Probably yes. Some people have a lot of problems with center-loading
stainless spirals, others love them.

The great thing about the Paterson spirals is they'll take 3 sizes of
film - I even have an old spiral that will accept 110 and 16mm film.
Loading 35mm film is dead simple unless the spiral is wet - doing large
batches of film is where the stainless spiral wins out.

I have, and use, both.

It depends on how much trouble, if any, you have with the Nikors. For
beginners, the Patersons are quite a bit easier to use; but they CAN
bind, and if they do it's harder to unload them and start over than it
is with steel reels.

Also, the Paterson reels are harder to keep clean and do not allow as
free a flow of developer. So if you already own and sucessfully use the
SS reels, why change?

I have used Paterson tanks for decades. they are just dandy!

First, you might want to consider disabling HTML on Usenet; in text groups
(like this one) it's unnecessary at best and an annoyance to some at
worst.

If you're comfortable with your Nikor reels, no. I actually switched the
other way -- from plastic (AP and Paterson) reels and an AP tank to
stainless steel (Hewes) reels and a generic stainless steel tank. For most
rolls, both work fine; however, as a roll is wound onto a plastic reel, it
takes more and more effort for each additional "twist." On some rolls, the
thing just jams up and refuses to load any further. At that point, the
choices are to unload it and try again or cut the film and load the second
part of the roll on a second reel. Of course, this means the almost
certain destruction of one photo. My Hewes reels are a joy to use by
comparison. As an added bonus, stainless steel tanks require less
chemistry than plastic ones (250ml vs. 325ml for my tanks, assuming a
single roll of 35mm film).

That said, this is a personal preference issue. Some people seldom or
never have problems with film jamming on plastic reels. Perhaps my
problems were related to humidity or something like that. (Water is known
to cause problems with plastic reels.)

Thanks, one and all, for your thoughtful comments--and testimonies.  I'll
just keep tooling along with the stainless reels and tanks, and wish all you
Paterson users dry reels and easy loading.  Thanks again.

Dick B.
Is the autoloading feature of Paterson developing tanks good enough to
warrant replacing my old faithful Nikor stainless tanks and reels?  TIA.

Dick B.

I'm "supporting" three different tank/reel systems, all three have merit.
In stainless the best tanks are Kindermann and the best reels are Hewes but
both are very pricey (Unless you luck out at a camera show).  Nikkor is also
very good but bent reels in any system are a pain to load, it's sometimes
possible to bend them back.  I especially like the Kindermann tank with the
plastic top it really doesn't leak--ever.  Back in the day Durst made a
plastic knock off of both Kindermann tank and reel (not bad) I still use one
16oz. plastic Durst tank from time to time.

Paterson, the newer Paterson reels are plenty good, I have a system I load
out to newbies, much easier to load than stainless.  I don't like the larger
volume of liquid required and never trusted all that "glugging" if you
invert the tanks, but they get the job done.

My third system is Unicolor.  I have a film drum I use on a motor base for
back and white.  Minimal chemistry, consistent agitation (I use paper
strength fixer one shot) and it's nice to be able to walk away for a coffee
refill or nature call while fixing film!  Processing times, I use the
standard inversion times, I find that a five minute presoak + standard
inversion time yields perfect processing times for constant agitation.  The
Unicolor roller auto-reverses so you get very nice results.  I also use it
with a paper tank to process sheet film, I have several 8x10 tanks so need
only mix the solution volume needed for the little bit of 4x5 and 5x7 I
still shoot.

Is the autoloading feature of Paterson developing tanks good enough to
warrant replacing my old faithful Nikor stainless tanks and reels?  TIA.

Dick B.