Darkroom construction

[hooper]

December 7, 2010 at 12:16 am

I will be constructing my first darkroom over the next while in a small but insulated shed out my back. I have the chance to plumb the shed with cold water however the hot water pipe is slightly trickier to run a pipe to, the shed is a bit away from the nearest hot water tap, is it advisable to spend the extra money to pipe hot water or would a kettle be just as effective?

Also any other tips for darkroom construction would be quite useful.

Thanks

[redto]

December 7, 2010 at 7:23 pm

guess it really depends on how much you plan on using it. doing a few prints every other week would not justify huge expense running hot water, actually heat in your dark room would be inportant. ‘security’ of your chemicals etc would be inportant too. are there kids that could get in or anyone else that might upset your space. also lock or latch so people cant open door from outside while you are working

[Mark]

December 7, 2010 at 7:47 pm

Barry,

If its for developing film, it would be very handy for sure, but you’d need to be able to control the temperature. So for that you’d need
a steady flow (not going to run out either) of warm water which you could mix through the taps (2 into 1) to control the temp.
You could get a water heater and pipe the existing cold water into it and have it heat the water for you when you need it. Not sure of
the price of them, but it would be the best solution. I wish I had something like that. If the price was similar to getting the hot water
plumbed in then…

Btw, my film developing is done in the ensuite using water coming out of the shower which luckily I can get at a constrant 20 degrees.
It works well for me except I have to clean up after myself :)

For b+w printing, I have a converted a small piece of the attic and get on fine without hot water, although it would be easier than lugging water in 10 ltr container(s) up the steps.

I find if the darkroom is warm enough that the water in the trays tends to keep a good temperature. For b+w printing, temp doesn’t seem to be
as critical as it would be for colour printing or film development.

I’m using a heater used in fish tanks to keep water in the contain warm (It came in a job lot of darkroom gear on ebay). The has a
temperature control dial on it and which I use to get the right temperature.

I built a sink which means that I can actually partially fill it with warm water and using the fish tank heater keep the tray whose bottom side
sit in the water warm.