Constant 68 Degrees...How?

[Pawlowski6132]

I just started looking for something like a wine cooler that I can store all my mixed chemicals in that will keep them at a constant 68 degrees but am striking out. How do you folks store your chemicals so they're ready to go when you need them?

[Robert Hughes]

I put 'em under my sink. Kodak et al chose 68 degrees because that's room temperature. If my room temp is significantly different I modify my processing accordingly.

As Bob notes below - only developer temp is critical. And sometimes it's not even all that critical. If you're doing standard development, not trying fancy pull processing, you probably won't see much difference resultant from a few degrees either way (but don't try 60 degrees or below - it'll take you all night to develop at that temp.) Follow that chart theBDT links to and you'll be fine.

[Bob McCarthy]

Set your house thermostat at 68 deg.

If chemicals are a touch warm a few ice cubes in a zip lock put into developer briefly will adjust. Note, only the developer temp is critical. As long as the other chemicals and wash water are close (+/_ 3-4 degrees) you're good to go. Honestly I've processed further out than this without issue. Do try to avoid large temp differentials especially with the wash water.

bob

[theBDT]

You can also look up one of the many time-temperature conversion charts online (like this one (http://www.freestylephoto.biz/tl_devtimebtemp.php)) and then just process your film at whatever temperature it is...

[Heroique]

An hour or more before tray processing, I'll put my 32 oz. chemical containers in separate 8x10 trays w/ water of my desired temperature, laying them down. Occasionally, I'll check the temperature and adjust if necessary. As Bob suggests, the developer is the one that wins my most careful vigilance. If you're tray processing w/ hands, remember your fingers will raise the temperature of the solution. I'll usually dip mine in cool water between film-stack cycles...

[Drew Wiley]

A tempering box is a good investment. For even more critical work I use a thermoregulator, which is capable of keeping solutions within a tenth of a degree.

[Bob McCarthy]

You can also look up one of the many time-temperature conversion charts online (like this one (http://www.freestylephoto.biz/tl_devtimebtemp.php)) and then just process your film at whatever temperature it is...

That was the approach I learned in school 30+ years ago. But I find the charts less precise and best nail the development when I settled on a finite temp to process everything.

Honestly a bit of a challenge in summer in Texas. I move my standards to 75 deg in summer.

bob

[ic-racer]

You will probably not want to keep a tempering box on all the time.

Some suggestions for 'instant' processing:
1) Do your process with everything at room temp. (use time/temp conversion table)
2) Use a setup where you dilute chemicals just before use (one shot). So use appropriate temp tap water for mixing.

[Paul Bujak]

I develop B&W in my Jobo at 75F as that seems to be the water temperature here in Ohio in the summer. So washing is just using the cold tap water. In winter, I start the Jobo warming up an hour or so before I want to process and adjust the hot/cold mix for washing. I mix developer with distilled water and warm it up in the Jobo.

After a Photo-Flo rinse, I get nice clean negatives ready to print.

The chemicals reside in the basement darkroom which ranges from 62 to 75.

[ic-racer]

I store my Jobo dry. When I'm ready to process, I fill it with appropriate tempered water and mix the one-shot chemicals with appropriate tempered water. This way it is ready to use very quickly.

I live in the same part of the country as Paul and have just installed a thermometer in my cold water supply for the Jobo. In the winter (like now) I get 11 deg. C tap water. With that I can easily process film in HC110 and Rodinal at 18 to 20 degrees C whenever I want. However, in the summer, the cold water supply is too hot for those processes. The thermometer lets me know not to set the Jobo lower than the tap water.

[keith english]

I keep a gallon jug of water in the refrigerator to mix with room temperature water for the developer (in the summer). Tap water is cool enough in the winter. Here in Georgia I haven't figured out how to cool the wash water, since it comes out of the tap at 85 degress or higher, in the summer.

[jp]

I used to mix water with developer too. Just average the two temperatures if you are doing 1:1 dilution like with d76 or xtol.

[Bob McCarthy]

I keep a gallon jug of water in the refrigerator to mix with room temperature water for the developer (in the summer). Tap water is cool enough in the winter. Here in Georgia I haven't figured out how to cool the wash water, since it comes out of the tap at 85 degress or higher, in the summer.

FWIW, I have a similar issue in texas during the summer. I keep 5 gallons of filtered water on hand which is roughly room temperature as its equilibrated first (overnight storage at room temp). I wash using 5 changes (as recommended by the film companies) with plenty of soak/agitation between changes - rather than with running water.

A little more time consuming than running water and ignoring, but appears to work well and doesn't melt the emulsion.

bob

[Brian Ellis]

There's nothing magic about 68 degrees - any temperature within reason is fine as long as you're consistent in using that temperature. And you only have to worry about consistency with your developers. The temperatures of stop and fix can bounce around all over the place during the course of a darkroom session and as long as you aren't letting them get ridiculously hot or cold it won't matter, they'll work fine.

I processed film in developer at 75 degrees since developing at a warmer temperature than 68 speeds the process up a little. I kept it at 75 by rolling the tubes (I used the BTZS tubes) in a water jacket that was a few degrees cooler than 75 (keeping the water at 75 didn't keep the developer at 75, probably because of the hand-agitation that's done with the BTZS tubes). For paper developer I used a Zone VI Studios Compensating Developer timer which IIRC is calibrated at 68 degrees. I set the time at 2 minutes. The timer automatically adjusted the actual time up or down as the temperature of the developer went up or down from the calibrated 68 degree starting point. I doubt that these timers are made any more but if you can fine one on the used market for a reasonable price they're well worth having.

[Ben Calwell]

Ansel Adams will probably roll over in his grave, but I recently developed some sheet film that ended up in a tray of fixer that was at least 10 degrees or more colder than the developer and stop.
You could hang meat in my darkroom, as it is in my unheated basement. I had forgotten to get the fixer warmed up, a mistake that became immediately apparent to me when my hands plunged into the fixer tray's icy depths.
Despite this, the film looks just fine.

[jp]

If your fixer is <60f, it takes a lot longer to fix film. Fix by inspection sometime with tmax film; you can see it clear during the first half of the fixing.

I imagine paper would also be less responsive to cold fixer.

[neil poulsen]

Adams commented in his book that Dektol changes developing characteristics (not just slower), when the temperature gets down to about 65 degrees. It contains a couple of active ingredients (hydroquinine and metol?), and one of them shuts down at lower temperatures. So, that effectively changes the ratio of one active ingredient to the other at cooler temperatures.

For me, the ideal would be a well insulated darkroom that always stays at the same temperature. So, never any heating up or cooling down of chemistry to get to the right temperature. Just take it off the shelf, remove the cap, and it's ready to go. One could have distilled water in a tank with a spigot that sits on a shelf. Again, it's always at the correct temperature.

And I'll comment, the ideal temperature for me IS NOT 68 deg. F! :eek: That is frigging cold.

[Ed Pierce]

Here in Vermont my darkroom is often colder than 68F. When setting up to process film, the first thing I do is fill a tray with hot water and put my bottles of chemistry in the tray until they're warmed up.

To keep my developer temp constant during printing, I use two trays. In the larger bottom tray I put four short pieces of pvc pipe to set the top developer tray on, fill the tray with water a few degrees warmer than the desired temp, and put in a submersible aquarium heater. The water level should just reach the bottom of the developer tray. It took a few sessions to hit on the right setting on the heater, but now the dev temp will stay the same all day long.

[Kirk Keyes]

I develop B&W in my Jobo at 75F as that seems to be the water temperature here in Ohio in the summer.

THat's exactly what I do too - even though I am in Oregon.