Washing Film and Water Consumption - A Survey

[Asher Kelman]

Thanks everyone for so generously sharing. This is a valuable thread on washing, cautions on testing for hypo and pointer to the value of the Jobo 3010 as a print washer too.

Ken,

Your note on alkaline fixers is especially helpful!

Asher

[Ken Lee]

Digitaltruth Photo also gives formulas for Fix Test--Hypo Check and Washing Aid.

(The active ingredient in the "washing aid" is Sodium Sulfite. The other ingredient is a preservative stabilizer. Sodium Sulfite is so cheap, you can mix a teaspoon per liter of water and toss when done. Sandy King has pointed this out many times.)

[Merg Ross]

Since I often print on successive days, my process involves a lot of soaking. The value of soaking is often overlooked. If I start printing on Monday morning, prints from that day soak in trays overnight until a final wash on Tuesday. The trays are drained and refilled two or three times during the session. The wash-aid is always used as a one-shot. Final wash is in a Versalab. If I am printing during the entire week, this process is repeated.

For my vintage prints from the 1950's I used a Kodak tray siphon with two trays (one elevated). Again, soaking was the key as those prints have stood the test of time (60 years). Except for the use of single weight Azo and Lustrex, my prints have mostly been on double weight papers.

As to water consumption, I probably would not win a prize when using the Versalab. Without a flow meter, I don't really know the rate, but always prefer a final wash in the 45-60 minute range. The wash drains into the garden. Film gets a 10 minute wash in an old tank with a hole in the bottom. Again, the vintage negatives are as good as the day that they first went into sleeves. I have never used a wash aid with negatives.

[DJG]

My volume is so low, I can get away with just letting my film soak overnight in a tray, or at least for a few hours at a time. After following Ilford's wash guide (several sets of fresh water + agitation in my Unicolor drums), I just take them out and put them in a tray. Every so often, as I'm coming or going or doing things around the house, I'll simply empty them and put some fresh water in the trays.

I do the same soaking with silver & alternative process prints, though they never go into any developing drum, everything stays in trays. I still do a couple of quick wash & dump cycles in the tray, kind of like what Ilford says, with a bit of agitation.

Like I said, this works for low volume for me, but of course would be harder to do if you had a lot more media to wash.

[Leigh]

The washing process is mostly one of diffusion, so soaking is washing, but there comes a point when the soak water is in equilibrium with the emulsion, and no further diffusion takes place, which is why consecutive soaks in fresh water are required.

The rate of diffusion decreases over time, being lower after the first minute than initially, etc.

Use of PermaWash or hypo clearing agent or similar reduces the required wash time to just a couple of minutes, which renders the whole question moot.

- Leigh

[Michael Kadillak]

Use of PermaWash or hypo clearing agent or similar reduces the required wash time to just a couple of minutes, which renders the whole question moot.

- Leigh

A hypo clearing agent by itself is not a generic free pass for an effective wash cycle unless one is not that concerned about what one is producing in the form of negatives or prints. As has been stated earlier in this thread this is one area where one should always error on the side of being conservative and wash a bit longer than necessary because there is literally no downside to this procedure other than a bit more water consumed. Being to aggressive and increasing ones reliance upon clearing agents with short wash cycles has obvious and considerable downside that has few remedies when it rears its ugly head. I could be wrong, but I firmly believe that anyone that is will to go to the effort of purchasing high priced sheet film, the expenses of owning equipment to properly expose it, the time and effort to develop and print it is inherently interested in doing it as effectively as possible.

[Leigh]

Michael,

Stop preaching.

Your tone is grossly insulting, implying that anyone who disagrees with you is not interested in producing a quality product.

I've been printing for over 56 years, and have never had an issue with print permanence.

I think I know how to do it!

- Leigh

[Oren Grad]

FWIW: I also wash my sheet film in the Jobo Expert drums, as an integral final step in the processing run on my CPA-2. As an example, a 3005 drum with five sheets of 8x10 gets five changes of about 500ml of water over a ten minute period. That comes out to ~500ml per sheet, which is a pretty economical use of water. I should add, I use non-hardening rapid fixer, and no washing aid.

RC prints get a 2.5 minute wash with a Kodak tray siphon.

FB prints get a modified Ilford treatment - five minutes initial rinse with a Kodak tray siphon, water holding bath until the end of the printing session, then ten minutes in Permawash followed by 30 minutes running wash in a Versalab.

[Oren Grad]

Specifically with respect to print washing, these may be of interest:

Mysteries of the Vortex, Part One

Mysteries of the Vortex, Part Two

[nolindan]

My wash technique varies with the number of prints or negatives to wash.

I normally have 4 or so final prints and use sequential 'agitated soaks' in a deep tray. For more prints I use a tray siphon. I always use HCA - the Kodak formulation which is pH buffered.

I find it necessary to include an extra bit of print and test for residual hypo in every batch of keeper prints. All HCA's are subject to oxidation and stop working with little warning. My experience with Permawash is that it doesn't last long after the bottle is opened - and the wash times given on the PW bottle are wildly optimistic: almost 'stabilization processing.'