Distilled water, have some around when developing

[Ljós]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roger Hicks
Two further thoughts are that Paterson water 'filters' (actually strainers -- see link below) are invaluable

Now that is something! Many thanks. I will give it a try. Water in Edinburgh is very hard, and that would improve my washing a lot!

Wojtek, I can recommend the Paterson filter, too, and am thankful to Roger for the tip! I have been using the filter for two years now, it can easily be cleaned and it is a one-time investment.

However: the idea of this Paterson filter is not to make the water less hard... it is just a finemeshed sieve that holds back crud and particles etc. that could otherwise find their way on your negatives. That is why Roger still uses dest. water for the final stages, since the Paterson filter will not soften the water.

All the best,
Ljós

 

[wojtek]

However: the idea of this Paterson filter is not to make the water less hard... it is just a finemeshed sieve that holds back crud and particles etc. that could otherwise find their way on your negatives. That is why Roger still uses dest. water for the final stages, since the Paterson filter will not soften the water.

Of course, I would use the distilled water (as I do now) for the final wash anyway. Still, filtering the water would hopefully at least remove all the nasty stuff away 🙂

 

[Ljós]

Of course, I would use the distilled water (as I do now) for the final wash anyway. Still, filtering the water would hopefully at least remove all the nasty stuff away 🙂

Ah, yes, wojtek, it will. Always a good feeling btw whenever I clean the filter, to see the stuff that did NOT get in my developing water ;-)

 

[Freakscene]

I'm curious about Jobo's mention of stabilizers and wetting agents in the same terms, since the two products are totally chemically different, at least with the ones I have used - but maybe some stabilisers have a wetting agent in them.

Stabilizer or wetting agents, of any type, any brand, should not be used in the tank or with the film on the reels. It doesn't really damage the reel, but it causes a sludge-like build-up which ultimately can cause contamination and loading problems.

True, but in my test it took 2 years of developing frequently, and without washing the same 4 reels. Even after that amount of time, two older reels with rougher surfaces on the plastic got a lot stickier than the two new reels they were partnered with. The polyethoxyethyl alcohols in wetting agents can polymerise, and they get sticky without water, as occurs if you let them dry on a reel surface.

Wetting agents and stabilizers don't wash off. They seem to chemically bond with anything they contact.

In my test, not true. it can be cleaned off readily using dishwasher detergent, hypochlorite (bleach), sodium hydroxide (lye) or any other number of cleaning agents and ~75C+ water.

I can see no way that the polyethoxyethyl alcohols could become irrevocably bonded to metal (especially) or plastics of the type used in plastic reels. In the test I did, they could and did build up and when they did a variety of polyethoxyethyl alcohols were on the reels, but good cleaning could remove them. The surfaces might have been a little rougher, but they didn't stick.

If you clean each time using adequate methods, you'll never get the build-up in the first place.

Marty