Water (again)

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Diz

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Living a little out of the way, we tend not to have 'normal services'. Until recently, Mains water wasn't one and we relied on rain harvesting. We're having a few issues with our pump, which seems to be taking an age to resolve. So switched to mains until its sorted. The Pic is of our 'Normal' mains supply. The question is, will milky, effervescent, smelling of chlorine water effect film and prints?
Cheers
Diz
 

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Hi @Diz

From my local water company:

My water is cloudy
Sometimes water can look milky or cloudy because of the presence of tiny air bubbles. Occasionally,you may also notice knocking or banging noises coming from the internal plumbing. This is usually because of a burst mains pipe or faulty plumbing fitting. Try running a glass of water and allowing it to stand for a few minutes – the cloudiness should clear from bottom to top. To help fix the problem, try running the cold water tap at the first point of entry into the property (closest to the internal stop tap) on a slow steady flow. While the tap is running, turn the internal stop tap on/off 4-6 times to help release the air from the pipes.

Probably not good for mixing stock chemicals but if it clears as described you could prepare and use it for normal batch developing. I've never had an issue with heavily chlorinated water in the past and I believe photo chemical manufacturers take into accound the varying domestic water supplies.
 
Cheers Keith. We have had a storm for the last couple of days, so expecting brown water next! Can be a bit daunting doing the dishes in water that smells like sterilised mud :D I believe the local authority's are trying to improve water quality, just have to be patient.
Cheers
Diz
 
You might try boiling it to drive off the dissolved chlorine and precipitate any hardness. Perhaps more importantly, does it contain any particles? That would be a problem for film developing.
My guess is that if it’s fit to drink, it’s fit for photography.
 
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My water comes from boreholes and is very hard, the simplest solution has been a Brita water jug. David's right boiling the water works well, first recommended in the late 1800s, but with the cost of Gas/Electricity it's not cost-effective, and that was before the current hikes in prices.

Ian
 
This may go some way towards explaining why photo chemical maufacturers don't worry too much about chlorine:

Chemical Treatments
Commercially-available chemical treatments remove chlorine and sometimes chloramine and ammonia. These products offer quick, easy dechlorination for aquariums and sometimes for brewing. Typically, they contain sodium thiosulfate, sodium hydroxymethane sulfinic acid, or sodium hydroxymethanesulfonate. Some of these products lower dissolved oxygen in water and harm biological filters.
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and sodium ascorbate also neutralize chlorine and chloramine. Vitamin C slightly lowers water pH, but isn’t toxic and doesn’t lower dissolved oxygen as much as sulfur compounds. One disadvantage of vitamin C is its relatively short shelf life.

It seems that neutralising/removing chlorine is baked into some of our processes. :)
 
Isn’t vitamin C used as a developing agent?
 
I understand it is used in a number of developers @David M , Xtol is one I believe and it is in FX-55 which I use and of course sodium thiosulfate is AKA 'hypo' (a fixer).
 
Ideal. A litre of the brown water, loaded with chemicals and then pop a fizzy vitamin tablet in the tank. Agitation, semi-stand and improved resistance to colds all in one.
 
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After running the tap most of the day, the problem seems to be lessening. It appears the pipes were being 'Flushed' We live in an area with more cows and sheep than people. So the water table gets a regular dose of manure after muck spreading and rain. Put a little Cryptosporidium in for good measure and that should take the joy out of turning the tap on.
I have made some prints today with said water,(Through a Patterson filter to catch bits of sheep and Pidgeon) so we will see what happens. Though still not convinced on drinking it. Think I will carry on using rain water through a super sterasyl filter.
Thank you all for the input.
Cheers
Diz
 
Years ago, upon the purchase of a newly constructed home, I discovered that the varying water quality throughout the year as the new pipe coated up accounted for up to 1 f/stop of developer variability. For that reason, ever since, I have mixed all developer, fixer, and toners with distilled water only. Stop, hypo clearing, and wash are done in tap water.

I can also confirm @Ian Grant's recommendation of a Brita water jug to remove particulates from water, though it is a low volume solution.
 
I use a Brita jug to filter water for all film processing. It uses a lot so I pre-fill a few enamel jugs.
 
It's overkill and using expensive energy. A Brita water jug works perfectly. I only use deionised water when mixing developers etc from raw chemicals. If you need larger volumes the under-sink deionising units are perfect.

Ian
 
Ian Grant said:
It's overkill and using expensive energy. A Brita water jug works perfectly. I only use deionised water when mixing developers etc from raw chemicals. If you need larger volumes the under-sink deionising units are perfect.

Ian
Click to expand...
It is not a bad idea to search for a car parts supplier and buy 25 ltrs of de-ionised water. I do this and it reduces the cost, (far less than buying it in 5 ltr or 1ltr. containers). I only use de-ionised water for mixing developers and for my final rinse with a couple of drops of wetting agent added when developing film. My mains water leaves lime scale on the kettle, taps and shower head etc.. Water put through a Brita jug is good, in my case water that's left in the kettle after boiling for my last brew of the day is allowed to cool then put through a Britta filter jug. Filtered, boiled and filtered again works well for mixing 1ltr of developer from raw chemicals when I have run out of de-ionised water. Using water that's left in the kettle soon mounts up to a litre, I drink far too much tea!
 
If you only need small quantities for mixing developer, Asda currently has 2.5l containers of Car Plan de-ionised water at £1.50.
 
Tesco and Wilco also do their own brand at the same size/price as well.
 
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