Air purifiers for basement darkroom?
Sanjeev Arora
cannot make structural changes to it. (Besides,
it is in the basement with no air outlet except a door.)
I was wondering if air purifiers (available for <$100 in hardware
stores) would help to control dust and odors.
What I am worried about is that (i) though the purifiers do remove dust,
they also have a fan to blow air and hence will stir up dust as well (ii) the
odor removal is effective only against "organic" odors
---which I presume are large, heavy molecules --- but not darkroom
gases such as sulphur dioxide and ammonia.
Thanks for any thoughts on this.
Sanjeev
p.s. I have somewhat of a dust problem in this darkroom ---medium format
negs are OK but enlargements from 35 mm are a pain. Also, the SO2
odor ---or ammonia odor from Selenium toner ---sometimes gets strong after a few
hours, even though I regularly open the door.
William Hopkins
the door. Run a flexible close dryer vent hose up and over to where the
chemical trays are located and down the wall so near the trays. Put darkroom
louver inlower part of door. Attach dryer hose to exhaust fan. this willsuck
fumes off the trays and louver will allow fresh air in to circulate. You can
also use fan outside door to disapate exhaust fumes. This works very well
but not perfect........Bill Also use copper wire to ground your enlarger -
attach to enlarger frame and the other end of wire to a water pipe. This
totally eliminates the static electricity that attracts dust to negatives. I
very rarely ever have to dust spot a print......Bill
Sanjeev Arora <ar...@cs.princeton.edu> wrote in message
news:37952EE7...@cs.princeton.edu...
Fred Newman
Clayton's Odorless fixer and stopbath.
Fred Newman
Darkroom Innovations, Inc.
www.darkroom-innovations.com
(480) 767-7105
(480) 767-7106
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
On 7/20/99, 8:23:23 PM, "William Hopkins" <whop...@netins.net> wrote
regarding Re: Air purifiers for basement darkroom?:
Sanjeev Arora
that I am not allowed to cut up the door to mount a fan (the
darkroom belongs to the university). So that is not an option.
Thanks for your tip regarding grounding the enlarger. My negatives
pick up dust also while drying (maybe sticking to the emulsion),
so I need yet more dust control.
I should've mentioned the claimed features of the air purifiers I
saw at the store: they remove dust, pollen etc and also odors.
Would this help in the darkroom?
Sanjeev
Dan Smith, Photographer
Fred Newman <fr...@darkroom-innovations.com> wrote in message
news:19990721...@mis.configured.host...
A lot of our customers in a similar situation have been buying
Clayton's Odorless fixer and stopbath.
Freds solution does help. I also use a Honeywell HEPA air filter and it
works great. I use it in the darkroom and it has cut my spotting 90% or
better. My basement darkroom has exposed lath & plaster ceilings, and a
1930's vintage concrete floors, exposed fibreglass insulation and both a
water heater & home gas forced air heater with ducts running along the
ceiling.
The HEPA filter is the best I have tried.
dan
Robert Litman
Yes it stirs up dust, but after a day or two, the air is incredibly
clean of the large dust particles that would cause you problems.
My basic check is to turn on a halogen architect's lamp, and look at the
dust in the beam. The air purifier makes a huge difference.
Robert
rodas...@raphotos.freeserve.co.uk
around - the answer is to use the purifyer bit use an ioniser to zap
the dust.
I had same dust problems designing a darkroom as part if research for
Professional Photoghrapher magazine in the UK
I have a very cheap ioniser which actually catches dust and hold it ...
amil me if you're interested and I see what it's called
http://www.raphotos.freeserve.co.uk
Good Luck
Rod Ashford
In article <19990721...@mis.configured.host>,
Fred Newman <fr...@darkroom-innovations.com> wrote:
> A lot of our customers in a similar situation have been buying=20
> Clayton's Odorless fixer and stopbath.
>
> Fred Newman
> Darkroom Innovations, Inc.
> www.darkroom-innovations.com
> (480) 767-7105
> (480) 767-7106
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>
> On 7/20/99, 8:23:23 PM, "William Hopkins" <whop...@netins.net>
wrote=20=
>
> regarding Re: Air purifiers for basement darkroom?:
>
> > B&H Photo has darkroom exhaust fans that can be mounted inthe
upper=20=
>
> part of
> > the door. Run a flexible close dryer vent hose up and over to
where=20=
>
> the
> > chemical trays are located and down the wall so near the trays.
Put=20=
>
> darkroom
> > louver inlower part of door. Attach dryer hose to exhaust fan.
this=20=
>
> willsuck
> > fumes off the trays and louver will allow fresh air in to
circulate.=20=
>
> You can
> > also use fan outside door to disapate exhaust fumes. This works
very=20=
>
> well
> > but not perfect........Bill Also use copper wire to ground your=20
> enlarger -
> > attach to enlarger frame and the other end of wire to a water
pipe.=20=
>
> This
> > totally eliminates the static electricity that attracts dust to=20
> negatives. I
> > very rarely ever have to dust spot a print......Bill
> > Sanjeev Arora <ar...@cs.princeton.edu> wrote in message
> > news:37952EE7...@cs.princeton.edu...
> > > The darkroom I use does not have ventilation. It belongs to a=20
> university,
> > so I
> > > cannot make structural changes to it. (Besides,
> > > it is in the basement with no air outlet except a door.)
> > >
> > > I was wondering if air purifiers (available for <$100 in hardware
> > > stores) would help to control dust and odors.
> > >
> > > What I am worried about is that (i) though the purifiers do
remove=20=
>
> dust,
> > > they also have a fan to blow air and hence will stir up dust as
well=
> =20
> (ii)
> > the
> > > odor removal is effective only against "organic" odors
> > > ---which I presume are large, heavy molecules --- but not darkroom
> > > gases such as sulphur dioxide and ammonia.
> > >
> > > Thanks for any thoughts on this.
> > >
> > > Sanjeev
> > >
> > > p.s. I have somewhat of a dust problem in this darkroom ---
medium=20=
>
> format
> > > negs are OK but enlargements from 35 mm are a pain. Also, the SO2
> > > odor ---or ammonia odor from Selenium toner ---sometimes gets
strong=
> =20
> after
> > a few
> > > hours, even though I regularly open the door.
>
>
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Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
Sanjeev Arora
from the hardware store?
Sanjeev
Robert Litman wrote:
>
> I use one all the time. Its great!!!
> Yes it stirs up dust, but after a day or two, the air is incredibly
> clean of the large dust particles that would cause you problems.
> My basic check is to turn on a halogen architect's lamp, and look at the
> dust in the beam. The air purifier makes a huge difference.
>
> Robert
>
> Sanjeev Arora wrote:
> >
> > The darkroom I use does not have ventilation. It belongs to a university, so I
> > cannot make structural changes to it. (Besides,
> > it is in the basement with no air outlet except a door.)
> >
> > I was wondering if air purifiers (available for <$100 in hardware
> > stores) would help to control dust and odors.
> >
> > What I am worried about is that (i) though the purifiers do remove dust,
> > they also have a fan to blow air and hence will stir up dust as well (ii) the
> > odor removal is effective only against "organic" odors
> > ---which I presume are large, heavy molecules --- but not darkroom
> > gases such as sulphur dioxide and ammonia.
> >
> > Thanks for any thoughts on this.
> >
> > Sanjeev
> >
> > p.s. I have somewhat of a dust problem in this darkroom ---medium format
> > negs are OK but enlargements from 35 mm are a pain. Also, the SO2
> > odor ---or ammonia odor from Selenium toner ---sometimes gets strong after a few
Barry Sherman
William Hopkins wrote:
> B&H Photo has darkroom exhaust fans that can be mounted inthe upper part of
> the door. Run a flexible close dryer vent hose up and over to where the
> chemical trays are located and down the wall so near the trays. Put darkroom
> louver inlower part of door. Attach dryer hose to exhaust fan. this willsuck
> fumes off the trays and louver will allow fresh air in to circulate. You can
> also use fan outside door to disapate exhaust fumes. This works very well
> but not perfect........Bill Also use copper wire to ground your enlarger -
> attach to enlarger frame and the other end of wire to a water pipe. This
> totally eliminates the static electricity that attracts dust to negatives. I
> very rarely ever have to dust spot a print......Bill
>
Be a little wary about doing this. You'll lose some air flow from "friction"
(I'm sure that's not the right word) with the presumably corrugated drier vent
hose. In my first darkroom I had a separate cooling fan for the enlarger (This
was an old Pavelle 401 colorhead). I mounted it outside the darkroom and ran a
2 inch diameter flexible hose from it to the enlarger fan. About a 20 foot
run. Unfortunately, there was no perceptible air flow at the end of the hose.
Granted, the vent fans from B&H are a lot more powerful than the little squirrel
cage blower for the colorhead, but I expect that the principle will apply.
Another caution: I have one of the B&H (actually made by Premier) vent fans, a
largish 12" unit. The thing's so loud that I can't stand to have it on. It's
completely unused because of the noise. But then I'm not at all sensitive to
the odors of b/w chemicals and have worked for years in virtually unvented
darkrooms.
Barry
--
Barry Sherman | Art does not reproduce what we see.
Suma Technologies, LLC | It makes us see. -- Paul Klee
My opinions, not Suma's |