Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/06/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]We have very hard water here in the desert. I use distilled water for mixing developer (film and paper) and Photoflo, also toner if I'm doing that. In addition, I use a filter system for the rest. I looked into an RO system, but I think it takes about 5 gallons of water for each gallon you get out of it. Not what I want to do given the general overall water shortage. Gary On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 4:29 PM, Bill Pearce <billcpearce at cox.net> wrote: > most home centers sell home RO machines, and they are fairly inexpensive, > shouldn't be nearly expensive as most of your other stuff, around here > about $300. They produce well filtered water with lots of bad stuff taken > out, and as a bonus, you can use them to feed an icemaker in your > refrigerator. Can't make enough for flowing water in a washer, but if you > use water baths, it should be good. Great for chemical mixing. I always > filled some old milk jugs at off times to keep plenty on hand. > > -----Original Message----- From: George Lottermoser > Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2015 2:02 PM > To: Leica Users Group > Subject: Re: [Leica] Can anyone share hard water, high mineral content > darkroom experience? > > > On Jun 23, 2015, at 12:54 PM, Lew Schwartz wrote: > > I've never worked in these conditions. We're drawing from our own well, >> probably high calcium & iron in water. I mix my own developers, but have a >> great source of distilled H20. (Run off from the dehumidifier.) My main >> concern is with washing & the fixer. I got hold of some old style calgon. >> How much would I mix in? I plan to wash negs in the ion filtered well >> water >> with a final soak in the pure H2O plus wetting agent. >> >> I haven't tried any of this yet, but soon .... >> >> Comments? Ideas? >> > > I worked for 25 years with very hard, untreated water, high in minerals, > calcium and iron, in my darkroom. > > I used commercially distilled water to mix all chemistry. > I used double filtration for wash water; > though always did a final distilled water soak, rinse, soak, rinse, drop > of photoflo in final rinse. > > Never let the negatives or prints dry with even filtered hard water on > them. > > Regards, > George Lottermoser > > http://www.imagist.com > http://www.imagist.com/blog > http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >