I WANT to like developing with hangers. I have 3 4x5 tanks and about 8 hangers. It's fairly quick, doesn't take up too much space, and makes it easy for me to DBI with my IR goggles. But I keep getting intermittent mottling on images with smooth tones. This is enough to totally ruin the image if it happens to a sky or something.

I haven't managed to isolate what is causing the unevenness. I agitate by picking the hangers up gently, tilting them 45 degrees, and letting them drip for 5-10s. I might shake them gently to help developer drip off. Then I gently return them to the bath. Next agitation I tilt them the other direction. I have tried doing 2 agitations every 30s, 2 agitations every 1 minute, and one agitation every 1 minute. I have tried presoaking. I still haven't 100% eliminated the problem to where I can be confident I will have perfect skies. Next, I might try very dilute developer for 15+ minute developing times. Using replenished developer is part of the appeal of tanks, but my dev times are only about 6-7min with Tmax.

Does anyone develop in 4x5 tanks with hangers, and achieve very consistent, even results? Exactly how do you do it?