Rinse Water Temperature

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JFoley
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2021 2:53 pm

Rinse Water Temperature

Post by JFoley »

Hi All,

I tried to search for this information but was unsuccessful.

I'm getting back into doing B&W film development. In my youth rinse water temperature was not a problem living in the northeast. The tap water was cold and you just mixed in a little hot water to get in the ballpark. Now I live in Florida and it is summer. My tap water is 84 degrees F on a good day. I get that the point is not to shock the film emulsion with a big swing in temperature but anything near 84 is way too warm for developer. So for rinse water how warm is too warm and what can I do about it? From experience, how much of a step change can typical film emulsion handle? Thanks for any advice.

Jim

Ornello
Posts: 882
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:49 am

Re: Rinse Water Temperature

Post by Ornello »

Put some water in the refrigerator, and use that when the temp is right.

joncallas
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri May 14, 2021 11:02 pm
Location: California
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Re: Rinse Water Temperature

Post by joncallas »

I pour my developer into a graduated cylinder, and then put that into a 5 liter pitcher, that I make an ice bath in. A couple inches of water with the ice and let it cool down. I tend to use the bath water along with my wash cycle after fixing.

JFoley
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2021 2:53 pm

Re: Rinse Water Temperature

Post by JFoley »

Thanks but the problem is the temperature of the rinse water, not the temperature of the chemicals. It's easy to make a few pints of chemicals any temperature I want. But it's not so easy to cool down enough water to wash film or prints. So my solution right now for film is to make the developer exactly 70 degrees F, the stop bath about 75, and the fixer near 80. Then the rinse water from the tap is usually near 80 or just above. So I figure that's got to be gradual enough not to shock the emulsion too badly. Seems okay so far.

photoronto
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun May 08, 2022 1:45 pm

Re: Rinse Water Temperature

Post by photoronto »

In washing, what you want to avoid is shocking the gelatinous in the emulsion with very cold water. The sudden contraction of gelatine in very cold water can render permanent damage to the structure of the emulsion. Likewise, extremely hot temperatures must be avoided to avoid any separation of any layer (s) of the emulsion. In an ideal world, all bath and wash temperatures would be within 1/2 degree C. However, in my sixty years of experience in photography, I have never seen a problem if the wash temperature remains well below what you might call 'very hot.' (80C+) In fact, wash water that is a little warm will help wash your film and paper more quickly, as any chemistry in the product will dissolve into the wash water more quickly.

In other words, don't worry about it.

TomR
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2022 7:42 pm

Re: Rinse Water Temperature

Post by TomR »

I, too, live in Florida and have thought a bit about this topic.

One approach that I've adopted these last few months, with good results, is to maintain a gallon or two of water at my nominal processing temperature, which is 24 degrees C or about 75 degrees F. Thus, all liquids are maintained at this temperature. After a five minute fix bath and drain instead of performing a five to ten minute rinse in running water, I use a hypo clearing agent, then use Ilford's wash sequence: fill the tank with rinse water (from the reserve, thus at temperature), perform five inversions, drain, re-fill the tank, perform ten inversions, and lastly re-fill the tank with fresh water and perform twenty inversions. I follow up with distilled water and PhotoFlo (one or two drops per tank). Using this procedure, a one gallon reserve is sufficient for a two reel Paterson tank.

Of course, I've only been using this procedure for the last six months or so ... we might not know for years how "archival" it is ... .

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