Dry darkroom?

[rich caramadre]

Anyone using a dry darkroom? I am planning on using a spare room as a darkroom but am not going to have running water in it. There is a bathroom across the hall to get water for mixing and neg/print washing. Not ideal but I think it should work. For neg development I have had good success with tempering a water bath with an aquarium heater. Any hints or unforeseen issues that someone has come across are welcome.

Rich

[Daniel Stone]

Many(including myself) have done what you're talking about with much success. Yes, its not "ideal", but for people who cannot(or simply) don't have the space for a dedicated darkroom, its workable.

One thing I've found that helps, when printing(rc or fiber), is to have a bucket(5gal "homer" bucket in my case), or a deep tray full of water, and the prints can soak in it after the last fixer stage. Once I'm done with a printing session, I then take the bucket/tray to the washer(in the tub), and put them in the washer. Saves me some running back and forth from room to room, and also allows fiber prints to diffuse somewhat. I keep the hypo clear tray in the tub next to the washer btw...

best of luck!

-Dan

[Andrew O'Neill]

I managed for 12 years in Japan with no running water in the darkroom, which was a spare bedroom and the bathroom was right across the hall. Carried water over when I needed it and did all my print/film washing in the shower. You get used to it.
The room was a constant 20C in the winter, but I had to have the portable AC going during the hot and humid summer months. Maintaining constant temp is important. I kept bags of ice in the freezer as the tap water was sometimes 30C. I really didn't like working in there in the summer!

[James Hilton]

Many years ago I temporally use a shed when I didn't have access to another room. It didn’t have running water or drainage.

I preferred using a slot processor rather than trays for processing. I found it was much easier when it came to clearing up as you can either leave the chemicals in the slots and put the covers on, or quickly drain them into a container with little or no spillage. Also the built in temperature control was useful and it was quick to get going. Second hand they are reasonable in price, new they seem to be extortionate these days.

I believe it is important to have your room setup so is that it is quick to get started and clear up after. A non-dedicated darkroom won’t be used much if it takes an hour to get everything in place ready to go and another hour to clear it all up after.

[Brian Ellis]

I did that for some years, using an outdoor pantry adjacent to the kitchen as a darkroom. It worked pretty well. The only thing you really need running water for is mixing the chemicals, washing the film or paper and cleaning up. My main problem wasn't the lack of running water, it was using the outdoor, un-air conditioned darkroom in Florida summers with the door closed.

[chassis]

The majority of my 30 year darkroom career has been spent with a "dry" darkroom, with nearby water access. I use a 5 gallon bucket to dispose of one-shot solutions, and to dump trays. Print and film washing takes place in the bathroom on the other side of the lower level.

[ac12]

Think about liquid protection.
That is protection from spilled or splashed water/chemicals.

Then how you will take the water/used chemicals to/from the DR to the bathroom to dump. You do not want to carry a tray of water, very easy to spill. Dump the trays into a large bucket and carry the bucket to the bathroom.

[Ken Lumbis]

I've set up a dry darkroom as well, after being out of it for many years. I use a tray of water as well until I'm finished with the enlarging and developing. One thing I've wondered, are there any negative effects from having the prints sit in the the water holding tray for extended periods before going to final print washing and drying? If you are doing prints over a number of hours should you put the first half of the prints in the final wash and dry before you finish the rest of your printing?

[Daniel Stone]

Ken,

I haven't experienced any problems from a 4-5hr(usually my longest stretch time-wise) session from beginning to end, with no dumping or changing out of water. However, many times I might only have 8-10 prints at the end of a session. Some papers have a problem with emulsion lift-off after some time, especially the Lodima contact papers, at least in my experience. Not big "chunks", but frilling on the edges does occur, but its usually not anything that affects the image area itself. No problems with Ilford or Kentmere papers though, or the Emaks graded fiber papers.

-Dan

[David Karp]

I had one for years. Loved it. Used the laundry sink for my water and to wash prints. It was much better than the darkroom I don't haven now.

[Oren Grad]

One thing I've wondered, are there any negative effects from having the prints sit in the the water holding tray for extended periods before going to final print washing and drying?

It's OK for FB prints. For RC prints, Ilford's advice is:

Prolonged immersion in water can cause edge penetration and print curl with resin coated papers: for this reason, avoid wet times longer than 15 minutes.

[jp]

I've seen RC prints curl after setting in the water too long. There is no benefit to a long wash with RC prints as the paper is coated on both sides. I hadn't noticed the curling until it was window matted and in a frame and the edges started to wrinkle. It's sort of a 3-d curl, unlike negative curling which is easily flattened out.

[Ken Lumbis]

Thanks for the info

[Jim Jones]

It's OK for FB prints. For RC prints, Ilford's advice is:

Prolonged immersion in water can cause edge penetration and print curl with resin coated papers: for this reason, avoid wet times longer than 15 minutes.

I've also seen this with Kodak RC paper.

Six of the seven darkrooms I've set up over many years had no running water, but they had walking water. I walked in with jugs of water and walked out with a large pail of waste water. Storing jugs of water in the darkroom provided a source at the same temperature as chemicals, tanks, and reels.

[Robbie Shymanski]

Aaron Siskind did most of his work in a "dry" darkroom. If it worked for him...

[Pawlowski6132]

What a pain in the ass. I don't think I would bother.

[redrockcoulee]

It is actually not that difficult and from my experiences using a room that you need to haul water in and out is easier than transforming a bathroom for each session. It took about 5 minutes of time and I washed the prints in the bathroom one floor down. Then our nephew came to stay with us while he completeted his 4th year plumbing apprenticeship. Needless to say I now have running water in my darkroom. It is better but when printing fibre or if I ever get around to making 11X14 or larger again I will still need to take the prints downstairs for washing.

[John Koehrer]

What a pain in the ass. I don't think I would bother.

nobody's makin' you!

[nolindan]

I have made dry darkrooms into temporarily wet darkrooms by running garden hose from either the laundry sink taps or from taps installed under a bathroom sink. If you bring in hot water you may need special hot-water hose. A 3/4" hose is adequate as a drain from the sink to the floor drain, a bucket and a sump pump work if you need to pump the waste uphill.

A big problem with turning spare bedrooms into darkrooms is protecting the floor from spills. I haven't found a good solution [er, sorry about that].

[kev curry]

Three things that make life easy in a dry darkroom are; a bucket to carry water, a print washer for negs and prints set up somewhere convenient like the bath tub and a good sized dish warmer to ensure stable temperatures, a lot less hassle than a tempering bath.

[Laurent L]

I built my darkrom in the basement. I had no money left to add running water. Three years later I still use some large plastic bottles to bring water in and buckets to get chemicals (the eco friendly ones) out.

I can afford running water but now I got used to this system...

Ain't dat silly ? ^o^

[Ari]

Dry darkrooms are much easier to set up, and cheaper to build.
I've only had one plumbed darkroom, all the others were dry, and while the "wet" darkroom was more luxurious, the dry ones produced equally good (or bad) prints.

[Andrew O'Neill]

What a pain in the ass. I don't think I would bother.

Maybe when you don't have a choice, you would.

[Sirius Glass]

I have a bedroom that I turned into a dry darkroom. I have two large work benches that give me lots of room for the very large enlarger Omega 5D-XL with a color head and a 30" wide drum dryer. I also have a desk and chair in the room to work on.

After I expose a print or prints, I put them in a large flat photographic paper box and walk to the master bathroom which has double sinks that I cover with a 6+ foot plywood board for the chemical trays. The exhaust fan switch also turns on the safe light. After the developing and two bath hypo, the prints go into trays that in the bathtub for washing. The trays have Kodak siphons on them.

After washing, I squeegee the prints on a large sheet of glass and take them to the dry darkroom to be placed in the drum dryer. The dry prints go on the desk to lay flat while they cool.

This arrangement gives me a large dry darkroom and a large wet darkroom which combined provide me with one of the largest darkrooms I have used, including the darkrooms at Kodak.