Temperature controller in Australia?

Can anyone recommend a water temperature controller that is available in Australia?

I'd look at the aquarium supply places. Started looking there quite a few years ago, but then went down the genuine photographic accessory road.

Kevin Caulfield said:

I'd look at the aquarium supply places. Started looking there quite a few years ago, but then went down the genuine photographic accessory road.

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I have looked at the possibility of using aquarium heaters to warm the rinse water BUT the highest temerature settings are 36 deg and I need 38 deg for E6 processing with my Jobo ATL2 plus (it alarms and stops if the wash temperature is too high or low) Anyone aware of a fish heater that goes higher than 36 deg?

Cheers Dave

There's a recent thread about this in the color forum: (there was a url link here which no longer exists). Hope this helps.

I just started using an aquarium heater in a cat box as a tempering bath for B&W chemicals. Once it's calibrated it works very well. I only use it to bring and maintain fixer to temperature - so absolute accuracy isn't critical. I also just replaced my old Econo-1 mixing valve with a thermostatic shower control. The Econo-Reg blew when I had to have the house winterized last year - which they do with compressed air!! It too works well - the only issue is that when you increase temperature it overshoots initially and you have to wait, (only a second or two) for it to stabilize. I use this to make up developer one-shot and as wash water for the prints.

Bob H

PS - I'm only doing B&W to my temp range is only 20 - 24 deg C.

In Australia are you trying to cool the water, heat the water, or both?

Cooling is more expensive. The cheapest way is to use re-usable freezer packs to put in and out of the water bath and regulate it manually.

For heating water, you could buy a photo heating element which is much more responsive than an aquarium heater and can maintain a higher temp. They go by different names - I recall Dev-Tec and Doran. They are available on the auction site for $10-50 depending on your luck. I have hoarded 4 of them at good prices.

You could also buy a new Photo-Therm water bath. I have one of those too and it works very well. It is a deep tray (various sizes) that has an attached water heating element and a circulation pump. Works fast and maintains a steady temp.

Kevin Caulfield said:

I'd look at the aquarium supply places. Started looking there quite a few years ago, but then went down the genuine photographic accessory road.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but I just assumed you were talking about temp control for colour processing? Maybe you are. But if it is just for B&W, you probably don't need anything fancy at all. Here in Melbourne, our cold water reached 26 C in the summer just gone. At the moment it is about 20 C, and in winter it will cool to about 16 C. Usually I would just use a water bath to heat it up to 20 C. In the summer, it generally doesn't get hotter than 24 C, which is usually okay, but in the summer we just had, I used ice cubes in water to cool the developer down from 26 C to 24 C or lower.