Temperature in darkroom

[cmedin]

Question for those in the know.. at what point does ambient temp become too much of an issue in a darkroom? The closet I'm looking at can hit mid-high 70s in the summer, and probably stays in high 60s during the winter. I don't really have a desire to mess with heating/icing chemicals so if I do this I just want to work with the chems at ambient temp, adjusting as needed for the season.

What I'm wondering is, are the summer temps too high?

[markinlondon]

Mid 70s (24C?) should be OK. You can even cut your developing times but as paper is usually developed to completion anyway I wouldn't bother. For b&w printing it's not really an issue.

[Finder]

If you let your chemicals come to ambient and then develop based on that temp you should be fine. The only issue is when the temperature becomes to high to give a long enough development time. I do not see the 70s being an issue - but check the recommendations for you film developer combo.

[cmedin]

Thanks guys. It looks like I can get away with D76 1:1 on TriX without going too short on the dev times. I'll just have to tweak the times according to ambient, and markinlondon pointed out that paper dev shouldn't be a problem.

I was spoiled back in the days when I had my 1 bedroom apartment, easy to keep at a constant temp year 'round. :)

It'll be fun getting back into it -- thanks for the advice!

[MartinP]

If you are developing 1:1 you can always put an ice-cube in there to lower the temperature (after testing with plain water to see if that is practical !). Having the tank in a washing bowl of water at the right temperature can keep it cool, just as well as keeping it warm. I'd say knocking a few degrees off the ambient temperature for the film-developer to get it down to standard would be "best", but not to worry for printing.

[Bryce]

I've used the ice cube treatment to good effect in a tempering bath. It works just like you'd expect it to.
I suspect you may have trouble with your developer going inactive if your closet temperature gets far below 68/ 20 degrees. In that case you should be able to warm it with a tempering bath, or maybe use a small, portable heater to warm your working space enough to get the job done?
Happy printing!

[FrankS]

My darkroom is a spare bedroom in an old, poorly insulated house. Ambient temps are too high in the summer and too low in the winter. I have had no problems with ambient temps affecting my developing and printing activities. I mix my chemicals at 20C and the amount of drift (up or down) during processing has had no discernable effect. Go for it!