chriwurz
Hello,
My darkroom is a very small bathroom, which I go to great lengths to adapt every two months so that I can work comfortably for a few days. All in all, I’m quite happy with this solution. However, what is always extremely annoying is how the small, windowless bathroom heats up, especially when I’ve fitted my Axomat with a 150W bulb. But even with a 75W bulb, it soon becomes uncomfortably stuffy and warm, and apart from the fact that working becomes a struggle, the developer regularly heats up to 24–25 degrees.
I’m wondering what options I have for keeping the developer temperature reasonably constant at 20 degrees (I can’t afford an expensive bath thermostat). I’ve tried adding ice cubes from time to time, but I’m not sure if that’s a very good solution. Does anyone have any ideas? Any experience? The golden tip?
Which paper developers are least susceptible to temperature fluctuations?
Many thanks in advance for your contributions!
Best regards,
Christian
Gast
Hi Christian,
One option would be to heat the developer in the water bath straight away to 24–25 °C and work at a higher temperature. To do this, simply place the bottle containing the prepared developer into a suitable measuring jug filled with hot water. If necessary, you could reduce the development time slightly. In any case, it’s better to be too warm than too cold; below 20 °C the process becomes very slow, if it works at all. By the way, with a temperature control unit or a processor, you can only heat the water to keep the temperature constant, not cool it. Another way to maintain a consistently high temperature would be to place the developer tray in a water bath with an aquarium heater.
Regards, Sven.
MirkoBoeddecker
...but remember: warm developer = potentially different tonal range!
If you’re already working in the bathroom, why not cool it down with tap water?
That’s how professional tank systems do it too.
Fill a large bowl with cold water and place the small developer tray inside.
I wouldn’t recommend dilution with ice cubes.
Mirko
