Dish washing

[jk0592]

Beakers, really. Each time I finish processing film, I do my dishes with hand dish washer soap, the same kind used to wash kitchen dishes. Beakers for developer, stop bath, fixer, tank, thermometer, film washer, everything goes. I then hand dry everything with towels. I wonder if just rinsing with water would be sufficient, and wether soap is bad or not. So far, I have not ran into problems.
Is there a standard practice that i ignore ?

[Leigh]

Since soap is designed to cut grease, and the only grease you're dealing with is your finger prints,
I doubt that it would provide any significant advantage, but it shouldn't hurt anything either.

I always rinse everything thoroughly immediately after use, so the mixing vessels are rinsed and
returned to the storage rack before I ever start processing. It only takes a second.

The key is to rinse everything before any content has a chance to dry.

I don't dry anything. Just store it open-end down and let air circulation and gravity do the work.

- Leigh

[jp]

I just rinse things good and let it air dry. Like Leigh, rinse it as soon as you are done using it. Measured and dispensed one shot developer? Rinse the container.

Once a year roughly, I'll actually clean some stuff with soap at the kitchen sink or run it through the dishwasher.

[David R Munson]

I rinse stuff out, let it dry. That's it. I've never soaped a photographic implement as best I can remember.

What Leigh said, etc.

[Jody_S]

Rinse & stand to dry. I've tried running things through a dishwasher to get off fixer stains off collapsible bottles, and developer stains from plastic trays. Doesn't work. I do have rust remover that does, but I don't bother.

[Maris Rusis]

Beakers, really. Each time I finish processing film, I do my dishes with hand dish washer soap, the same kind used to wash kitchen dishes. Beakers for developer, stop bath, fixer, tank, thermometer, film washer, everything goes. I then hand dry everything with towels. I wonder if just rinsing with water would be sufficient, and wether soap is bad or not. So far, I have not ran into problems.
Is there a standard practice that i ignore ?

I too do a soap and water wash of everything after a darkroom session. And I use old and substantially lint-free towels to dry stuff.
If my photographs are going to be messed up I'm determined it won't be from chemical cross contamination!

[Winger]

I rinse and let them dry. Each beaker is used only for a specific chemical (same with trays).

[Leigh]

Each beaker is used only for a specific chemical (same with trays).
Same here. I forgot to mention that.

Completely separate sets of containers and stirrers for each chemical, so no possibility of cross-contamination.

I even have a separate set for each of the two parts of Diafine developer, separate from other developer sets.

- Leigh

[Bill Burk]

I take all my beakers, trays, bottles and filters to the laundry tub to rinse in hot water then bring them back to the darkroom sink draining tray to air dry.

I try not to "pour" chemicals out in the darkroom sink, where I keep 68-degree water running like a creek as I work.

Inadvertant chemical spillage happens in the darkroom sink but I don't freak out about it, it gets washed down eventually.

But it's always eye-opening when I empty a tray of Photo-Flo. I can clearly see the bubbles "contaminate" the entire sink.

I usually rinse and sponge the darkroom sink down when I'm done, but this morning I came in and saw a couple areas of white crust where the D-76 was yesterday.

[Leigh]

Photo-Flo is just soap. It's paid to make bubbles. That's what it does.

How could it "contaminate" anything???

- Leigh

[Bill Burk]

It only illustrates where the liquid flows - it goes "everywhere" - so that's partly why I don't pour things down the flat darkroom sink, I carry them over to the deep laundry tub. Seeing where the Photo-Flo goes makes me think the water in the sink may not be clean enough to dip fingers in before sticking them into developer... Since there may be some fixer in it... So I always rinse my fingers off under running faucet before going back to developer.

[tgtaylor]

When I started out I purchased separate trays and graduates for developer, stop, fix, hyop clear and bleach which I generally adhere to. However after reading Ansel Adams statement that he no longer found it necessary to keep dedicated trays for the different chemicals I will allow, for example, the "bleach" graduate to be used for mixing something else but I will not use the developer trays or graduates for anything but developer. The trays and Jobo bottles become stained with developer which can be cleaned with sulfuric acid but I make it a point to always keep those separate and dedicated to developer only. Immediately after each use I rinse thoroughly with hot (125F+) water and never use a soap.

Thomas

[Bill Burk]

I meant to add that toweling dry sounds like a way to introduce lint, which wouldn't be a good thing.

[E. von Hoegh]

I rinse and let them dry. Each beaker is used only for a specific chemical (same with trays).

Ditto.

[cyrus]

Soap eventually leaves residue especially on plastic so I just rinse using warm water. Once they're rinsed there's no real chance of cross-contamination.

[Roger Cole]

When I started out I purchased separate trays and graduates for developer, stop, fix, hyop clear and bleach which I generally adhere to. However after reading Ansel Adams statement that he no longer found it necessary to keep dedicated trays for the different chemicals I will allow, for example, the "bleach" graduate to be used for mixing something else but I will not use the developer trays or graduates for anything but developer. The trays and Jobo bottles become stained with developer which can be cleaned with sulfuric acid but I make it a point to always keep those separate and dedicated to developer only. Immediately after each use I rinse thoroughly with hot (125F+) water and never use a soap.

Thomas

I keep separate trays, at least in general categories. I have developer trays, fixer trays etc. I don't have different trays for different developers, just rinse. I've never kept separate mixing vessels either and as long as you rinse thoroughly and don't let things dry in them (and even then it can be removed - stains can't, at least not easily and not from all material, but don't seem to hurt anything) I don't really see the point.

Those who do this, do you do it because it just seems the best thing to do, or because you've had real problems from not doing it? I've been doing darkroom work off and on for a few decades and never really had a problem with this.

[Vaughn]

Rinse only. And generally I do not worry so much about what beaker or tray has been used for what.

[ChrisN]

I rinse my beakers and trays under hot water, then wipe them off to remove as mch water as possible. I give the darkroom sink the same treatment. Not because it won't dry naturally, but because I don't want to raise the humidity in the darkroom any more than necessary, as I don't want to encourage fungus growth on my enlarger lenses (my darkroom is an enclosed space in a large unheated metal shed). Not sure if this is really helping but it doesn't take very long and I find it a useful discipline.