Water water everywhere............

shadesofgrey · Oct 24, 2006

Evening all. Distilled water seems to be disappearing fast around my neck of the woods (Hertfordshire UK) cant get any anywhere? Is Deionised as good or at least acceptable as a final rinse for my precious negs, or do I need to start building myself a still

All the best.
B.

avandesande · Oct 24, 2006

I dont know if you can get them so easy there but at Sears you can get a water distiller for less than 100$

gerald merrick · Oct 24, 2006

deionized

shadesofgrey said:
Evening all. Distilled water seems to be disappearing fast around my neck of the woods (Hertfordshire UK) cant get any anywhere? Is Deionised as good or at least acceptable as a final rinse for my precious negs, or do I need to start building myself a still

All the best.
B.

yes, that is what photo labs use, in their machines,
here in alamogordo new mexico

Alex Bishop-Thorpe · Oct 24, 2006

I've used filtered rain water for forever but I never assumed it was that good, but nothing's ruined yet. You can get something like 50 litres of distilled water here at a reasonable price, but I can imagine your own distilling machine would be the best bet. A one-off expense beats a recurring cost any day.
(Anyone else having some slight Beverly Hillbillies flashbacks talking about stills?)

Justin Cormack · Oct 24, 2006

deionised is fine I think.

But if you have still there are other posibilities. Though customs and excise may be round.

pentaxuser · Oct 24, 2006

If distilled water is your thing then l don't want to dissuade you but if you are finding it difficult to obtain then all I can say is that I have never experienced a problem with tap water( South Northants and Anglian Water) and then Ilford wetting agent and I live in an area where the limescale content of the water is high enough to warrant periodic kettle element tablets to keep the element clear of scale.

Hertfordshire might be worse of course but it would have to be pretty bad.

pentaxuser

Baxter Bradford · Oct 25, 2006

Deoinised is fine.

I too was in this predicament on the South Coast and fed up with continual need to source. My solution was to buy an aquarium sized reverse osmosis filter from a chap in germany selling on eb*y. Cost was about £50 inc extra Deoinising stage. Very easy to install.

I fill several old 2 litre milk containers with it when I do a water making session. Now use this pure water for mixing my E6, C41 and B+W chemicals as well as for appropriate final rinse in Stabiliser/Photoflo.

Tony Egan · Oct 25, 2006

I buy mine over here from a local after market car supplies shop in 5 litre containers quite cheap. Not sure if car vanity is big in Hertfordshire?

George Papantoniou · Oct 25, 2006

Do you have a room in your house where the air is more humid (the bathroom) ?? Buy a dehimidifier, place it in that room and collect the water from the dehumidifier tank for your final rinsing. It's distilled. You can even filter it through a coffee filter to avoid any possibility of dirt that could be in it (from the tank, or airborne dust).

Bob F. · Oct 25, 2006

You can happily substitute deionized for distilled. In theory, deionized is less pure than distilled as deionizing does not remove all non-ionic contaminants (such as organic ones).

In any event, I have been using battery top-up water (deionized) from Halfords in five litre bottles for a number of years now to mix DIY developers and for the final film rinse with good results. The main interest is the avoidance of salt deposits on the film as it dries, and deionized is as good as distilled for that.

Cheers, Bob.
.

titrisol · Oct 25, 2006

just wondering is the water from the condenser clother dryer I have would be pure enough?

Gerald Koch · Oct 25, 2006

Simply boiling the water for about 5 minutes and allowing it to sit overnight is sufficient for photographic purposes. This removes the temporary hardness (calcium) from the water. The clear solution can be decanted or the water filtered.

m_liddell · Oct 25, 2006

shadesofgrey said:
Evening all. Distilled water seems to be disappearing fast around my neck of the woods (Hertfordshire UK) cant get any anywhere? Is Deionised as good or at least acceptable as a final rinse for my precious negs, or do I need to start building myself a still

All the best.
B.

I used to live in Watford Herts. and the tap water there is really really bad!

I also use halfords batter topup water in 5L. Bit pricy though. You can also get it from tesco as water for irons in 2 or 3L bottles I think. Both work out to a similar price.

If you end up finding somewhere cheap PLEASE pass this on!

shadesofgrey · Oct 25, 2006

Wow! So many knowledgeable and helpful advisors; if only our dear PM were so graced:rolleyes: My wallet says thank you, one and all, for all the friendship the advice and the saving of hard cash as in buying and or building a still. Ill try Geralds tip as I have a Brita type water filter already and If I come across a cheap source of distilled/demonised water (UK) Ill post the details. Once again, thanks to all.
B.

buze · Oct 26, 2006

I'm also interested in distilled water.. All I can find around here is deionised!

George Papantoniou · Oct 27, 2006

titrisol said:
just wondering is the water from the condenser clother dryer I have would be pure enough?

I don't think so. I tried to filter it in order to get rid of the minuscule fibers it contains from the friction of the clothes, and still it seems that it contains some chemicals from the soaps and clothes softeners, since it smells strange.

A dehumidifier works better since (if the air is clean and free from smog and smoke) it condenses clean humidity from the air. Some dust it might contain can easily be filtered.

Dave Miller · Oct 27, 2006

In summer, when it’s hot and sticky, I collect the condense water from my darkroom a/c unit. At other times I use a Brita water filter jug. This is enough since I use tap water for everything except mixing developer, and the final film rinse.

Stoo Batchelor · Oct 27, 2006

Hi

I too live in Hertfordshire, so probably have the same water supply as you (crud filled). Before having my own reverse Osmosis system fitted, I used to pop along to my local tropical fish centre and pay about 75p for 5 ltrs. Alternatively, your local chemist should be able to order in purified water for you, though this is a much more expensive option (about £3.50 for 5 ltrs).

Regards

Stoo

Tony Egan · Oct 30, 2006

Good tip Stoo - There is an aquarium store just down the road from me! Ta

shadesofgrey · Oct 30, 2006

Hi Buze, yep, Demonised seems to be the in thing for some reason, maybe its cheaper to produce? Hi Stooo, yep, real crud in Herts, and Thames waters laughing all the way to the bank (no pun intended) As to Local tropical fish centre. Interesting idea Now purified water was offered as a sub after our local chemist ordered distilled for me saying No problemo, get it all the time. Well, he dont now as it seems his suppler doesnt feel theres enough demand in our area? Our helpful chemist gave me a bottle of (get this) H2O Sterile water to try, £1.00 a ltr! Same price as Purified around here! Not tried it yet though reading the label was interesting Do not use if not clear. Do not replace cap after opening. Discard unused portion. Do not heat above 65 deg Cel. Ive been using my Clone Brita filter and then added Geralds tip about boiling the water first; works well, no marks, doesnt seem to leave the film with that sparkle though: maybe I put a drop ofLemonade in it next time All the best to one and all.
B.

Gary Holliday · May 17, 2007

I'm also using the De-ionised Halford's battery top up water. My question is, how long does this last? Can it be re-used after the film rinse?

kb244 · May 17, 2007

Gary Holliday said:
I'm also using the De-ionised Halford's battery top up water. My question is, how long does this last? Can it be re-used after the film rinse?

Wouldn't re-using the water after a rinse defeat the purpose of using pure water in the first place? And it's water... just deionized.... it'll last for as long as you don't contaminate it or let it evaporate.

Lowell Huff · May 17, 2007

We add "anti-cals" and water softeners to our formulas so that you can use tap water. Clayton Chemical

Gary Holliday · May 17, 2007

People were complaining about the expense and installing expensive stills when I can re-use the water a few times and still get spotless negs - that's all.

kb244 · May 17, 2007

I was talking to the store crumudgeon about this thread, and he had this little story for me.

Back in 1974 there was a lab in the area called LeClaire color Labs which did all the work for LeClaire Studios. LeClaire was "the" premium color lab, they did just about everything and even worked with kodak to come up with the dye transfer process. Anyways he was in there talking to one of the techs and out of curiousity asked him "Do you guys use distilled water for your chemistry", the guy replies "god no, never, we use city water", "huh? Why is that?" , "because city water is always the same, always consistant, with distilled water its never the same from batch to batch the chemicals in it may change, may not have the minerals anymore but the chemistry is never the same mix in distilled water, least with city water its always the same and I know exactly how the orders will come out from day to day, week to week, year to year.".

So in a manner of speaking just using tap is far more consistent than using distilled water for chemistry. As far as rinsing and drying, guess you can go either way, using distilled or deionized for rinsing/washing/drying, I just typically use tap with a wetting agent, but I am also using city water from the tap and I haven't had a problem in quite some time.

Water water everywhere............

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