How do you control d\r water temps in hot climates?

Hi:

I have a friend who lives just south of Reno, NV. He has a lot of trouble with water temps in the summer, the 'cold' water comes out well above 68 deg., but I'm not quite sure how it is.

For you folks in hot climates, I'm sure this is a problem you have faced and solved. Can you reccomend good solutions for him? I was thinking of an incline chiller for him for Christmas. Is that a good solution? It would have to be able to chill water at a rate sufficient for a archival washer, processing, etc.

I need the solution to be pretty simple, he doesn't have the time to juggle a lot of different or rig stuff together to keep the temps down. Saving time is more important than cost. The inline chiller seems good because it is pretty much 'set it and forget it', which is what he needs.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

-R

I live in Malaysia where my tap water always comes out about 28C or more all year round, rarely lower than that. I use water bath, with packs of ice to cool the water down. The developing tanks are then immersed in the water bath during developing to regulate its temperature.

Not the ideal solution, but so far it works for me.

chioque said:

I live in Malaysia where my tap water always comes out about 28C or more all year round, rarely lower than that. I use water bath, with packs of ice to cool the water down. The developing tanks are then immersed in the water bath during developing to regulate its temperature.

Not the ideal solution, but so far it works for me.

Click to expand...

I also live in Malaysia, one way is to keep a 1 litre of bottle water in the fridge. It usually drops to lower than 20C but after you bringing it out and begin to mix the chems, it'll eventually warm up to 20c. Just at the right temperature for actual development. Though 1 litre may not be enough for your needs so store the amount that matches your needs.

He could also put the containers of developer, etc. in the freezer, or refrigerator, until they reach the desired temp. Once he figures out the time needed, he'll have a pretty good estimate of time required for future reference. Put water for rinses in a jug, and then do same- use the Ilford method of three rinses, etc., to reduce water usage.
Could also use a water bath with ice cubes to chill the solutions.

FWIW, the Kodak recommended temperature for T-Max developers is 24C.

I have water at about 80F in summer. I just use it as is for rinsing/washing - it's no problem with modern films and papers and in fact washes quicker. For developing, my room temperature solutions in my basement darkroom are usually around 24C or less, so I long ago standardized on that, 24C/75F, rather than 68F, plus in other months my Jobo can much more easily raise the temperature to that level than I can cool it down in summer.

There's absolutely nothing magical or special about 68F. If that's too cool to be practical choose a higher temperature and vary time accordingly.

These development charts may come in handy.

Film Processing Chart
http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/2006216122447.pdf

Temperature Compensation Chart
http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/2006210208211880.pdf

My darkroom is in the basement, below grade, so the room temperature rarely goes more than a few degrees above 70ºF/21ºC. Unless it is in the height of summer, I'm usually warming my developer up to 20º but, if your darkroom gets hot, you can just reverse my idea to cool your developer down.

I read the temperature of the stock developer and figure the difference between that and the desired temperature. (20ºC)
Generally, I find it around 18º. That's two degrees cooler than I want.

Then I mix up a container of water that is two degrees warmer than I want it. In this case, that's 22º.
Mix warm water and ice cubes and stir, adjusting little by little until you get what you want.

Since I use my developer 1:1 most of the time, all I have to do is mix equal amounts of developer and tempered water.
The water was two degrees too warm. The developer was two degrees too cool. The result comes out just right.
I rarely miss by more than a half degree. That's about as precise as my dial thermometer can read.

If I miss or if I am not diluting my developer, I bathe my container of developer in a tub of ice water or hot tap water and stir until it is the temperature I want. (Don't forget to stop a hair bit before you get to the temperature you want in order to account for the thermal mass of your container.)

Mine is mostly below ground too. Room temperature two weekends ago was about 80F, solutions at 76 ambient, no running water on the same floor nor freezer. Just adjusted time. Most of the time they're a bit cooler and the Jobo can bring 'em up a lot easier than I can bring 'em down. Welcome to Georgia.