Summer water is warmer! What temp is yours now?

[Tin Can]

I am happy to report my Chicago cold tap water is running at 68 degree F, or 20 C.

This means I no longer need to blend hot water for a while...

So what temp is your water and what is your location?

I realize the other half of the world is entering winter, your temps are wanted also.

[Alan9940]

HaHa. 68F? My cold water doesn't run that low in the winter! :) Right now--since we've been running about 111 - 118F nearly everyday for the past couple of weeks--my "cold" water seeps from the tap at about 84F. Blending with hot water has never an issue for me; I need cold water from the fridge to hit 68F. I guess when ya live in the Sonoran Desert of the southwest one must expect warm tap water!! :)

[Jac@stafford.net]

Same here as Randy Moe. The water is deep underground, and cold when pumped up. Living in a small city is good.
.

[Peter De Smidt]

In summer my "cold" water in my darkroom can get up to 72F or so. That's why I always process film at 75F.

[Tin Can]

Same here as Randy Moe. The water is deep underground, and cold when pumped up. Living in a small city is good.
.

I get lake water, it varies greatly from 35 to 90 degree f.

2 years ago Lake Michigan melted it's last ice about now...

[Vaughn]

Right around 68F, give or take a couple degrees. I have been developing at 70 or 72F, so no problem. I probably will not have to cool the water down at all this summer.

[Keith Fleming]

I let the water run for a while, and the thermometer read 60 degrees. That's about 4 degrees warmer than the sea water here off the north Olympic Peninsula. (That's why local kayakers take classes on getting quickly back into the kayak if they capsize.)

Keith Fleming

[photog_ed]

I've lived in New England most of my life. I had been away from film photography for 15 years or so until last year. I remember that summertime cold water would be in the low 60s F. We moved to a new place last year and I set up a darkroom and started developing last winter. This weekend I developed some film for the first time in a few weeks, and was surprised that the cold water is 75F. I'm hoping it doesn't get any warmer so I don't have to get into chilling the "cold" water.

[Jim Fitzgerald]

I'm at 68-70 as well gotta love it.

[Old_Dick]

Funny, I just looked my temperature over the weekend while cleaning shrimp. Here in Lyndeborough NH our well reads 50.4F.

[Wayne]

icy cold 95 foot deep well water, same temp as in the winter. Just the way I like it. I don 't think I would like tepid tap water. Then what, I'd have to put ice in it just to drink it? :(

[jp]

Did some darkroom work this evening. 56-57f.

We have a well and it gets down to 50f in the winter and 60f in the later summer.

[Michael Clark]

A couple of weeks ago it was 68 f. got warmer days now, maybe 72-74 F. Trouble is I have to run the water a few minutes before it will get the coldest, with our water shortage here I hate to waste it.

[BarryS]

My tap is at about 73 F--water source is the Potomac river.

[Oren Grad]

Darkroom's in the basement... It's now well after dark, probably about 65 F out after a day in the 80's... On the thermometer I usually use for mixing, the cold water a moment ago was reading... 68 F!

[Corran]

We are opposite. If I'm lucky in the winter it's 68-70F. Here lately it was about 85F. Chilling chems in the freezer for 10-15 minutes is SOP for me in the summer.

[IanG]

When I'm in Turkey the water is a very consistent 27ºC (80.6ºF) so I process at that temperature, I get excellent results - no different to the 20ºC I use when in the UK.

Ian

[windij]

I developed film two weeks ago when the daytime temps were 115 F (46 C) here in Tucson. My tap water was coming out of the faucet close to 90 F (32 C)! Used a lot of ice.

[tgtaylor]

At the moment it's 63.5F from the tap which is a little warmer than I thought. Usually it's around 60F and I adjust the hot water tap to bring the temperature up to around 65F when filling the Jobo and water for mixing the chemistry. When everything is mixed and in the trough, I'll place the tank on the unit and begin the rotation. When the temperature is steady at 68F for a couple of minutes I begin processing.

Thomas

[Drew Wiley]

Yes, my half of the world is entering "winter". I've got the office heater running and am wearing a jacket. Welcome to alternative California. Mark Twain expressed
it best when he stated that the coldest winter he'd ever spent was a summer in San Francisco!

[seezee]

Central Jokelahoma, tap water here is 77º/26.5º. The distilled water I keep on the kitchen counter for mixing working fix and developer is the same, except between 2 PM and 7 PM, when peak electrical pricing kicks in and my air conditioner shuts off to conserve energy — then in gets much warmer.

I'm going through a lot of ice making tempering baths. Only tempering the developer; with semi-stand I'm not too concerned about the other chemicals.

[barnacle]

UK, just north of London - 60F as measured on my imperial thermometer last weekend. Add a touch from the hot tap to get it to 68 or 72.

Neil

p.s. It's supposed to be summer.

[Maris Rusis]

Mid-winter in this half of the planet. Tap water runs at 18 Celsius.

[Luis-F-S]

Right now, out of the tap at 75 F in the evening, it will get North of 80F soon. I'll crank up the chiller when I develop/print and use the 75F side as the hot side to warm the chiller feed to 68 F. That way the chilled side will last longer than if I used the hot water tap. The K-250 Intellifaucet will make sure it doesn't vary more than .2 degrees. Using around 1/2 gal/min of 68 F water for my processes, my 32 GPH chiller has never run out. L

[Vaughn]

Small correction on my temp. At 6:30pm with the sun out all day, the cold water tap steadied at 72.5F -- still a reasonable temperature. During the winter in the kitchen, I got pretty good at filling a 2 liter graduate with the right amount of hot , then cold water (in the 50s) to get to my operating temp. I wash with standing water, so I'll have several 8x10 trays laying around with a negative or a couple prints in each that I am changing the water of...I aim to be within 4 degrees or so with my wash water temp. It will be nice to get the darkroom set-up and have regulated water!.

[Professional]

I will use degree as i am not good at F, and nowadays we have tap water nearly 40-50 C degree, if i keep it open for few minutes then the temp is going lower at around 30-35C at day time, at night it may go down to 24-28C.

[Dan Dozer]

Desert southwest - normal cold water temperature in my house is about 95 degrees. It's compounded by the fact that the water supply is routed around the house in the attic which is probably over 140 degrees up there. When I'm developing film, I need to cool the water down with bags of ice (even in winter).

[Luis-F-S]

May want to insulate the line in the attic, it's gotta help some once the hot flows out! I know I insulated all the lines in my darkroom, both the chilled line, cold and hot. L

[Jac@stafford.net]

[...] the fact that the water supply is routed around the house in the attic

An attic water supply route? Never heard of such a thing. How does that come to be?
.

[Luis-F-S]

An attic water supply route? Never heard of such a thing. How does that come to be?
.

Because if you have a slab on grade house and you have to re-plumb, the attic (or the soffit) is the most assessable place most of the time. L

[Jim Andrada]

Another vote from Tucson - seems to run 85 - 90 this time of year. The water pipes here are only about 12" below the surface so they warm up quite a bit. And I've seen winter temperatures around 12 - 14 and then everything freezes. If I let the water stand for an hour or so it seems to settle around 74 - 76 without using ice..

[Roger Thoms]

I was processing film last night, water out of the kitchen tap was running about 67° F here in foggy SF. :)

Roger

[Jac@stafford.net]

Because if you have a slab on grade house and you have to re-plumb, the attic (or the soffit) is the most assessable place most of the time. L

Interesting! I will pay attention should I be in the area. It seems a benefit would be sufficient water pressure. I hope.

[Robert Langham]

Twice a year, the Photographers Equinox occurs when tap water runs 68 degrees F. Here in Tyler those dates are usually late October and early June. We were running at 80 degrees yesterday. Can hit up in the high 90s but never seen 100. Currently using Pyrocat which comes with a little temperature chart to get you started. I'm leaving a big bucket of water to chill down in the central air augmented by chunks of ice in the freezer. I run film at 70F. Got some 8X10 to process today. In a month print washing will be very problematic.

152440

[Harold_4074]

The first 40 gallons will be anywhere from 65F to 90F, depending on time of day and recent weather, because of the bladder tank in the pumphouse. In steady state, the water comes in at 71F, year round. If you prefer 68F processing, geothermal heat may not be your friend...

[redrockcoulee]

The only time that my water in SE Alberta is not around 68 F is during a really cold period when some of the water in the house freezes and that has to be in the minus 30 C range. I don't do that much in the darkroom in the summer other than processing film as the water might be a good temperature but the air is not and I need to run the a/c in the darkroom for several hours before I can go in to work. My darkroom is in the third floor bedroom and each level is 5C warmer than the one below.

[Dan Dozer]

Because if you have a slab on grade house and you have to re-plumb, the attic (or the soffit) is the most assessable place most of the time. L

Just so you all know, the contractors in the Palm Springs area put the water supply in the attic because it's cheaper, not so you have access to it I case you do renovation to your house in the future. Also, my cold water lines are insulated. When I first moved into the house, they were not and the temperature of the cold water in the summer time if it was sitting in the pipes was hotter than the hot water! Had to run the cold water for over 5 minutes before we got ground water through all the lines. We had the contractor insulate all the cold water pipes shortly after we moved in.

[Roger Thoms]

My house in AZ has a rainwater catchment system and the cistern is partially buried so that the top is at grade, helps a lot with the water temp. Of course in the winter we get a thin layer of ice and the water is quite cold. I'll have to start measuring the water temp when I out there so I have a better idea of how it runs through out the year. I've only processed film out once, in the spring, definitely had to add hot water to get right temp. Last winter I added 2600 gallons of true underground storage, and another 5000 gallons of storage is planned, also underground. Nice to keep the water from getting to hot. I plan on having a darkroom there in the future, so the more storage I can add the better. We are off grid and the water table roughy 1500 ft, and financial well out of our reach.

Roger

[StoneNYC]

I designed this for my JOBO ... I'm selling it now as I upgraded the design but it works great.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160707/a828c5401c89687e9863f00c140652fd.jpg

[Drew Wiley]

Turkish water pipe?

[EdWorkman]

CA Central near the COast, but in an interior valley Lots hotter than 15 miles west. Supply is wells, but stored in a big steel tank up the hill, so probly 80.
Drought is still on, another one, so I have for many years filled a Rubbermaid tub with water and tempered it to 68-75 depending on the season, and use the Ilford washing method.
I switched to concentrates for the chems and dilute them from the tub for use

[Tom1234]

Water coming from the tap in my present suburban location in NY runs about 64 deg. The water is supplied by the county, i.e. not well water. Does not seem to be much different at different times of year that I can recall.

[russyoung]

640 foot deep well... about 65-67F all year... thank goodness.

[Jmarmck]

I too have to cool my water in the summer. I think it is running around 80 right now maybe higher. It is city water from the Floridan aquifier which is unconfined. But the city system is fairly large and the pipes are not buried too deep as we rarely see temps below 32 degrees F in winter. I have the hot water nearly all the way off when I shower.

[Bernhardas]

I live in Dubai and my "cold" tap water (comming from a water tank next to the house) has reached 39 Celsius.
I started to use and process my old E6 films. 😀😀😀

[Tin Can]

I live in Dubai and my "cold" tap water (comming from a water tank next to the house) has reached 39 Celsius.
I started to use and process my old E6 films. 😀😀😀

That's a good plan!

I am waiting for mine to get hotter and begin learning E6 process.

[docw]

In Ottawa, Canada, the ground water is just a little over 68F/20C, just enough to be annoying. I use a Jobo but it doesn't cool the water. It only heats it. So if I want to develop film in the summer, I have to recalculate my development times for about 21C. Usually, I just wait for September. Summer is very very short here and I prefer to spend it outside.

[Mungo Park]

I Winnipeg it does not get all that warm, but it does change in quality for mixing chemicals, winter water is much better.

[Jac@stafford.net]

640 foot deep well... about 65-67F all year... thank goodness.

On my former place, a large farm with two 10,000 gallon cisterns fed by a 450' deep well the water was always colder than 68F. When the water heater failed it became quite obvious. :)

[Fr. Mark]

I take bottles of filtered water to the basement and it's been tracking 80-85 degrees down there for weeks. Winter it was ??64?? I think. I've been thinking of colonizing one of the upstairs bathrooms because it has running water so I could get a sensible temperature control, a vent fan, a drain and would be easier to make dark than the basement which is only dark after dark so far.

Btw, am I right to think overly hot water, short development times could combine to raise contrast on X-Ray films? Or is it just over development because maybe I'm off the temperature correction chart?

[docw]

I have a few questions about all of this.

I know that Ilford and Kodak "recommend" 68F, but they don't say higher or lower temperatures are not possible. By mid August, the groundwater here (Ottawa, Canada) will probably be around 24-25C or 75/77F. I would like to standardize on the higher temperature and I am assuming that this won't have any effect other than to shorten my development times. These times are already somewhat short so I will have to go to a higher dilution (probably dilution F).

My darkroom is cold most of the year and since I use a Jobo (ATL-3), it is a lot easier to raise the temperature than lower it. But imagine this: let's say I set the process temperature to 25, which is not that much higher than the ground water temperature now, and for some reason it creeps up a little higher during processing. Will the Jobo shut off (which would be disastrous!)?


I have thought of getting a chiller but my knowledge in this area is pretty slim and the only ones I can find that supply enough pressure are quite expensive (over 1K, usually closer to 2k).

[giorgiospugnesi]

Here in Italy, at my home 27° (80F). It's hard to develop film...

[bobbotron]

Mine is around 21 C. And the room I keep my chemicals in is around 22 - super annoying to bring those chemicals down to temp! :P

[photog_ed]

I've lived in New England most of my life. I had been away from film photography for 15 years or so until last year. I remember that summertime cold water would be in the low 60s F. We moved to a new place last year and I set up a darkroom and started developing last winter. This weekend I developed some film for the first time in a few weeks, and was surprised that the cold water is 75F. I'm hoping it doesn't get any warmer so I don't have to get into chilling the "cold" water.

Midwinter update: cold water temp is 39F. Last August it was up above 80F and I resorted to keeping gallon bottles of water around for wash water when developing film. I would fill up 10 or so bottles with the 80+ tap water, and let them sit for a day or two to settle to room temperature, about 70F. I found I needed 2-3 gals to wash a batch of film.

[tonyowen]

Today the sea temperature +8.9 degrees C, and the air temperature +3 degrees C.
House radiator and boiler/furnace are computer controlled. Set at +19 or +20 degrees C between 7:00 am and 9:00pm. Switched to frost-protection setting of +10 degree C the rest of the 24 hour 'day'. So with a mixer tap I can get water to +20 degrees C fairly easily.
Anglesey does not have temperatures requiring air conditioning or comfort control.
regards
Tony

[Barry Kirsten]

Summer in Australia. The other day I processed a roll of 120 FP4+ in PMK 1+2+100 in water that was 25 degrees C. Like an idiot I thought to myself without checking, "I'll knock off a minute developing time for the 5 degrees extra". The film was of course over developed! Fortunately I was able to reduce some of the pyro stain with acetic acid and this helped salvage the negs.

You'd think that after nearly 60 years in photography I'd know better. I think I've become a bit blase with some of the things I do - like guessing exposures rather than metering (which I can do fairly well) - but I have to give more respect to the fact that there is a lot of science in photography, and often the science isn't forgiving.

[Maris Rusis]

Summer in Australia:
Tap water here is running at 27.5C (81.5F) and my personal time versus temperature chart for 27.5C indicates a Xtol development time of 5m20s for (say) Tmax100. That's convenient and repeatable.
If I'm developing 8x10 sheet film one at a time in trays I want to work hotter to save time.
Tmax100 8x10 comes up nice at 32C (90F) in 3m20s. At 20C (68F) the same development is achieved in 11m 15s. If I'm doing 20 sheets one after another the hot developer saves me a lot of dark time. That's convenient for me and the film does not care.

[TrentM]

Hi Maris,
Here in south Florida it's winter, and perfect for film developing. I quit trying in summer, but your speed developing sounds intriguing. Do you have any agitation method to prevent possible streaking/blotching due to short dev. time?

[Maris Rusis]

Hi Maris,
Here in south Florida it's winter, and perfect for film developing. I quit trying in summer, but your speed developing sounds intriguing. Do you have any agitation method to prevent possible streaking/blotching due to short dev. time?
It takes a bit of practice but after a few hundred sheets of 8x10 the hands seem to know what to do. Film slides smoothly into the developer in about 0.5 seconds - no "tide" marks. Agitation by lifting tray edges in sequence is continuous so it ceases to be a film to film variable. Worries about grain, sharpness, and gradation don't count with big film. Minor development variations, a few seconds either way, don't count because my film is going to be contacted out on variable contrast papers. A tiny bit of N+ or N- is easily and fully compensated by changing contrast filters.

[Eric Woodbury]

I've hit bottom on water and darkroom temps. Water this morning was 47F (8.3C). Darkroom was at its three-year minimum -- 51F (10.6C). I'm sure this in not that cold for some, but it sure makes my electric meter spin fast.

[Vaughn]

Can't use a mint toothpaste in the winter -- between the mint and the cold water, it freezes my mouth!

I printed 5x7 and 8x10 platinums all night until 5am -- watching the outside temp drop and stick around 32F. I coat and dry paper, and load contact printing frames in the bathroom, expose under a couple 750W merc vapor lamps in the uninsulated unheated (except for the lights!) attached garage, and process in trays on a Costco folding table in the kitchen. Kept my oven on to maintain a 68F kitchen. All my pipes are outside the house -- both hot and cold run the length of the house to get to the kitchen. Too much water going thru them to worry about freeze! Not the greatest of efficiency, but in the summer the tap water runs nicely between 68 and 70F. I need to get the dedicated darkroom built! Maybe when my boys are out of college I'll ...bla, bla, bla.

But what was nice, was the Jobo water tempering bath -- it kept my Potassium oxalate developer right at 110F. Two containers of the developer so that I could have one re-heating and always have one at temperature and ready to use.