Is 80f too warm to develop?

[subtlelikeatrex]

Hi folks. I’ve been developing my B&W film at home again for the past couple months and, for the most part, am enjoying the process along with the cost savings.

The issue:
My “cold” tap water comes out of the faucet at 79.5°f here in Hawaii. I have been using a plastic storage tub to create an ice-water bath to bring everything down to ~68°, which works but it’s a bit of a pain to do so often.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that my tap water is also very hard. (When I tried to do my final wash with it, the negatives came out very spotty even with the use of Photo-Flo.)
I now use distilled water to mix with my developer and to do the final wash and photo-flo.

So that means I have;
A one-gallon bottle of tap water for stop bath and for the first part of the final wash (fill & dump immediately 3 or 4 times),
A one-gallon bottle of distilled water to dilute my Xtol and for the final wash and wetting agent,
A 1-liter bottle for my developer,
A 900ml bottle for my fixer, all sitting in the water bath. Juggling the timing of getting everything to the right temp is taxing. While I don’t get too precise about everything being at the exact same temperature, I do try to keep the water jugs and developer within a degree of each other. The fixer I will allow to be within a few degrees of the rest but since I’m going through all the effort I usually get to about the same temperature anyway.

All that being said, is 80° an acceptable temperature for everything to be at? I know there are time/temp conversion charts but some don’t show 80°. When I googled it, the AI result says it’s not recommended but these new AI search results are often wrong.

So what is your experience? Do any of you live in the tropics and deal with 80° water?

I’m thinking of getting an aquarium chiller so I can let the machine do the work for me so I don’t have to keep screwing around with ice cubes… and hot water when I let certain things get too cold.

Thanks,
José

 

[pbromaghin]

All of the Ilford developer data sheets recommend no higher than 79f. The Morgan & Morgan Darkroom Book has a recipe for a special tropical developer Kodak D-15. They recommend it for temps as high as 95f

 

[mshchem]

No worries. Way back when a hardening bath was required to prevent damage to the gelatin (emulsion) of the film. Consider the temperatures used for color processing.

Also you can develop at 75°F and wash in warmer temperatures.

Avoid developing times so short (under 4 minutes) that you get frazzled.

Using diluted developers, like D-76 1+1, XTOL 1+1, helps to stretch out the time.

 

[reddesert]

I live in the Southwest US. It is hot in the summer, both the room and my tap water are warm, and my tap water is very hard. It's fine to drink, but it's rather hard for film developer.

I mix developer stock solution with room temperature distilled water. This is say 82 F. I usually use a 1:1 working solution, and while diluting I put some tap water ice cubes or tap water that has chilled in the refrigerator in it as part of the dilution. This makes it easy to bring down to about 75 F, which is well within the range of developing charts and so on. 80 F would probably be okay, but it is not hard to hit 75 F. I don't care about mixing some tap water into the developer working solution: it's usually less than half, and even a half-distilled, half-very-hard solution is only mildly hard. If I really wanted to fuss over this, I could chill a gallon of distilled water in the fridge, and use that plus room temp water to make a full distilled solution.

I use tap water for the stop, fix, wash-aid, and water wash. I figure 80-85 F is fine for those. I haven't had any issues due to the hardness. I also do not worry about modest temperature changes like moving film from a 75 F to an 85 F solution, especially not with a modern emulsion.

I use room temp distilled water for the last stage, the Photo-Flo. I don't squeegee, just hang it up to dry.

 

[ags2mikon]

I have used 80 degrees with T-Max films with out problems. Not Foma though. You will have to dilute your developer, otherwise the times get too short.

 

[retina_restoration]

I keep cold distilled water in the fridge and use it to mix water to a reasonable temperature immediately before starting processing film.

 

[albireo]

I keep cold distilled water in the fridge and use it to mix water to a reasonable temperature immediately before starting processing film.

This. I do the same.

 

[abruzzi]

Right now cold comes out of my tap at about 32C (90F). So the very first thing I do is mix up my developer and stick in in the freezer. Then I get the film holders, and dev tank, go in my darkroom and load them. Then I fill it with water as a pre wash (the 32C water). My other chemicals are room temp which in the summer if 25C (77F) but I since those run to completion, and modern film seems really hard to reticulate, I just use it as-is. Usually by the time all the prep is done the dev is close to 20C. I only use distilled water for the the last photo-flo bath.

 

[mwdake]

Where I lived until last year the tap water would get to 84F.
As the interior of my house was usually around 75. If the tap water was above 80F I would just fill a jug of water and leave it on the counter for a few hours before mixing up my developer.
Once it was below about 80F I’d be good to go and adjust the development time according to the Ilford chart.
What is the temperature in your house, could you try the same?
Now that I’ve moved I have the opposite problem.