Chemical mixing ...

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djonesii

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Dear all;

I just got my first daylight tank, some D-76, stop bath, fixer, hypo wash, and some brown gallon bottles, and some brown quart bottles.

I'm getting ready to mix the developer etc.. soon, so, do I use tap water, filtered water, or do I need distilled water?

I've done a few searches here and on the web, and I can't seem to get a definite answer.

Thanks;

Dave
 
Personally, I have used all and I don't think it makes much of a difference. The one thing that I have discovered is that when I mix everything with distilled water and then wash the film with fresh distilled water, I don't have an issue with water marks on the film. I would start out with distilled water. You can pick some up for ~0.70 a gallon. Hope that helps.
 
Distilled water is best, but tap water is just fine. If your tap water smells and tastes good, is free of sediment and is not too hard or too soft, you'll have no trouble mixing up chemistry and washing your film with it. If you can filter your tap water do it- but the expensive drinking water filters are overkill; a simple supply filter will be more than enough to keep silt and other junk out. If your plumbing has any inline water filter, change it as often as is recommended.

However, I do still recommend distilled water for your final wet stage. I always mix my photo-flo with distilled water for the final rinse; I also use it to mix up two bath developers like Diafine. Otherwise, my darkroom water consumption has come straight from the tap for years with no problems.
 
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You really don't need brown bottles. One or two liter soda bottles with plastic lids work fine. Brown does keep a lot of light out but keeping them in a closet works too. Store brand soda pop can often be bought for 69 cents for two liters. At that price it's cheaper to just pour the soda down the drain than buy "photo" bottles.

Tap water works fine. If there's any crap in the water run it through an ordinary paper coffee filter. Chlorine will be driven off by briefly boiling the water, or you can just leave it in an uncovered bucket over night. The chlorine will be gone.

Actually, boiling does something else. It drives off dissolved oxygen in the water. Your developer will last longer that way. For fixer or hypo clear it doesn't matter.
 
Al Kaplan said:
Actually, boiling does something else. It drives off dissolved oxygen in the water. Your developer will last longer that way. For fixer or hypo clear it doesn't matter.
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Boiling is a good tip to remove chlorine but it won't help with oxygen. At the moment the temperature of the hot water gets down to room temperature and also while stirring for the mixing process, oxygen will dissolve in water again (equilibrium reaction).
 
maddoc said:
Boiling is a good tip to remove chlorine but it won't help with oxygen. At the moment the temperature of the hot water gets down to room temperature and also while stirring for the mixing process, oxygen will dissolve in water again (equilibrium reaction).
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For some reason my experience tells me that Al was right, boiling does help to reduce oxygen dissolved in water. At lest developer mixed with boiled water lasts longer.
Answering original question - there is no definite answer because it is largely depends on quality of tap water. Normally, tap water is good enough for photo chemicals; however there are places in the world where tap water is not good for photography. I have been once in a place where tap water was good for drinking and household use; but left salt grid on the emulsion when dried out.
I use clear bottles from carbonated water or soda. I found that bottles from well carbonated drinks have tighter caps. I don't use dark/brown bottles for a few reasons: a) I cannot easily see what color acquired my developer before I start playing with dev tanks or enlarger (I don't have darkroom); b) cheap brown bottles from juice etc. deposit colorants to the content (yep, to some degree developer turns brown because of brown plastic bottle dye... and I'd like to see color change because of oxidation and exhausting only); c) I keep all my bottles under kitchen sink in dark anyway.
 
Kodak formulated their chemicals to work properly in ordinary, normal (but not vile) tap water. It's never been a problem for me.

However, I use filtered water from my dehumidifier. The reason I do that is mainly consistency, plus since it is pretty close to distilled, drying and elimination of water spots is also enhanced.
 
I would agree to using distilled water during the Photoflow stage but use tap and having seen any streaks. There are other more important thing to screw up your processing and unless you process your stuff in Motel 6 when the water is "weird" there isn't much to worry about.
 
I went to Albertsons and got 10L of distilled water for around 2 or 3 bucks. Just get the high quality stuff to prevent any possibility of contaminants.
 
I've used tap water without any harsh effects *knocks on wood*

However, for photo-flo I've found better results using drinking/distilled water. My tap liked to spot a bit...
 
Somebody used to make a gizmo that consisted of a base with an electric motor that spun a bar magnet around. You put your mixing beaker on top and dropped in a plastic coated steel bar. The spinning magnet would make the bar spin on the bottom of the beaker, mixing the powdered chemicals without whipping air into the liquid with your stirring paddle. Liquid developers like Rodinol and HC-110 are a lot easier to mix.

You really don't have to completely dissolve powdered chemicals. Let the bottle stand overnight and the undisolved remains of powder usually disolves by itself.

A five gallon pouch of powdered Kodak Hypo Clearing Agent can be dissolved in a gallon of water though. Dilute this stock solution 1:4 with water as needed.
 
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Al Kaplan said:
Somebody used to make a gizmo that consisted of a base with an electric motor that spun a bar magnet around. You put your mixing beaker on top and dropped in a plastic coated steel bar. The spinning magnet would make the bar spin on the bottom of the beaker, mixing the powdered chemicals without whipping air into the liquid with your stirring paddle. Liquid developers like Rodinol and HC-110 are a lot easier to mix.
Click to expand...

I think they're just called a magnetic stirrer, used to use them in chem class all the time. I think multiple companies make them. Reminded you of a jumping bean really...
 
I and several friends have had very large grain with distilled water/ D76. We both have had better resultls with filtered tap /Lake michigan water. I do mean really HUGH grain.
He used packaged D76, mine from scratch. Different Chicago subburbs.

Your results may vary.

The important thing is water and air filters and clean clean clean. Unless you like to spot prints of course.
 
Commercial developers have Calgon or Photoplex build in their formula and/or EDTA to get rid of normal amounts of metal ions and Calcium salts from the (tap-) water.

If your tap water is very hard (D.H. >14-15) it's not a bad idea to boil your water first.
It has then less oxygen and the level of salts will go down a bit. So when making a stock of developer solution this can be important.
For one shot developers it's less important.

When making a developer from scratch (without Calgon or Photoplex) it's important to use demi-water.
Also developers with a high dilution it can be important to use demi-water. But then it is in the instruction manual.

Best regards,

Robert
 
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