Water Temperature Control Panels, what's the deal

[Sean]

They don't look cheap. This is the cheapest I could find:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=2790&is=REG

I have never used or seen one of these so let me get this straight. You hook your hot and cold to it, then set a fixed temp of say 70degrees, then turn it on and the water stays at that temp?

 

[Loose Gravel]

That's the hope. I think there is a range of compliance based upon water pressure, flow rates, inlet temperatures for hot and cold. Read the fine print to make sure it is what you think. If everything is perfect, they can work. YMMV

 

[Nick Zentena]

Hopefully. But if you run out of hot water to heat your cold water. Or if your cold water is hotter then the needed temp.

Somebody makes or made a simple human controlled device. It attached to your faucet with a well to stick the thermometer. You adjusted the two taps until the temp was right then you shut the device off. The only thing it provided was a shutoff so you didn't have to change the taps and the well. Around $20 or so?

Or you can look for used panels. They might need a rebuild to fix any leaks.

Or you look for other ways off getting the water you need.

All depends on how much water and why.

 

[Peter Schrager]

Water Temp control

I've used a leedal unit with dual water outlets for a long long time now. It' off by 2 degrees but I know that. It will save you loads of time in the darkroom. Leedal has been around forever and supports their products. You can also buy direct. Mine has never needed repair.
Regards Peter

 

[Alex Hawley]

These jobs are a "feel good" contraption, IMO, and are guarenteed to absorb a chunk of money. Now if it would actually automatically regulate the water temperature, it would be a different story.

I get just as good performance holding the thermometer under the stream and tweaking it until it stabilizes. Once stablized, the temp hardly varies until someone flushes the toilet.

 

[photomc]

I agree with Alex, though my sink does have one, I do not use it since the temp of the water coming in is usually 70-75 F. If your water supply is lower and you do need to heat it, might consider a tank-less (on demand) water heater - some people do not like them, but a friend of mine has one in his barn and it can run for hours at the same temp.

 

[Sean]

This one the delta 25 looks to be set it and forget it temp control.

The reason behind investigating this is my household water is configured a bit strange. I have hot water coming via a water tank out back and a water pump, and a city line of cold water into the darkroom. It is extremely hard trying to get it stable..

 

[lee]

where Mike and I live the water is in the neighborhood of 92f in the summer out of the faucet and what we need is a chiller for the water. I have a chiller that I plan to install this winter on the cold water line and if I can afford a blender faucet I will install it at that time.

lee\c

 

[photomc]

Forgot Sean, you use rain water don't you. Is your hot water from a solar source? With the way your water is hooked up you might need some type of blender like Lee mentioned and then a heater if you need to have a specific temp.

 

[Sean]

right now the house is electric hot water, tank cold water both pumped from the tank. I had a cold city line put in only for the darkroom water, but am feeding off the pump ho****er tank for the darkroom ho****er. So it's a combination of the two in the darkroom..

 

[Bob F.]

I agree with Alex, though my sink does have one, I do not use it since the temp of the water coming in is usually 70-75 F. If your water supply is lower and you do need to heat it, might consider a tank-less (on demand) water heater - some people do not like them, but a friend of mine has one in his barn and it can run for hours at the same temp.

I use one of these heaters - marketed as a wash-room hand washer. Runs at 3kW so can be plugged in to the normal house ring main (in the UK at least). With the incoming water at 5deg C, outgoing water on mine can be at 40degC (the temperature is set by adjusting the water flow rate with the knob on the front). Higher wattage version are available but will need a separate electrical circuit. More complex versions are also available - this simple one was a fraction of the cost of a professional water controller.

As with any electrical equipment used near water, make sure you use an earth leakage (a.k.a. residual current) circuit breaker - or whatever they are called in your part of the world - 'Powerbreaker' is one trade name I know of.

Cheers, Bob.


Pic attached (really must move that inspection light...).

 

[wfwhitaker]

...You hook your hot and cold to it, then set a fixed temp of say 70degrees, then turn it on and the water stays at that temp?

There's another option in the Hass Intellifaucet. I have both a Hass and a mechanical temperature controller. They both seem to work pretty well. With the Hass, you set it to a specific discrete temperature and it holds it there. (Not sure you'd like that, though. It's digital or very nearly so... )

For any of the units to work to your advantage, your cold supply needs to be sufficiently colder than your processing temperature. If you use 68F or 70F, you may find times of the year in which you either can't use the controller or must use higher processing temps.

Having used both, I would seriously question the value of either for black & white work. I have a Zone VI compensating developing timer which pretty much negates the need for the temperature controllers. YMMV.

 

[Wally H]

I use a Hass unit on my JOBO ATL2000 processor. The only issue I have to deal with is that the unit does take some time to correct itself to the desired temp when the demand has been stopped and restarted after a few minutes (such as between chemicals). With my color processing it can be a problem so I have a seperate bleed going all the time when doing E6. For B&W it is not as much of an issue. Mechanical temp controls have the same issue.

I use mechanical temp controls on my sinks and once they are set correct they tend to keep things pretty close (for B&W work).

Some temp controls are built for low flow rates too, so insure you know which you need.

 

[zenrhino]

where Mike and I live the water is in the neighborhood of 92f in the summer out of the faucet and what we need is a chiller for the water. I have a chiller that I plan to install this winter on the cold water line and if I can afford a blender faucet I will install it at that time.

lee\c

Lee, I used to do quite a bit of homebrewing (of ales) and that's one area where you might find a bit of synergy for your waterchilling needs. Google for "counterflow wort chiller" and you should come up with a whole bunch of diagrams that are easy and cheap to make.

 

[kwmullet]

lack of chill

zenrhino,

I looked through a few designs of counterflow wort chillers, since I live in roughly the same area as Lee and have encountered similar problems with lack of chill in my water. I'm getting the impression that for this to work, the counterflow water must be cooler than the liquid you're attempting to cool. If the cold tap water is 90 degrees f, it doesn't seem possible to use the same 90 degree water to chill it.

-KwM-

 

[lee]

Thanks for the info zenrhino. I will google in the morning. Like I said I already have chiller box but it may need freon. I plugged it in and it runs but have not run water thru it yet. If I could get water to cool 10-15 degrees f that would get me closer than I am now. We will see.

lee\c

 

[Nick Zentena]

You can build a chiller very simply. The problem is how accurate will it be.

If you look for "Draft boxes" I think that's the right name in the US. You'll see a picnic cooler. Inside is a copper coil filling the space up. Around the coils you put ice water. The draft you want to cool flows in the coils.

How much your water temp drops will depend on the coils [use 1/4" copper coils] length. The speed you push the water in the coils. Slower will mean colder output temp. I guess a person could drop the water temp way down then bring it up with warm water.

I'm not sure how well this will work for the darkroom. The draft boxes are fine for providing ice cold beer at a picnic. Various wort chillers are great for dropping the temps at kettle knock out. But you might need an engineer to figure out how to make it work for the darkroom.

 

[jd callow]

right now the house is electric hot water, tank cold water both pumped from the tank. I had a cold city line put in only for the darkroom water, but am feeding off the pump ho****er tank for the darkroom ho****er. So it's a combination of the two in the darkroom..

The Wing lynch and the inteli-Something (can't remeber the name) are the only ones I know of that are truly set and forget. The former can be found on eby for a couple hundred (often with filters) the latter is a little rare and runs a little more.

jdc

 

[Stan. L-B]

It would be cheaper to get a S/H CPP2 & Water Filter!