How do you keep your chemicals in the trays at the correct temparatures?

-- Andreas Elia (steed@pixie.co.za), June 16, 1999

Answers

For most printing I don't worry about the temperature, but if I begin to experience fog (particularly when doing print solarization) I place crushed ice around my developing tray. It is also possible to put a tray within a larger tray and add ice to the larger tray--but I usually don't have room in my sink for the second tray. Film is another matter altogether--I try to make sure all the solutions are at the same temperature.

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@earthlink.net), June 16, 1999.

Here in the UK, my problem is usually that temperatures are too low. Some people use dish warmers, but I don't use any chemicals that have to be warmer than 20 degrees C, so I just keep the darkroom at that temperature.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), June 17, 1999.

I use just an hair-dryer: cold or hot. Be careful to the speed: it must be low and far! Bye, bye

-- marco moroni (marcoelo@tin.it), June 20, 1999.

To keep my print developer temperature at close to 68 degrees I have a plastic bucket full of ice that I insert directly into the tray to coll it down to the proper temperature. I temper my film developing chemicals in an Igloo cooler holding water at the desired temperature.

-- Les Warren (eyeseales@netscape.net), September 23, 1999.

For heating chemicals up use a fish tank heater, cheap and accurate (fish live and die by them). Place it the sink water that holds the trays, or place it in its own container with water and set that in your tray.

-- Dan Tyler (tyler.dan@worldnet.att.net), November 08, 1999.

Dan,

Keep an eye on the temp though. Ask my 8 marine fish who died due to a faulty heater. It cooked them.

-- Terry Carraway (TCarraway@compuserve.com), November 10, 1999.