Wet side / water panel photo's

[MurrayMinchin]

Hi there,

I'm going to start plumbing in the wet side of my darkroom in a couple months, and could use a little insight and/or inspiration!

What did you do? Would you do it differently next time? What works well, what doesn't? Please post photo's (digi-snaps will do) if you can.

Murray

 

[Bob Carnie]

If you are looking for precision water temp control then a Wing Lynch panel is great.
for the rest you could use simple water shower panels and a themometor placed after the panel.
Simple is better IMO

 

[mgb74]

I'm in the process of setting mine up, so I can give you my thoughts rather than proven ideas. I plan to use 2 brass valves (hot and cold) join them together and into a filter. After the filter I'll have an inline thermometer. After the thermometer, I'll distribute to right and left side of my 6 ft sink (I have a "regular" faucet mounted in the center of the sink for non-critical stuff). I'll use a brass valve with male hose fitting to turn water off and on to each of the 2 outputs. I'll use a nylon barb adapter and have 3/8" ID hose available for each.

I'll be using copper and brass fittings. I use the type of brass valves with rubber washers (yes, they'll need to be replaced every few years) as opposed to gate valves as they give finer control. I use the 2 brass values rather than a shower valve. My feeling is that shower valves, unless very good (and expensive ones) don't seem to give a fine enough control over temp. On the other hand, shower valves are often pressure compensated so might be better if your water pressure fluctuates when someone flushes the toilet or turns on cold water.

I have a "master" full port ball valve on each line that shuts off all water.

I put the thermometer after the filter and close to the output valves so it will read as close as possible to the output temp. But still easy to read with one hand on the hot and cold valves. I'm on well water, so I'll install a 5 micron particulate filter (I have a whole house filter, so this is probably redundant).

I thought about a used Wing Lynch unit that was available locally. But it had been pulled from a pro darkroom a while ago and I could not be sure it would work. I don't think it's economical to repair those.

Here's a picture of the Delta commercial unit: Dead Link Removed

There is another unit I've seen that does use a shower valve. It's about US$100. Can't find the link to it right now.

 

[ROL]

A walk on the wet side.

 

[Bob Carnie]

You can buy the guts or kits for the Wing Lynch if yours is sketchy
by far they are the best control units that I have personally used.
Ours is hooked up to our film process unit and has given us 15 years of stellar service.

I'm in the process of setting mine up, so I can give you my thoughts rather than proven ideas. I plan to use 2 brass valves (hot and cold) join them together and into a filter. After the filter I'll have an inline thermometer. After the thermometer, I'll distribute to right and left side of my 6 ft sink (I have a "regular" faucet mounted in the center of the sink for non-critical stuff). I'll use a brass valve with male hose fitting to turn water off and on to each of the 2 outputs. I'll use a nylon barb adapter and have 3/8" ID hose available for each.

I'll be using copper and brass fittings. I use the type of brass valves with rubber washers (yes, they'll need to be replaced every few years) as opposed to gate valves as they give finer control. I use the 2 brass values rather than a shower valve. My feeling is that shower valves, unless very good (and expensive ones) don't seem to give a fine enough control over temp. On the other hand, shower valves are often pressure compensated so might be better if your water pressure fluctuates when someone flushes the toilet or turns on cold water.

I have a "master" full port ball valve on each line that shuts off all water.

I put the thermometer after the filter and close to the output valves so it will read as close as possible to the output temp. But still easy to read with one hand on the hot and cold valves. I'm on well water, so I'll install a 5 micron particulate filter (I have a whole house filter, so this is probably redundant).

I thought about a used Wing Lynch unit that was available locally. But it had been pulled from a pro darkroom a while ago and I could not be sure it would work. I don't think it's economical to repair those.

Here's a picture of the Delta commercial unit: Dead Link Removed

There is another unit I've seen that does use a shower valve. It's about US$100. Can't find the link to it right now.

 

[Mark Fisher]

I made up my own based on a Delta mixing valve. The mixing valve failed and the rebuild kit was crazy expensive. I had Leedal make up one to my specs (one hot, two tempered outlets with thermometer) and I found that it was a good investment. It works and really wasn't all that expensive.