I'm dealing with the same issues with water usage in my darkroom and also bought a used Kostiner 16x10 washer. I've posted some questions about effective washing and I got a referred to this article.
http://www.film-and-darkroom-user.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=344
It's not just the washing and using HCA, but your workflow also.
I also use a residual hypo test.
http://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/Archival/archival.html
Use the test only on out takes.
it leaves a stain that doesn't washout.
Below are the directions for the HT-2 residual hypo test. Note the bold-face type (my emphasis)
Kodak® Hypo Test Solution HT-2
Distilled Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750 ml
28% Acetic Acid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125 ml
Silver Nitrate, Crystals . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.5 g
Distilled Water to Make . . . . . . . . . . . 1 l
(Store in a tightly sealed brown glass bottle away from strong light sources. This solution stains everything it touches, so don’t splash it around.)
To use for paper, place one drop on the border of the print, let it stand for 2 minutes, then rinse with water. If the print is thoroughly washed the solution will produce only a very faint tea-colored stain, or possibly no stain at all. If it is inadequately washed, the solution will produce a rather dark tea-colored stain. To judge the stains accurately you should purchase a Kodak® Hypo Estimator, which costs about $3.
To use for film, cut off a small piece of film and drop it into the test solution for 3 minutes.
Properly washed films should show virtually no discoloration.
Now, I'm not saying you should test negatives that you want to print. Use a scrap for the test. However, if you are getting
a stain that doesn't washout (sic.), then you probably aren't washing well enough!
Yes, the silver nitrate will stain if you leave it on longer than the three-minute test time, but after three minutes, you should not be seeing much of a stain.
@Sirius,
You don't really need the wash before using the HCA; just transfer directly from the fix to the HCA tray. This practice is noted by Kodak in the directions and reduces the capacity of the HCA by about 50%. This is economical enough if you don't need the extra capacity for one session (HCA doesn't last longer than one session anyway) and you'll save the water used for the first wash.
If you are printing on fiber-base paper, then you need a much longer wash than 5 minutes after the HCA (30 min mininum, but I like 60). For RC paper, I would still use more than 5 minutes. Save water by controlling the flow rate and/or using a dump-fill regime. Taking one less shower a week will probably make up for lots of print washing...
FWIW, I transfer prints directly from fix 2 to the wash-aid tray, agitate there for 5-10 minutes and then transfer to the washer directly without an intermediate rinse and wash for 60 minutes minimum. This is for fiber-base papers.
Best,
Doremus
Best,
Doremus
