Washmaster Eco - separators bending

Hi all

I recently got in trouble with my washmaster eco. The separators started to bend, sometimes causing to close the gap so I can't put any print or out.

If I want to take out the side panel to let the water flow out, it's stuck because of the force that is applied to it by the separators. This worked fine before... it's brand new. When it starts to bend, eventually it comes out the slot on the bottom.

Any ideas? See attachment.

Are the dividers in the slots on the bottom? If not, that could allow more bending.

Sirius Glass said:

Are the dividers in the slots on the bottom? If not, that could allow more bending.

Click to expand...

Yep! They come out after a while because of the bending. I emailed Nova Darkroom too about this. Only got this unit for a month. brand new..

Well, you can use a piece of tubing to siphon water out of the washer and drain it. I don't know what is causing the inserts to bend. I'm not familiar with the design of the Nova washers and can't seem to find anything on the net easily... Have you contacted the company/customer service/dealer?

I'd be interested to hear what Nova says, I've often seen the same problem on mine. Doesn't happen all the time though, so I wonder if it's temperature related.

Doremus Scudder said:

Well, you can use a piece of tubing to siphon water out of the washer and drain it. I don't know what is causing the inserts to bend. I'm not familiar with the design of the Nova washers and can't seem to find anything on the net easily... Have you contacted the company/customer service/dealer?

Click to expand...

ITD said:

I'd be interested to hear what Nova says, I've often seen the same problem on mine. Doesn't happen all the time though, so I wonder if it's temperature related.

Click to expand...

The bending is temperature related, I took very hot water and saw the separators bending today, after they were quite hot I put them on eachother with a weight on it. So I guess, it starts bending if temperatures change (ambient and water temperature). At first my seperators were just fine, but now they were suddenly too big.
Nova answered with a rather odd solution, but it works. They say they make every unit by hand and have to file down the seperators / inserts if it's a tight fit. Because of temperature changes, the material can expand causing a tight fit which makes it bend. I filed down the edges by only .5mm or so and it slides in perfectly. No more bending!

Quoting the email:

Hi Jesse

Each unit is hand made and so there are small variations in each washer. If we find panels slightly too tight then we would simply use a file along the edge of the panel whilst lay on a flat worktop and just slightly overhangs the side. Just file down the side 10 to 15 times then test if it fits better. Repeat if necessary.

This should fix the problem.

Kind regards,

Click to expand...

That was going to be my next suggestion.

So, now you know not to use hot water to wash your prints