I'm being evicted! - (Refrigerator suggestions)

[Mark_S]

My wife is a fiber artist, and her studio sits above where my darkroom space is in the basement. I am in the process of adding some space to my darkroom, essentially adding a second room which will have my print dryers, a dry mount press, a large light table, and a large table for cutting mats.
My wife has a refrigerator in her studio where she keeps various chemicals that she uses in her art. I keep some stuff in there too, and have recently been informed that I am taking up too much space, and I should put a 'fridge in my new space for my film and paper. To be fair, I am using over half of the space in the existing 'fridge. Currently I have in the fridge:
3 boxes of 8x10 film
3 boxes of 4x5 film
4 or 5 bricks of MF film
4 boxes of 8x10 paper
2 boxes of 11x14 paper
1 box of 16x20 paper.

I also have a fair amount of paper, not refrigerated in my darkroom, and with space, I would probably keep that in the fridge too.

My question is - what should I be looking for in a fridge to be used specifically for film and paper? I have been using a fridge, would a small freezer be better? - are there differences in the humidity inside the 'fridge, do I care about humidity?

 

[Nick Zentena]

Chest freezer IMHO.

 

[Pinholemaster]

I'd get a fridge / freezer combo, unless you need to freeze a lot of material.

good 18cf, or larger, if you have the space in the new edition.

Get a frost free style freezer. I wish I did.

 

[Michael W]

I'm looking for the same thing at the moment. Here's one thing I have discovered - I only wanted a small unit, say 100 liters. However small fridges & freezers are not frost free, at least those available in Sydney. I'll end up buying something bigger than I want because I don't want the headache of having to defrost a couple of times a year.

 

[copake_ham]

I'm looking for the same thing at the moment. Here's one thing I have discovered - I only wanted a small unit, say 100 liters. However small fridges & freezers are not frost free, at least those available in Sydney. I'll end up buying something bigger than I want because I don't want the headache of having to defrost a couple of times a year.

To follow on Goldie's comments - I think you'll also find that small fridge/freezers are not nearly as energy efficient as larger ones. So a bigger unit may both provide the frost-free (a necessity IMHO) but also be no bigger of an energy consumer.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

Dead Link Removed

 

[Nick Zentena]

If you stock any bigger paper you'll enjoy chest freezer more then any fridge.

 

[Mike Wilde]

then the chest freezer gets too small

I have been on a PAS - paper aquistion syndrome!

I bought out a lot of a fellow darkroomer, who had lots of 16x20 and a few 20x24 envelopes with a few sheets in each, Add to the freezer, already about a third full of film and paper. Then I dropped by the usual local camera store, came home with 4x the 1 -100 sheet 8x10's I originally set out to buy, and a sheet 25 envelope as well. Now I've won a 288' roll fo RA4, and maybe a second one. Looks like I will have to get into pie and jam making mode to move some of the strawberries out of the freezer. Soon winter will be here, and then I can leave the paper rolls in the garage intil March, to allow me to get to items in the bottom of the freezer!

 

[John Kasaian]

Make sure you have enough space for wine and beer!

 

[dancqu]

Make sure you have enough space for wine and beer!

While we are on the subject of wine and beer, a thermoelectric
unit may do. Light weight, no noise, build to size. Shop the WWW
for thermoelectric cells to fit your needs. Dan

 

[Mike Wilde]

Cold Cellar - now why did I not think of that

I have the wine taken care of - I have made other postings of my home food preservation efforts. There is enough put by in the cold cellar to keep us in 4 meals a week til springtime. About 45 bottles of wine in there also. I'm not a beer fan, but also put by is 5L of home made vodka (sometimes I even use about 50mL to add to the photo flow final rinse when I want a speedy dried dust free film. I should start keeping my B&W (and in Jan - Mar color too) paper in there - kind of a half way betwen the darkroom and the freezer. It would be below 50F, yet not have the warm up times that stright from the deep freze presents. My cellar has a concrete floor and is not damp; otherwise I might get concerned about mold into the envelopes, etc.