distilled water for mixing developer?

[Ian Grant]

Much of what's sold as distilled water is often de-ionised, the cost of distillation is far higher than de-ionisation or reverse osmosis.

Ian

[Chazzy]

Much of what's sold as distilled water is often de-ionised, the cost of distillation is far higher than de-ionisation or reverse osmosis.

Ian

I buy steam-distilled water for less than a dollar a gallon.

[Rinthe]

I buy steam-distilled water for less than a dollar a gallon.

the filter is 18$ and filters 100 gallons of water before needing a replacement

[Anscojohn]

Don’t use condensate from your AC system – its full of nasties :o

Martin[/QUOTE]
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I used filtered condensate from my AC systems for many years before I was warned about this. Also used it on my house plants. No ill effects were ever in evidence. And my D23 and DK25R seemed to last forever in the bottles.

That being said, I have heeded PE's caveat about molds and fungi. I now boil the water actively for five minutes in a stainless steel container, then filter it.

I am wondering if nuking the AC run-off in a pyrex measuring cup in the microwave would kill the nasties. Or some clorox? Or both?

[jgjbowen]

I mix my developers from raw chemicals and ALWAYS use distilled water. I also mix TF-4 with distilled water and the final photo-flo is mixed with distilled water. At a buck a gallon it costs me between $1-$1.50 for the distilled water needed to mix up enough developer to process about $40 of TMY or $60 of Azo. The cost of the distilled water is a non-issue when considered in those terms.

Using distilled water gives you CONSISTENCY, if nothing else, when mixing your chemicals. Richard Ritter once told me he has different developing times if he is developing film in Vermont vs Pennsylvania. The only difference Richard could identify was the quality of the water.....

[2F/2F]

Who knows...but re: film chemicals, I use it for everything except hypo clear, Photo Flo, and rinse water. I don't use it for any of my paper chemicals, as the volumes are larger.

[tkamiya]

It probably greatly depend on your local municipal water quality. (or do you have a well?)

I personally use tap water (municipal) filtered through Brita faucet filter for all of my chemicals. I use tap water without filtration for final wash. I don't know if filtration is necessary but I already have it, so I use it.

[Necator]

I use tap water for mixing chemicals, without any problems. As we have hard water, I give my film a final rinse in destilled water from a de-humidfier. No problems encounterd there. If my recollection of inorganic chemistry does not fail me, the content of free Fe-ions is higher in soft water (low pH), which could explain why I have no problems.

[RobertV]

The mentioned Brita filter is very efficient to get an- and cations out of the tap water. Everything is depending on the quality of your tap water when using no filter or no distilled water. But especially Xtol is very sensitive for metal ions in the tap water. The lifetime is dropping dramatically when using tap water with high content of metal ions. Document developers are also further sensitive for building up an iron complex which means black dots in your negative, irriversable.
When having high content of calcium salts the pH traject of the developer is also changed which means another density of the negative. Apart from drying marks after the development. But in a lot of situations the tap water quality is sufficient on quality to have no defects.

Best regards,

Robert

[DanielStone]

somewhat off-topic, does anyone know as to why Brita recommends a 5-min run time when installing a new filter on the faucet-mounted system?

to me(I'm in LA, WE HAVE A PRETTY GOOD WATER SHORTAGE right now), this seems extremely wasteful. I could understand a minute, to clear out the nasty black stuff that comes out when you first install it, but 5 min? I've been running HOT water through it for 1min so far, and to my tastebuds, doesn't seem to hurt it at all.

help?

-Dan