Darkroom Fan - homemade or not

[Ari]

Hello,
Does anyone have a decent way to ventilate a windowless darkroom in a small-ish apartment, efficiently, quietly and inexpensively? Store-bought or home-made.
Thanks

[Mark Woods]

Get two squirrel cage fans, one for in and one for out. Hook them up to about a 4" black PVC pipe and aim them where you want the air to come in. The exhaust should probably be somewhere near the top of the room to get the heat out.

Good luck. BTW, my dark room doesn't have windows either. ;-)

[MIke Sherck]

Bathroom exhaust fan. Get an extra-quiet model, trust me on that!

Mike

[Ari]

Thanks, guys!
And Mark, this being Montreal and with winter looming, I'll be trying to keep the heat in.

[Tim k]

Mike is right. I went to the big box place and got a cheap bathroom fan. I would rather be gassed out, than listen to that noisy thing.

[Mark Sawyer]

Exhaust fans for an oven hood also work nicely...

[dsphotog]

The ultimate would be a fan with a filter pushing air IN, & a smaller vent close to your chem. trays allowing smelly air out.
You want positive air pressure in a darkroom....
If you just install an exhaust fan, dust etc. will be drawn in from every crack & crevice.
I used a bathroom fan & built a baffle from plywood, with an a c filter.
David Silva
Modesto Ca

[Roger Thoms]

They are not inexpensive, but Panasonic's line of bathroom exhaust fan are very quiet. Also dsphotog's advice about providing a way for replacement air to enter the darkroom is important.

Roger

[Ed Pierce]

I put a Panasonic Whispertone in my darkroom and run it constantly. It's very quiet.

For air supply I added a duct to the heat exchanger/house ventilation system, so I get a constant supply of fresh air. You probably don't have this in your place...a darkroom louver installed in the door or wall opposite the fan will work fine.

Do not get a "darkroom fan"...I used to use one and it was loud as hell. So bad I rarely used it and preferred the fumes.

[Brian Ellis]

I've always worked in windowless darkrooms. I just put a normal household fan on a shelf aimed in the general direction of the chemical trays and the door to the darkroom. I kept the door open except for the brief times when total darkness was needed (when film was being loaded into the BTZS tubes, when paper was being removed from the box through the time it hit the stop bath). Use of the tubes allowed me to process film in normal room light and the time paper needed to be in total darkness was maybe three minutes per sheet. So the door stayed open with the fan blowing air out probaby 95% of the time I spent in the darkroom. It was a simple, cheap (about $25 for the fan) system and seemed to work fine.