Photo-Flo in the Developer? Hell Yes !!

I must be missing all of the fun.

Never had air bell problems, never had sticky reels. Stainless and plastic. What am I doing wrong?

Anyone try this with LFN?
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I've been using it for many, many years.

Paul Verizzo said:

I must be missing all of the fun.

Never had air bell problems, never had sticky reels. Stainless and plastic. What am I doing wrong?

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Same here. My developer is always a little foamy after agitation and rapping and I have never had a single air bell problem. Maybe the OP's water has something to do with it.

I don't get the reel thing at all. I Photo Flo my film on the reels, and quickly rinse them with cold tap water (like I do with everything), shake them off, and let them air dry at home, or blow them off with compressed air at school. Never had any sort of residue that caused "a significant increase in density on the edges of [my] negatives". (I am waiting for more on that statement...)

To be honest, I never had any problems with it either before I lived in Houston... Philly, Hartford, New York City, Baltimore, Peru... never a problem... That's why I think it has to do with the water here... we are not on city water - - we are on a local utility district system. But it has definitely been a problem for the past 15 years here. If the humidity is high and the plastic reels haven't been cleaned in a while, you will not get the film to load.

Is Photo-Flo the very same thing as AGEPON and can this also added to the developer?

Philippe

If the issue is about loading reels, I tried and quickly dropped any plastic reels that required you to "crank" one half while holding the other, with some device (often a small ball bearing) supposedly grabbing the film and shoving it into the spirals. Bent film, crappy action, grabby ball-bearings -- all a real pain. Stainless steel reels all the way, or plain non-rotating non-shoving plastic reels OK.

david b said:

Tried the pre-soak too. I've always done it that way.

Still the bubbles persist (ed).

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Likewise.

I have tried:

All manner of agitation methods
Distilled water for everything
Stainless steel reels
Presoak

leicam5 said:

Is Photo-Flo the very same thing as AGEPON and can this also added to the developer?

Philippe

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An old habit of mine has been to put a drop of Agepon in the lid of my roll film tanks prior to pouring in my pre-soak. I was taught this way 40 years back and continue, mainly from habit. I live in a northern USA climate with my darkroom being quite chilled in winter months. The pre-soak has continued, mostly for tempering reasons but this is my routine and I try to reduce variables, especially these easy ones.

I've tried to sort through the old beliefs that have rightly or wrongly persisted..... One that was told to me years back is that the wetting agent aided in better removing the anti-halation coating from medium format film, especially certain brands of the day. When I've tried checking this, I couldn't tell any difference and continue simply out of habit.

I have been told that putting plastic spirals in Bleach-fix (like some home kits have) will clean them.

Bleach fix has no ingredient that will enhance the ability of any photo flo like material to dissolve. Hot water or hot soapy water is best with a scrubbing pad.

As a note on reels, in my nearly 60 years of experience, I have used every kind of reel known to man and have found all to be good as long as you develop your technique for loading by practicing. I have always kept a roll of film around to practice with even when I have been doing it for so long. I sit and practice for a few minutes like warming up, before I go into the darkroom and do my work.

Perhaps this little warmup is important. It seems to work for me.

And, after processing, I always have a post process dishwashing session and then set my equipment out to dry.

PE

John Simmons said:

The problem with using Photo-Flo is that over time residue will build up on your reel and cause a significant increase in density on the edges of your negatives.

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I can't see how this happens if you are diligent about cleaning your equipment after use. A quick, but thorough, rinse in warm water is all that is needed to remove all traces of the stuff from tanks and reels. PhotoFlo is nothing more than a mild surfactant, far milder than any dish washing detergent I've seen. It makes me laugh when I see folks scrubbing away on their tanks and reels with household detergents because they're worried about PhotoFlo residue.