Distilled Water

So what are everyone's thoughts on using perfectly purified distilled water for

making chemical stock solutions and/or for dilution purposes?

I used distilled water for my chemicals and final wash when I lived in a rural area. Our well water was very high in lime so it wasn't suitable for darkroom use.

 

Otherwise I'd probably use tap water if it's good quality, or filter it depending on the location. Our city tap water often reeks of bleach.

Water is very hard here in the Austin area. Instead of filtering my own I buy bottled gallons at the supermarket. I look for the ones that are reverse/osmosis filtered. No spots on my film like before. I mix my chems in it as well as my final photoflow dunking. Regular tap water for the long wash doesn't seem to hurt a thing.

I've always used distilled water to make up the chemical solutions and also the final rinse for film (I use the Ilford method to wash film). I use tap water for the film washing between removing it from the fixer (or hypo clear, where used) and the final rinse. I use tap water to wash prints.

 

Depending on where you are, distilled water is very cheap insurance against potential problems. Last I checked you could buy it at Wal-Mart for less than one dollar a gallon.

I use distilled water to make up developer and fixer, I wash in tap water. But the tap water here (SF Bay Area) is very good.

 

<Chas>

I use our slightly murky well water for everything -- mixing chemicals and washing film and prints. Except that I draw the last liter of film rinse water, the one I add a touch of PhotoFlo to, through the refrigerator filter to get rid of particulates that might dry on the film.

 

No problems of any kind. And no distilled water ever.

"So what are everyone's thoughts on using perfectly purified distilled water for making chemical stock solutions and/or for dilution purposes?"

 

It's a symptom of OCD. I use tap water for everything, even the final wash; and yes, my tap water is ground water and comes loaded with dissolved calcium. Do I filter it? Yes I do, but with nothing more exotic than an inline water filter designed for home use because it often carries quite a bit of solid sediment.

I live in a hard water area and use tap water for all my chemistry, but I do put it through an Ametek 10 micron filter to take out particles.

The sediment problem Frank mentioned was my reason for switching to distilled or at least filtered water for film. I got tired of sediment sticking to the emulsion.

 

Sometimes I'd just fill containers in advance and let them sit for several days while the sediment settled out, then decant it into another container and leave the residue behind. This is what I normally used for processing prints.

A simple answer is always use distilled water for your developer step, and ponder the quality of your water for all else. As was noted in other threads, the exact chemical composition of your developer in particular can have significant impact on the effectiveness of that developer, and add little quirks you might not understand.

 

Those that use "tap water" for everything can get away with it but what they get in the end is probably a bit unique. That is what "testing" is all about-- learning what the combination of your particular chemical mix and technique creates with your film. Changes in pH or chemical composition. especially with a developer, can have small yet potentially also significant impacts on the final image, or in some cases affect the archival longevity of that image.

 

For these reasons, I always use distilled water for mixing up any powdered developer, all developer dilutions and also for my final rinse including the Photoflo mix. Better safe than sorry, and easier to control the outcome as well. but that doesn't mean that it is a failsafe, or that tap water is inherently an issue.

I just picked up some Photographer's Formulary Copper Toner and the directions explicitly say to use distilled water for the stock solutions. For some special things like that i could see choosing to use distilled water.

One very real issue with household water is dissolved cations like iron, lead, arsenic, etc.. Iron in particular can cause problems with toning solutions. In most cases this wouldn't be an issue, but you never know. In my opinion, better safe than sorry with the developer, and I see that the same probably should hold true for toners.