass Intellifaucet just left of the Gra-Lab timer, a mechanical thermostatic mixing valve at the right end of the sink and, in the middle of all that mess, there's a copper monstrosity that I made out of fittings from the hardware store. The big round thermometer came off Ebay. I threaded and sweated the rest of it together and gave it the big long snout with the hose quick-release to get the water out where I needed it. Since I lived alone and there were no other demands on the plumbing, that manual mixing valve worked really very well and was what I used 90% of the time. The Hass is truly set and forget and there were times its reliability was useful if I needed to leave the room. The mechanical thermostatic valve on the right was simply to feed print and film washers. It worked fine, too, but without the convenient discrete settings of the Hass. You pay your money and take your choice. But it doesn't always have to cost a lot. Whenever I get a darkroom up and running again, I plan to have the copper creation back in its place. For black & white manually-processed film and paper, it works pretty well.
This is for a home b&w darkroom.
I also vote for the Hass Intellifaucet, low flow version. Mine's been going strong for 10 years.
“You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know
My fish room's automatic water changing system uses a Powers Fotopanel. Its been running since early 1981. Seems much the same as the Hass Intellifaucet others recommend.
I don't know if this panel is sufficient for your needs, I don't have any firsthand experience with it, but here goes: http://www.rosyproducts.com/water_te...xing_panel.htm
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