Kodak tray siphon

[CPorter]

Thanks for the responses regarding the siphon. I think I will go ahead and get it because it is the simplest for me to deal with at this time. I feel the thread is going astray but know, as always, I'll try to conserve water.

Thanks again
Chuck

[Phillip P. Dimor]

I use one for fiber prints. I think $15 is a good buy, I paid more for mine. I use several trays of water along with the siphon.
Just pay attention to it the first few times you use it. If you don't create a vacuum it will overflow..

[CPorter]

Just pay attention to it the first few times you use it. If you don't create a vacuum it will overflow..

Interesting that you mention this because I went a head baught it when I went to use it, I discovered that the tray was almost running over :o; If I had walked away it could have been a wet mess. I thought I had a bad unit, but then realized that the thing was not getting primed. It definitely primes better in a deeper tray like my 11x14 than my 8x10; with the 8x10 I have to sort of slosh the tray back and forth until the water gets high enough in the goose neck of the siphon. It was a close call but I know what to expect now.

[Phillip P. Dimor]

Glad I mentioned that! I've had it happen to me while I was in another room. I use a deep rubbermaid dishwashing bucket for 8x10's. Deeper is better IMHO. To prime it, I fill it up past the two square holes on the sides. Then I place my fingers over those holes.. watch for the water to shoot out/empty out of the bottom of the siphon. Then, with my fingers over the holes still, I turn the faucet down but not too low. Kind of in between. You'll know you've got it going good when it fills slowly, then fills too much and starts gurgling and emptying. Sorry for the extreme writeup but it's was tricky for me to get the hang of it.

[Matt5791]

Hi !
I use since a long time a French made version of the kodak tray siphon. It's still made by Deville http://www.argentik.com and it is very good at washing fiber based print provided there are a few prints in the tray. Put a bowl in the center of an OVERSIZE tray to keep them separated.
Last but not least, save water by using the overflow to fill another tray put in a lower position regarding the main tray. Put the prints from the fixer into the lower tray first, and after 5 or 10 minutes transfer them in the upper tray. This way, the prints from the fixer will will be washed in less than perfect water from the "clean" tray. And will have a huge amount of fixer by-products removed, but not all of them. If you wash a couple of prints at a time, one in the lower tray, one in the upper one, you'll wash your prints twice with the same water quantity.
hope this helps !

I have a DeVille fibre washer and looking on their site they have some pretty cool products - My French isn't very good though....

[RobertP]

Yankee print washers. Simple design, low cost and they work great.