What are you using to temper your chemicals (Bathroom geniuses please respond)

[Kerry L. Thalmann]

A Jobo TBE 12 is a tempering bath that works with Jobo 1 liter bottles.

Holy cow! A Jobo TBE-2/12 recently sold for $449.44 on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-JOBO-TBE...-/150651794664

I know prices on Jobo gear have been skyrocketing, and that one was in exceptionally good condition (unused), but that seems like a lot of money just to keep liquid warm.

Don't get me wrong, it's a GREAT unit (I have one). You can remove the red plastic top (that holds the Jobo bottles) and use whatever size bottles you desire, or use it as a tempering bath for BTZS or other developing tubes/drums. So, it's a very nice, very usable tempering bath. I was just surprised by the final bid on that one.

Kerry

[jeroldharter]

Hard to believe that Jobo cannot make a profit selling $500 plastic jars and tubs.

[John Kasaian]

I keep my B&W chemicals are in amber glass 1 gallon jugs in the same location, so they are all the same temperature.

[Graybeard]

My darkroom is the the basement of a rural farmhouse. With the exception of the month of August (and then not always) I find it necessary to heat my B&W chemistry in order to process film at 72F.

For several years now, I have been using a surplus laboratory water bath (constant temperature bath), obtained on eBay, for film processing; this will easily hold temperature to within +/- 0.1C (As a retired chemist, I've been using these things since my University days). I first bring the developer to temperature in a SS pitcher (beaker, graduate) in the bath, then put my processing tank (sheet film with hangers or Nikor roll film tank) right in the bath and work with it there.

The bath that I'm using cost about $35, my spare/replacement bath, much newer and which I bought on a good day, was 99 cents.

For printing, I just heat the darkroom with an electrical space heater; it will hold the room +/- 5F.

BIG TIME IMPORTANT!!!. It is all too easy to forget things and leave one of these baths going after you leave the darkroom. If your luck is really bad, the water will all evaporate from the bath, the electrical heater will overheat and start a fire. This had occurred with sufficient frequency in industrial chemical laboratories in the past that the CT baths sold now are equipped with overtemperature controls intended prevent this. A surplus unit may not have such a safety device; the older unit that I use now does not.

I have my unit on a mechanical industrial timer that shuts the power off after two hours, far too short a time to evaporate the water should I forget to shut the CT bath off. I just wind the time and have power to the CT bath for two hours - for a long session I just wind the timer a second time.

This said, I just turn the CT bath on, and within an hour am ready to work no matter what the ambient temperature.

[EdWorkman]

I use liquid concentrates, stored in the darkroom, but I've had several bathroom "labs".
I have a large Rubbermaid -5 gallon? storage tub which i fill with water. The tapwater temp varies with season , and in summer the cold side may near 80 degrees F.
So I mix hot+cold or cold+icecubes until I get a constant 65-75 degrees .
Parts of the year a tidy 68 is easy, others not, so I vary the develope time accordingly
That takes a few minutes but not long as I take the temp frequently while the tub fills so as to keep it from the extremes. Then I mix the concentrates with the water a little short of the total volume to allow a last adjustment with hot water or ice as needed to get the dilution to match the tub temp. As i rinse-develope-rinse-fix-rinse-dehypo, the tub water volume is large enuogh to stay very close to the original temp, and if the ambient temp is extreme I have time to toss in a dollop to correct it so the large volume of wash water will be on temp.
During the next set i have time to top up the tub and adjust it.
Other than thermometers for each volume, it's no tech