Help, are my tanks supposed to leak?

[Gaspar]

I developed my first film (C41) last week. It came out very well but during the agitation I found the tank leaking. I just got on with it and kept washing my hands between agitations (no gloves I know...)

So I decided to get a new tank. The first one was an old Patterson and now I have a Jessops duo.
I developed another two films tonight and again had some leakage.

Is this inevitable or am I doing something wrong? The Jessops tank looks brand new so I don't expect it to be damaged.

Thanks
Gaspar

 

[ChrisN]

From another thread:

"Re the leaky lid - push the lid on, then press on the lid in the centre while slightly lifting the edge of the lid at one point only - some air will escape - then press the edge down firmly again. This creates a slight vacuum in the tank which keeps the lid held down tight, and no leaks."

I've had no problem with my three Paterson tanks.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Tanks often do leak a bit, metal ones worse than plastic. If you are doing COLOR processing without gloves you are committing suicide slowly and you will suffer for it. I had a friend die a couple years ago after many yrs of color printing. The chemicals damaged his immune system and it finally killed him. WEAR GLOVES.

 

[Al Kaplan]

About the only ones I know of that don't leak are the older S.S. Nikor tanks and they warned you not to mix and match lids and caps between tanks. All of mine are numbered with DYMO tape and each set is a different color.

 

[Gaspar]

Gloves for sure

Gloves for sure

Tanks often do leak a bit, metal ones worse than plastic. If you are doing COLOR processing without gloves you are committing suicide slowly and you will suffer for it. I had a friend die a couple years ago after many yrs of color printing. The chemicals damaged his immune system and it finally killed him. WEAR GLOVES.

Thanks a lot for the heads up. I will definetely wear gloves from now on.

Regards
G

 

[micromontenegro]

About the only ones I know of that don't leak are the older S.S. Nikor tanks and they warned you not to mix and match lids and caps between tanks. All of mine are numbered with DYMO tape and each set is a different color.

X2

And also, IMHO, go back to the light side of the force and learn to do B&W well before dipping into C 41.

Just my two cents.

 

[projectbluebird]

Is it leaking a lot? Or is it just "wet" after every inversion?

My experience with C-41 has always been that there is some chemical loss, no matter what type of tank I use. The biggest test is if the negatives are affected. How did they turn out?

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

X2

And also, IMHO, go back to the light side of the force and learn to do B&W well before dipping into C 41.

Just my two cents.

My feeling is that color processing at home isn't worth the bother when you consider the health risks. Labs can do it fairly cheap and fast, and unlike black and white, there's no real creative control for color film processing. You can't adjust contrast by changing the developing time, that screws up color balance. You can't choose different developers for different grain/sharpness/tonality/speed. All C-41 developers are the same. All E-6 developers are the same.

 

[Gaspar]

It leaks just a bit and the results have been good.

The reason why I am doing colour processing is because the labs have been constantly scratching my negatives. Plus, it is fun and very easy as well.

Regarding black & white, the problem is that I don't shoot black an white or particularly like using it.

 

[Keith]

I have two tanks that never leak when doing black and white but always leak with C41.
I think Chris's comments about colour are OK to a point but I've currently developed twelve rolls of C41with a Jobo kit that cost me $13.00 and six of those were 120... the one hour down the road charges $6.00 per roll and doesn't do 120 and pro labs are far more expensive here in OZ.

I'll take my chances ... albeit with gloves though I agree!

 

[.ken]

Hello. Can someone elaborate on the health risks involved? I been doing home bw and c41 processing and one
Would think that its fairly safe since I didn't see any glaring warning on any label etc...
Is it basically more so on printing rather than developing??

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Hello. Can someone elaborate on the health risks involved? I been doing home bw and c41 processing and one
Would think that its fairly safe since I didn't see any glaring warning on any label etc...
Is it basically more so on printing rather than developing??

Film developing isn't so dangerous if you use tanks (that is, don't do sheet film in trays like people who shoot large format do with BW film) and wear gloves and have good ventilation to keep you from breathing fumes of the chemicals while you're mixing them. Problem is, most home darkroom workers are lazy and don't take precautions. You can usually get away with that with black and white, but not color.

 

[oscroft]

My tanks all leak (I have older-style Paterson ones with screw-on lids, and they leak around the threads).

I get round it by agitating using the little twirly stick (the way I've done it for around 40 years) rather than inverting - I find that works fine for B&W and colour.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

My generic plastic tanks (universal type) do leak a bit, but then, I avoid it at least partially by twisting the tank a bit while agitating. And if I invert the tanks, I do it slowly. They leak, sure, but a lot less than when I started.

BTW, I'll follow ChrisN's tip from now on.

 

[russianRF]

I find my tanks leak a lot less when I wipe clean the lid in between steps of developing. I.e., after I dump out the dev, I wipe out the lid quickly before putting it back on for stop bath; after I dump out the stop, I wipe the lid (and also the lid-less top of the tank).

Hope this helps some...

 

[newspaperguy]

I just realized that I don't know if my Nikkor tanks leak.

I've always worked from a water bath - tanks and chemical
bottles all sitting in the water - so I guess I wash my hands
with every inversion/agitation.

 

[srtiwari]

Gaspar,
This is the very problem that troubled me last week. Like many, it is only the C-41 processing that leaked.
When I looked under the cap after each inversio+leakage, I realized that the tank remained full to the brim, but only using the Blix ! I suspect that the stuff bubbles (and expands ?) and the leakage seems to be the excess spilling over. I did NOT have this problem doing B&W with the same tanks/reels - but then again, the B&W chemicals don't have that "Blood Red" color, and some leakage may not be detected.
Perhaps someone can comment on the Blix frothing over.
Subhash

 

[Ronald_H]

Luckily C41 can still be done quickly and cheap on every street corner here, but for how long? Never knew the chemicals were that dangerous though.

I took up B/W processing because the pro-lab made such an awful mess of it. They do a lot of things well, but it seems they don't have people anymore with sufficient experience in something as straightforward as pushing Tri-X.

On leaking tanks: I use old, second hand Paterson system 4 tanks. They all leak, I'm used to it...

 

[.ken]

For a $15 c41 kit you can develop at least in my experience up to 18-20 rolls of film... if i brought my film at the local shop it's an easy $3-$5 a pop just for developing 24-36 roll... it gets a bit expensive. but how much is your time worth? if you enjoy the process of developing then it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Gaspar]

I think it leaks in c41 because the temperature is much higher.