Reducing Chemical Smells from Developers & Fixers

[raydm6]

I live in a small townhouse with 7 other units and have gotten the itch to process my own B&W film soon. My worry is about the strength of the chemical odors from the developer and fixer and how to mitigate them as much as possible.

My upstairs bathroom where I will develop vents into my attic (which is sealed from the other units and is also vented to the outside).

My plan is to shoot Tri-X, develop in Diafine, and fix with something I haven't decided on yet.

Questions I have are:
1. How strong is Diafine's chemical odor?
2. What fixer would you recommend with Diafine and is there one that again, doesn't carry too strong an odor.

I just want to avoid stinking out my neighbors 😉.

Personally, I always liked the smell as I was walking past a lab in a school or pro shop 😀.

After development, my plans are just to scan to my PC for now (once I figure out what scanner to get).

Thanks in advance.

- Ray

 

[chris91387]

it's the stop bath and fixer that smell the most. i think diafine recommends a water stop bath anyways. thus, you need to find a fixer that doesn't smell much and i've never encountered any that don't smell.

if you're only processing negs you will be using a small quantity which will always be in a sealed container. it wont be like printing where you have large open trays of chemicals for hours on end.

 

[Svitantti]

Use citric acid instead of vinegar-stuff for stop (or use water) and get some "neutral" or mildly alkaline fixer that doesnt smell like agefix etc.

Then you should have no problems. I dont think developers smell much at all and the alkalifix I got doesnt smell either, unless my nose is very close to the stuff 🙂.

Max-Stop does smell and even irritate my nose and throat, but citric acid -based stop doesnt smell at all so that I would have noticed.

 

[charjohncarter]

I buy odorless from Freestyle Photo.

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/6200-...xer-32-oz.-concentrate-to-make-2.5?cat_id=303

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/6511-...s-Stop-Bath-16-oz.-Makes-4-Gallons?cat_id=302

 

[back alley]

try a small air cleaner in the room, keeps the dust down too.

 

[srichmond]

none of these realy have such a strong smell. Personally, I quite like the smell of fixer 🙂

 

[shadowfox]

I have tried both Clayton fixer and Silvergrain fixer, both marketed as "odorless", but there is some faint (not overpowering) at all. Both are available through freestyle.

Also thankfully, it's not the kind that sticks with you for the day (fast food cooked grease odor is far worse), a good shower/bath gets rid of it quickly.

I also use Clayton odorless stop-bath, and now only water, so far, I can't see any difference. I still use stop-bath for paper though.

 

[julio1fer]

If you have access to a chemicals supply store, you can easily mix your own odorless fixer.

250 g sodium hyposulfite (technical name is sodium thiosulfate). Transparent crystals.

50 g sodium sulfite. White powder.

Dissolve in 750 ml of water at 40 C, then add water to bring to one liter and mix well. The hyposulfite cools the water as it dissolves, hence the 40 C to start with.

Use the stock solution for fixing, it can be reused up to 5 times.

The two chemicals are not toxic.

Use a citric acid stop bath or just a water washing instead of acid stop.

Most developers give very little odor, if at all.

 

[MartinP]

it's not the kind [of odor] that sticks with you for the day, a good shower/bath gets rid of it quickly.

?!?!?

I am curious what you do with fixer that results in you being covered in it ? Or maybe not that curious actually . . .

😉

 

[john_s]

By far the smelliest chems in a B+W darkroom are stop (acetic acid usually) and fixer (sulphur dioxide odour). You can use water as a stop/rinse or very dilute citric acid. Water is fine.

For fixer, the formula above is excellent, because it is cheap and it has little odour because it is not acidic. An alternative is Kodak Flexicolor Fixer (made for colour processing but fine for B+W film and paper). It is only slightly acid, and has fairly low odour. Fairly cheap. Agfa FX-Universal was even better, but is not generally available now. Fuji probably make a suitable colour fixer too (look for pH=near 7).

 

[dfoo]

Kodak rapidfix smells a bit, but unless you are in a very small room (like my old darkroom) it isn't that noticeable. I bought some odorless fixer, and that truly had no smell. My old darkroom was about 2sq meter, and I couldn't notice the smell. It was based on Kodak F6. That fix could be used over & over again. I fixed loads of film (or paper) before it was exhausted.

 

[Solinar]

A little late - but my developer of choice is Photographer's Formulary TP- 4 Archival Rapid Fixer. It should be available from http://www.freestylephoto.biz/ or directly from Photographer's Formulary.

I live in a smallish urban apartment with a windowless bathroom and adjoining walk in closet. I use a two step H20 stop bath and PF's TF-4 fixer is practically odorless.