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Darkroom Accessories: Refrigerator

There are several advantages to having a refrigerator in the darkroom, beyond the obvious use of storing food and drink, many chemicals become inert at lower temperatures.

What this means is that the chemical reaction in a battery, for example, will slow or stop while the battery is kept in a refrigerator. This lets you keep it much longer, as long as you remember to warm it to room temperature before expecting it to perform at full power.

This is also true for many darkroom chemicals, including the light sensitive chemicals in most film and enlarger paper, especially in the case of infrared film. I believe, but might be wrong, that oxidation is reduced in lower temperatures also, I don't store mixed liquid chemicals in the refrigerator however, for two reasons, I tend to one-shot my developer, and I don't what to run the risk of having someone think that that is drinkable fluid.

I store all of my sheet film, enlarger paper, 35mm black and white bulk film, slide film, and color negative film in a refrigerator. I've yet to notice a difference between a new box of film or paper and one that is years old that was stored in the fridge. (I have some grade 4 paper that I seldom use that is in the fridge, and seems to be as fresh as the day I bought it, I have not done any empirical studies to verify this however)

In addition to film, paper, and batteries, I put a couple pieces of fruit and a few cans of soda, or bottles of water in the fridge. Note: If you put anything in the fridge that could be confused for edible or drinkable that is not, do not follow the practice of storing anything ingestable in this refrigerator!

I have a small 'dorm room' sized fridge under the sink. The only modification to make to the refrigerator that you put into a darkroom, is to remove the internal light bulb, you don't want to open it and have it fog anything in the darkroom, but you might want to open it at a time when you can not have any light.

The heat exchanger on the back of the refrigerator will collect dust, this is actually a good thing, if you clean it regularly, as the dust will be 'sucked' out of the room onto these coils. I put the fridge next to my exhaust fan, so there is a better tendency for the dust to be sent outside instead of into the room. I do clean the coils about once a month.

Visitor Comments

The comments stated below are not necessarily the opinions of Andy Hughes or DarkroomSource

just leave things in a fridge in your kitchen a get them before you go in your darkroom

Anonymously contributed on 0000-00-00 00:00:00

If you do leave things in the fridge in your kitchen, don't drink them in the middle of the night...

Contributed by   on 2002-07-04 00:00:00

You may wish to replace the refrigerator bulb with a safelight bulb.

Anonymously contributed on 2002-08-21 00:00:00

I don't know about keeping chemistry in the refrigerator. I don't mix up more than I'll use in a couple of months anyway, so that's pretty much of a non-issue. Certainly film and paper will keep much longer if kept under refreigeration and I do make this a practice. No room in my darkroom for a refrigerator though...

Contributed by   on 2004-01-30 22:22:18

RE: Refridgerators,

Be careful with chilling things such as paper and film, especially in countries with high humidity or tropical weather.

Here in QLD everything put into a fridge comes out with a mist of cold on it, or large droplets. The humidity even condenses inside packets, and the air in the 'fridge is just as humid as the outside air, after you open and shut the door.

I'm not a MASTER photographer, but I'm fairly sure having lots of little water droplets acting as uncontrolled lenzes is a BAD thing:P

Of course, if you live somewhere with decent weather, this is a non issue.

Contributed by   on 2004-08-03 19:52:41

But isn\'t the whole idea of having a darkroom to protect everything from the light? So if you keep your things in your kitchen refrigerator, when you take it out of even open the door, it will be exposed to light and ruined.

Contributed by   on 2005-02-20 19:11:32

That\'s why I suggest having a small refrigerator IN the darkroom, and take the bulb out.

Contributed by   on 2005-02-21 10:57:44

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