Repeated freeze/thaw

[C A Sugg]

I'm in the cheap seats as far as appliances are concerned. Yesterday I had to defrost the refridgerator for the 5th time this year. Food goes into coolers with gell packs. Photo materials, on the other hand, are allowed reach room temperature. (kept plastic wrapped to prevent condensation.)
Will those cycles degrade film structurally, of physically effect the emulsion?

 

[Sirius Glass]

Probably not since they did not get real hot, but in the future surround them by bags of ice.

Steve

 

[L Gebhardt]

I never had a problem thawing and refreezing film. Just protect it from condensation as you are doing.

 

[Venchka]

What would be wrong with treating the film the same as you treat the food? A cooler and blue ice.

 

[2F/2F]

Good question. I have always been curious about the possible bad effects of repeated freezing and thawing of film. I often take out more film than I use, and return the unused amount to the freezer.

 

[fschifano]

As long as condensation does not form, it's not a problem at all. Been there, and done that many times. Being a solid, film is already frozen at room temperature.

 

[marcmarc]

I was once told that in general it's not a good idea to freeze and thaw film several times over due to how materials in the film expand and contract with the repeated changes in temperature. The person telling me this didn't go into heavy detail about this, but it sounded plausible to me. I keep my film frozen and thaw overnight. Then, any film left over from a shoot goes into the refrigerator and gets used the next time. So far so good.

 

[Rich Ullsmith]

This might sound rather anal, but as I live in a high-humidity area like you C.A., I double-bag my paper boxes in the darkroom with a dehumidifier on, and thaw them the same way. When thawing, there is no condensation. I guess a dehumidifier is just another expense, and a good one isn't cheap but they are great to have around.