Darkroom cleaning

Pieter12 · Oct 8, 2022

OK. I am probably not obsessive enough to be a good example, so I'd like to know how often do you clean your darkroom? I mean sweep, dust vacuum, wipe down your equipment and fixtures, and the room in general? How often do you do more than rinse trays and tanks, tongs and reels? What methods, supplies and equipment (if any) do you use?

jtk · Oct 8, 2022

Pieter12 said:
OK. I am probably not obsessive enough to be a good example, so I'd like to know how often do you clean your darkroom? I mean sweep, dust vacuum, wipe down your equipment and fixtures, and the room in general? How often do you do more than rinse trays and tanks, tongs and reels? What methods, supplies and equipment (if any) do you use?

IMO the single most-important practice is mopping the floor just before printing, every time...being careful not to electrocute yourself. Vacuum and dust fill the air with more dust.

warden · Oct 8, 2022

Never, aside from keeping the enlarger lens clean.

My darkroom is a large room in my basement that does double duty as a laundry room, utility area, and other normal basement storage stuff. Thankfully I’ve never seen evidence of my casual attitude toward cleanliness show up on a print.

btaylor · Oct 8, 2022

warden said:
Never, aside from keeping the enlarger lens clean.

My darkroom is a large room in my basement that does double duty as a laundry room, utility area, and other normal basement storage stuff. Thankfully I’ve never seen evidence of my casual attitude toward cleanliness show up on a print.

That is wonderful! You are a fortunate darkroom worker.
My first darkroom was a closet where clothes and bedding were also stored. The Durst enlarger had a glass carrier. I don’t think I was ever able to get a print without some dust marring it.
This caused me to become a little obsessed with eliminating dust. My current darkroom is sealed. There are no soft surfaces in the room, the concrete floor has been etched and sealed. If I vacuum debris I’ve tracked in from outside the vacuum stays outside the room. Any new items brought into the room are throughly wiped down. I never have dust issues anymore.

Paul Howell · Oct 8, 2022

Mine is in a repurposed double bath, I clean it every time I use it, steam mop the floor, wipe down the surfaces, clean the enlarger lens, condensers, the shower is operative, I run the hot water for a bit to add some humidity to the space, helps lower static, I live the desert, very dry air. Not every time, but I do use a floor dust mop with some end dust on the dust head wipe down the walls. What ever you can do control dust makes for less work later.

albada · Oct 8, 2022

Never. My darkroom is a carpeted spare bedroom, so maybe vacuum on occasion. And dust the way they do in the Addams Family.
But my DIY film-dryer has a HEPA filter, and I always give the neg two puffs of compressed air (two surfaces) when inserting it into the enlarger. Result: no dust spots on prints.

eli griggs · Oct 8, 2022

Do no sweep, push or vacuum the darkroom, for 99% of cleaning.

A small HEPA Vacuum made for keyboards, etc when needed but otherwise use swifter wet mops only keeping big things in the front of the direction of the push or pull action.

You might have some dirt remaining but a second wet mop should take care of that.

Steam cleaning is great, when it's no blowing dust and dirt up into the air and, if you can, use a good mister to first 'drop' a fine layer of water onto the area being cleaned.

This should also help with Swifter wet mopping.

I also suggest you most/damp sinks as many chemistries dry to a crust or powder and that can be even worse than regular dust.

The same thing with trays, cylinders, reels, etc, as some chemicals will dry out and leave residue in the corner of a developing tank, for example.

A thin sanitary pad or half of one can apply be used with CLR, to remove rust from hardware and hardware minerals from utensils, as needed.

I like Simply Green for a general cleaner and Harbor Freight Microfiber towels for smooth surfaces, such as a laminated, metal, or painted shelf or table.

Rinse those surfaces with water to remove residue.

My Darkroom is almost always cluttered, but when I clean, it's with an eye no to share any dust or chemical around and these are things I've learned to do whenever I do tidy-up, in general.

This includes washing up well when a developing or printing session is done, something I got into the habit of doing right away when I did darkroom for others photographers, in part because when you are dirtying up sheet film holders, rubber and steel tanks, spiral reels and their tanks, etc and the darkroom has a limited supply when hundreds of spools, and sheets of film to be processed, you need them washed and completely dry, NOW!

Printing trays, measuring tools, and various hardware, including tongs, stirs, and thermometers also are washed up right away, again, after the session is over.

Godspeed and Happy printing to all our darkroom brothers and sisters!

Eli

RalphLambrecht · Oct 9, 2022

Pieter12 said:
OK. I am probably not obsessive enough to be a good example, so I'd like to know how often do you clean your darkroom? I mean sweep, dust vacuum, wipe down your equipment and fixtures, and the room in general? How often do you do more than rinse trays and tanks, tongs and reels? What methods, supplies and equipment (if any) do you use?

I clean the room once a week and all trays, sink and dev equipment after each use. Actually, I think of it as fun.

awty · Oct 9, 2022

Never. I just clear a space to work.

MattKing · Oct 9, 2022

My darkroom is temporary - each time I use it I need to re-purpose a family bathroom.
So my darkroom is cleaned regularly .

Sirius Glass · Oct 9, 2022

I clear before using, but since it is closed off when not in use it does not get much dust. I clean every thing after use and I put it away once dried.

jvo · Oct 9, 2022

ahh, a pleasant memory... i liked cleaning, though I rarely accomplished it. I did clean wet side trays, tongs, beakers etc. on a monthly basis and wiped tables with a wet rag.

thankfully, never had a dust or contamination issue.

thanks for the trip down the lane.

Frank53 · Oct 9, 2022

I clean once or twice a year. The space does get dusty, thats why I metyculously clean the negative holders (even 35mm with glass) and negatives before printing.
For the glass I use wet tissues and for the negatives I use an antistatic filmcleaner and an electric airblower (Blowerbaby by Nitecore).

BobUK · Oct 9, 2022

I Hoover the place out about every three months and clean all the wet equipment immediately at the end of a printing session.
Never ever clean the place out and then start printing the same day. Give the dust a chance to resettle.

Vaughn · Oct 9, 2022

After a few decades cleaning a university darkroom I have become deathly allergic to cleaning...it causes a reaction that could prove deadly to anyone suggesting I clean.

eli griggs · Oct 9, 2022

The biggest factor I see in cleaning a darkroom and kit, is the use of or lack of, running water.

My darkroom has no clean running water other than what I cart in, and I've started using a Harbor Freight 1/2 gallon pressure pump hand sprayer as an integral resource to darkroom work.

Fine spray for quick hand washing and wetting and powerful 'jet' for really getting a stubborn chunk to come clean, out of whatever vessel or sink it inhabits.

In the past I would use plastic kitchen basins with soapy water, first rinse, second rinse for in progress washing but it takes too much space in my small four or five foot ABS sink these days.

Try the spray pump I suggested, it's a very product for under $7 and I have four, for different rooms/jobs, ie, the darkroom, workshop room, studio space, and metal detecting.

Cheers.

Pieter12 · Oct 9, 2022

Vaughn said:
After a few decades cleaning a university darkroom I have become deathly allergic to cleaning...it causes a reaction that could prove deadly to anyone suggesting I clean.

So do you have someone else do it?

Vaughn · Oct 9, 2022

The key is small doses carefully given.
My dimroom is also my bathroom. Showers keep the dust down. I definitely vacuum after major beard trimming. Film loading and open-tray film processing possible after dark.
My processing room is my kitchen (out comes the folding 6-foot Costco table). After processing film and/or prints it is cleaner than when I started.

Freshly poured and drying carbon tissue in my 'dimroom/bathroom. No shower for a couple days! I now use clolthes hangers with the two clips (for pants?) Much easier. The tissues needs to have a fan on them for the first 12 to 24 hours to prevent mold. These are basically hanging petri dishes (food grade gelatin, sugar, and carbon).

Dusty Negative · Oct 9, 2022

Clean?

Jay Schrotenboer · Oct 9, 2022

Dusty Negative said:
Clean?

It is in the name after all

gone · Oct 9, 2022

Pretty much never. Dust that's settled has, well, settled. So it's not floating around and it's not an issue. I'm good at keeping developing reels and tanks spotless, and I clean trays, but the darkroom never needs it. Things are constantly immersed in chemicals or water there. Even the photographer :]

Rick A · Oct 9, 2022

I have a dedicated DR and keep it closed up when not in use. I leave a small electrostatic air cleaner running continuously. I clean up and put away everything I used during a session before closing the door when finished. I only vacuum when I spot cobwebs and too much tracked in dirt.

snusmumriken · Oct 10, 2022

Rick A said:
I have a dedicated DR and keep it closed up when not in use. I leave a small electrostatic air cleaner running continuously. I clean up and put away everything I used during a session before closing the door when finished. I only vacuum when I spot cobwebs and too much tracked in dirt.

+1, at least regarding dust and dirt.

My dishes and tongs are colour-coded so I rinse in cold water at the end of each session and that’s enough. Glass storage bottles are more tricky: I sometimes have to resort to a sulphuric acid and potassium permanganate brew to get them clean. Bottle tops I chuck out if difficult to clean - new ones are very cheap.

mshchem · Oct 10, 2022

I use citric acid to (rarely) clean SS sink. Never use Lime Away or CLR without checking ingredients. No chlorine compounds or, God forbid, steel wool, on SS, it will corrode.

Sirius Glass · Oct 10, 2022

Especially since my film development is done in one of the two the kitchen sink after I finish a developing session I scrub both sinks with Barkeepers Friend https://barkeepersfriend.com/ very well.

Darkroom cleaning

Pieter12

jtk

warden

btaylor

Paul Howell

albada

eli griggs

RalphLambrecht

awty

MattKing

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Sirius Glass

jvo

Frank53

BobUK

Vaughn

eli griggs

Pieter12

Vaughn

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Jay Schrotenboer

gone

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mshchem

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