Jobo CPP-3 Unboxing & Installation Experience

[Sirius Glass]

This summer I finally decided to go ahead and order myself a Jobo CPP-3. After patiently waiting through 3 months backorder and slow shipping, it finally arrived a few days ago. Since there really aren't any unboxing videos of it out there, I decided to make one myself. I should also add that I'm in the US, and thus I bought my unit from CatLabs and it shipped with a US electrical plug.
(I actually ended up shooting the unboxing and setup, splitting it into two separate videos that are linked below.)

Unboxing:


Installation & Testing:


You could actually say that wanting a space to put this thing was a big part of my motivation to build a darkroom in the first place, so I see this machine as a major milestone in my photographic adventures.

I've also learned a few important things about the process, which I'd like to share below:

• The water overflow hose connection ships with a T-connector, which should probably be replaced with (or kludged into) an upward-facing elbow connector.
• The overflow/drain hoses should be 3/4" inside diameter, and probably need hose clamps to prevent any minor leaking (including the short length between the overflow connector and the T-joint that ships on it)
• The cold water inlet is a 3/4" BSPP thread connection, which isn't a thing in the US. You can connect a normal US garden hose to it, but it will leak. You need to buy a 3/4" BSPP (female) to NPT (male) adapter to make this work without leaks, and that adapter is probably something you'll need to special order. (Links included in the 2nd video's description.)
• When the heater is engaged, I measured just under 800W of power draw

Thank you for posting and starting this thread. A CPP2 user.

 

[Michael Mutmansky]

Here's the proper adapter to go from BSPP to NTP from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09W8W3L3Y?th=1

You still need the NTP to HB adapter that was linked on the Zoro site very early in the thread. They don't seem to be readily available on Amazon or from home centers (the ones I found were the wrong gender). I didn't see an adapter to go from BSPP to HB directly without taking the two-step approach. It's possible they are out there.

 

[arespencer]

I'm actually looking at getting a CPE-3 to use mainly as a rock solid RA4 developing workflow for 11x14 prints. Curious if you guys would recommend going that route for what im intending to do. Wondering if that would make the process much easier and more consistent or would it be spending a lot of money for something I can do with a sous vide and rollers since im only doing RA4 prints.