Hello Friends:

I recently completed construction of my fifth darkroom after moving everything we own from Near Seattle to South of St. Louis. Here we have well water which is pretty heavy in Magnesium, Calcium and has trace amounts of other elements as well. "No problem" sez I, "I will JUST use distilled water". Out here in the country literally 35 miles from the nearest small town, that turned out to be more difficult than it seemed. It is an expensive proposition to purchase and transport large amounts of distilled water. So, I bought a still to distill my own water for photo chemicals. It is an 8 gallon electrically heated one which will almost certainly need a much better condenser to be made from scratch by me. It was surprisingly cheap compared to the cost of hauling water from town if I could find enough there. How many of you photographers use distilled water and how many of you distill your own?

Barry