Storing aged paper, freeze or not?

@DrHSTGonzo · Aug 7, 2019

Hi all,
I have quite a bit of photo paper bought over the last couple years (enough to fit 11x14 & 16x20 in a large storage bin, & more than a file cabinet shelf of 8x10) The majority from e bay & private sellers along with some new stock. I've been working mostly with Lith printing, & buy up paper usable as it comes along.
Storage climate is ambient room temp on cement floor, around 70 - 75 F (max) I run a dehumidifier to keep the humidity down in the summer months.
I've looked up this on forums & found a little, but curious what others do. Is a chest freezer worth the investment? From Forte, Foma, Agfa MCC, Oriental Seagull (the old blue box ones) & others. Some 20-30+ years old. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks everyone!
Best,
- Ryan

Sirius Glass · Aug 7, 2019

I keep are unopened boxes of black & white and color paper in the refrigerator.

@DrHSTGonzo · Aug 7, 2019

I have space for film that I keep in my fridge, not much room for paper though. There's a chest freezer on sale right now. Since my budget is limited I've been going back & forth on the purchase. I thought I read somewhere when storing paper in fridge/freezer condensation on the paper should be avoided; needs to be wrapped properly?
@Sirius Glass Do you have a dedicated fridge for your supplies?

Alan9940 · Aug 8, 2019

I have stored B&W paper in a freezer for nearly 40 years without issue. I put each box in a ziplock bag and allow to come to room temperature before opening the plastic storage bag.

pentaxuser · Aug 8, 2019

It sounds as if the aged paper prior to purchase had not been stored in a freezer so key to whether such storage is now worthwhile will depend on the current state of the paper. OK I am stating the obvious and if you have plenty of space it may not matter but it might be worthwhile using part of each box's top sheet to see if there is signs of age fogging before srorage. If clear then great. If slightly fogged then not bad as benzo might do the trick when used but at least you will know the status of each box.

My understanding is that if paper is fogged then freezing will not reverse the process

I hope it is all good

pentaxuser

Ko.Fe. · Aug 8, 2019

I'm not rich enough to buy new paper. I'm not so rich enough even to have freezer for old cheap paper.

OGTrout · Aug 8, 2019

I keep my paper in a freezer, however the freezer isn't plugged in. It sits under the enlarger table and is simply a convenient place to keep it.

My partner has been asking when she'll get her freezer back though...

Peter Schrager · Aug 8, 2019

Ryan you can keep it in the freezer or in a cool place....depends where you live
all of the paper I sent to you was frozen

@DrHSTGonzo · Aug 8, 2019

Thanks you all for the responses. It would be a shame for the paper to start fogging before I had the chance to use it all. Considering what I've invested in paper, the common sense thing to do is keep it cold stored. I also started this thread partly because I couldn't find much on the subject. I try to look up advice before asking <perhaps a silly> question. I really appreciate the responses!

pentaxuser said:
My understanding is that if paper is fogged then freezing will not reverse the process

So would freezing halt the fogging? I have some precious MCC 118 that has a slight base fog. Still easily usable, but keeping the majority cold can't hurt.

M Carter · Aug 8, 2019

pentaxuser said:
My understanding is that if paper is fogged then freezing will not reverse the process

I don't believe anyone expects freezing or cold storage to reverse fog; just to stop or slow further fogging.

The OP specifically mentioned lith printing, where a fair amount of fog isn't visible in the final print (and actually seems to add tone with some papers). I buy up lots of discontinued lith papers myself and keep tossing around the idea of a chest freezer, but a freezer than can store 16x20 and 20x24 flat is pretty big.

Luckless · Aug 8, 2019

M Carter said:
I don't believe anyone expects freezing or cold storage to reverse fog; just to stop or slow further fogging.

The OP specifically mentioned lith printing, where a fair amount of fog isn't visible in the final print (and actually seems to add tone with some papers). I buy up lots of discontinued lith papers myself and keep tossing around the idea of a chest freezer, but a freezer than can store 16x20 and 20x24 flat is pretty big.

For such odd-ball use cases as freezing large films or papers, then it may almost make sense to look toward solutions like what you find used for marine applications: You purchase a coil and compressor kit that is a stand alone unit on its own, and then build an insulated box around that as the space and requirements demand.

[But so far I've stuck with the mindset of buy only what I'm planning to use in the next while, and avoid storing stuff for long enough to get much worse than when I bought it.]

Sirius Glass · Aug 8, 2019

@DrHSTGonzo said:
I have space for film that I keep in my fridge, not much room for paper though. There's a chest freezer on sale right now. Since my budget is limited I've been going back & forth on the purchase. I thought I read somewhere when storing paper in fridge/freezer condensation on the paper should be avoided; needs to be wrapped properly?
@Sirius Glass Do you have a dedicated fridge for your supplies?

At times I have been known to allow food to be stored in my refrigerator and freezer.

M Carter · Aug 9, 2019

Luckless said:
For such odd-ball use cases as freezing large films or papers, then it may almost make sense to look toward solutions like what you find used for marine applications: You purchase a coil and compressor kit that is a stand alone unit on its own, and then build an insulated box around that as the space and requirements demand.

[But so far I've stuck with the mindset of buy only what I'm planning to use in the next while, and avoid storing stuff for long enough to get much worse than when I bought it.]

I've got an unfinished closet-size space in my house where I've considered getting some sort of AC unit and insulating the space with foam board or something. But I've got a lot of 16x20 Ektalure, Agfa, some 20x24 PWT - holy-grail lith papers that are impossible to replace, and so far they're all in pristine shape. And I'm rebuilding the darkroom this fall to print very large, where I'd be buying paper in rolls, so - expensive!!! Still tossing around something like this, but it would be a fairly serious undertaking, so... I dunno...

@DrHSTGonzo · Aug 9, 2019

That's not a bad idea @Luckless about making a freezer, it would solve several issue's. One being like M Carter stated

M Carter said:
I buy up lots of discontinued lith papers myself and keep tossing around the idea of a chest freezer, but a freezer than can store 16x20 and 20x24 flat is pretty big.

Looking at the chest freezers, ideally the smallest possible size to go with is 7 cu ft. Which would fit 16x20+ sizes, but only on it's side, not laying flat. Didn't measure out the standing freezers that were hundreds of dollars more, but even those didn't look they are deep enough either to lay the paper flat.
The closet set up isn't a bad either.

Storing aged paper, freeze or not?

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