Jobo film dryer

I picked up a whole lot of darkroom equipment yesterday for a very low price and in with the boxes of (unopened!) goods there is a metal box labeled Jobo with a fan inside and long vinyl column attached. I assume it is for drying film. Has anyone any experience with these devices? It all works fine but I am trying to work out whether it is worth the effort and risk, since film drys just fine hanging in my shower.

It's a nice unit but I admit that I never turn on the heating element/fan. I do use because it keeps the negatives dust free when they are most vulnerable.

I would suggest testing it first with either unimportant negs or an unexposed but developed roll. The reasoning for this is wile i was doing photography in high school if you used the heating element and walked away it would melt (deform) the top of the roll. strangely never had dust problems.
I am not completely sure that the cabinet was a jobo though, high school was many years ago.

If it is a Mistral dryer i'd be interested in it if you don't want it, though I see your location; shipping may be more than it is worth.

I have the Durst equivalent, and it's very handy. You might want to look at the filter and see whether it needs replacing.

It sounds like the modell we had at the university photo lab before they closed it down. Very usefull, since the film dried in minutes, also never had problems with melting film, I always had the heater on. And with the buildin filter, dust was no problem either.

Same experience as Chazzy so what he said.

pentaxuser

Same as Geek. I have two of them - one take from our newspaper office when we went digital and the second in my home darkroom. That one gets used several times a week, always with the heat on, and works wonderfully. No dust and quick drying

I have the Durst equivalent and it works well

I get clean dust free Negs with it - which I never managed to do before I bought mine.

You can still buy them new - but they are getting rare - http://www.novadarkroom.com/product/333/Jobo_Mistral_Film_Drying_Unit.html

I always turn my unit on (heat off & fan on) to blow any dust out of the tent for about 30+mins before I use it - just in case

Whether you need to warm the air to speed up drying your negs will depend upon local atmospheric conditions, I have trouble drying my films in less than an hour without the use of some heat in warm humid conditions.

I start the drying process by just blowing unheated air for 20mins then put the heater on low for another 20 mins - which works for me

YMMV

Of course you could just use the thing as a drying tent and not use the fan or fan+heater

Martin