washer question

I was looking at the old "Washer" posts in this section of the forum.
There was a link to and several discussions about an extensive article (I think on a British Film Forum) about "washing".
After air, water is the thing we need most.
Not that it should matter, but.....I live in California, where many of us, anymore, refuse to waste water on our front lawns.
Looks like a print washer can use about 1/2 gallon of water per minute to create the needed suction.?
For a guy that is just getting going, and has A LOT to learn about printing.....might I make-do with just using a tray and washing one or two prints at a time with 4-5-6 washes, and use a lot less water.?
Any other California printers here...how do you guys feel about print washers and water.?
Thank You

People often have the water's flow rate set too high when the wash prints or films.

The Kodak recommendation is to have sufficient flow to ensure one full change of water each 5 minutes.

If you use a washaid like HCA, Kodak's recommendation is for a 10 minute wash, so if you are using a tray it only needs about 2 - 3 trayfuls of water in that 10 minutes.

The Kodak Automatic Tray Siphon can help with that.

In case anyone is interested the article mentioned above is here it is in two parts, it was written by Martin Reed of Silverprint in the Uk.

BarryWilkinson said:

In case anyone is interested the article mentioned above is here it is in two parts, it was written by Martin Reed of Silverprint in the Uk.

Click to expand...

If you read Martin's great article carefully, you will see that he demonstrates that a couple of prints can be effectively washed in a tray with changes of water. It is more efficient in terms of water usage but not in terms of the time you need to devote to it.

Bests,

David.
www.dsallen.de

Money is the thing I seem to need most.

For RC and FB I use an 11"x14" archival print washer for thirty minutes with the water level held constant will a very low water input. I also use HCA.

I use a archrival print washer for FB, I have it set up to give a complete wash with out a wash aid in an hour, with Perma Wash, like Sirius Glass, in a 1/2 hour. But you also use soak and dump, Ilford has information on it's web site, I think it is 6 changes of water, 20 mints per soak? But if I am in a time crunch I use my old drum washer, it uses a lot of water, with Perma Wash I can wash non archival in 10 mints.

I live in the Central Valley in California and I have the same concerns about using water for washing prints. First off, using RC paper can save a lot of water vs fiber based paper. I prefer FB paper so I got an archival print was. But using HCA and short fix times can go long way in saving water. Here's a link on print washing.

http://www.film-and-darkroom-user.org.uk/forum/printthread.php?t=296

Once Again.....Thanks for all of the Info/Advice.
Considering my current level of "expertise", the number of prints involved, and using RC paper.....I should be fine with using the tray method to start.
Thanks Again