carbon filters in line with the main vent ?????

[fallenangel]

i was at the hydro store and i was eyeing the carbon filters ,, well the salesman and i start to talk and i tell him that i want to use the filter in line with my main ventalation ... well he says noooooo...he says to use the filter with a matched can fan and vent that in the room and then vent that cleaned air out .. i see almost everyone using them in there main vent system ??? what gives????

 

[fallenangel]

thats what i thought .. the scrubber is in the room pulling air into it and out into the room ... cleaning the air in the room .. now that air would be vented out .......

 

[dan kay]

maybe he thought you were growing in a cab? that way he would be meaning pull from the cab and push through the filter into the closet/room then vent the closet/room into another with a second fan. that's a way out there assumption, seems more like he was trying to sell you on 2 fans. before you consider that make him draw it out on paper and see if it makes sense.

 

[Guest]

Would this make any difference?

smell room - fan - carbon scrubber

or

smell room - carbon scrubber - fan

I tought to do it first option?

Peace and love,
Agnes

 

[fallenangel]

maybe he thought you were growing in a cab? that way he would be meaning pull from the cab and push through the filter into the closet/room then vent the closet/room into another with a second fan. that's a way out there assumption, seems more like he was trying to sell you on 2 fans. before you consider that make him draw it out on paper and see if it makes sense.

3 fans really ... 6" vortech for my air cooled hood , 465 dayton to vent the room , and a 206 cfm can fan carbon filter combo... by the way its going to be a cab / closet grow

 

[dan kay]

wow that's a lotta fans for a cab grow. you said cab/closet are you planning on having plants outside the cab? If not I'd recommend if possible putting the carbon filter on the outside of the cab and using 1 fan to cool the light/cab and push that air out of the cab through the carbon filter. If you are then i'd go with 2 fans 1 to vent the cab into the closet and another to pull air from the closet through the carbon filter and vent into another room.

 

[fallenangel]

i thought that was a lot of fan !! .. ok the grow space is going to be 2' 6" x 3' 6" x 7 ' cab , 600 hps 6" vortech cooling that . now i just wanted to build / buy a scrubber and keep that in the cab connected to a 465 dayton to clean and vent the cab in one shot .. is that going to do the trick ? would that move enough air to be my main vent ? { i would think so . } or is that moving air to fast for the scrubber to work properly ?

 

[dan kay]

where are you exhausting the 6" vortex to? So i guess your plan right now is venting the cab through the lamp and the closet with the 465 dayton and the carbon filter? why not just hook the carbon scrubber up to it? So its air getting pulled from the cab over the lamp through the fan and have the carbon filter outside the cab. If you need the carbon filter in the cab there has to be a DIY way to hook that up inline to that vortex cooling your lamp so its pulling air over the lamp through the carbon scrubber to grandmothers house we go (sorry had to do it).

 

[fallenangel]

ok let be a little more clear . the 600 is air cooled . that will be hooked to the vortech . that will be pulling air from outside the cab , across the light , and out of the cab ...... now i want the dayton to be the main vent for the cab ,,, replacing fresh air for the grow .. so the scrubber would be hanging in the cab , having air pulled through it by the dayton .. thus venting old stinky air out ... ( passive intake bringing fresh air in )

 

[R00KIE]

Well if you want to use 3 fans or have 3 fans then keep going the way you think....
Keep the vortec for your lights, keep the dayton for you carbon scrubber, "thats inside the cab", and the 206 bringing air in...
This will still keep a negative pressure ensuring that your scrubber works properly and your fan won't work so hard trying to pull air in passivly. Possibly making the scrubber work better...
I would also say you should build a larger scrubber if you think you will have smell issues, and you probably will... :wink:

Here's some info from OG's cache. No pics but it will give you a good idea of what to do. I did not write this info nor did i come up with the design.. A member of OG named Sun Is Shining came up with this and I figured I had better post it somewhere before it's lost.....


Yet another addition to the family of DIY carbon filter designs.
I modeled this after the expensive professional filter. It's very simple and easy to build. The only tools required are a screw driver and some wire cutters or snips of some kind.
All the materials were just under $50, here's the rundown:
Hardware cloth ~ $6 (the steel, not the plastic. in the fencing section)
6" & 8" duct caps ~ $4 (one each)
6" duct collar ~ $2
6" x 8" duct reducer ~ $3
Hose clamps ~ $6 (two 6" clamps and four 4" clamps)
Three 28oz jars of Activated Carbon ~ $20 (from the petstore)
Small package of Poly-fill ~ $1.50 (from wal-mart)
Two packages(or two-pair) Extra Queen size black panty hose ~ $2

Round that all up to $45




Ok. First to build the "core", get the hardware cloth out and wrap it around the 6" cap (for sizing, I suppose you could measure instead), and snip. Leave a few inches to overlap to strengthen the seem.
Be sure to snip so as to not leave a row of points, that will undoubtedly poke the shit out of you, not to mention it'll rip the panty hose.
Once the HC is snipped and wrapped around the cap, use a 6" hose clamp to clamp it down. Do the exact same thing on the other end but using the 6" collar - put the crimped end of the collar inside the core, leaving the tabbed end outward.
Cut the legs off a pair of panty hose and stretch each one over the capped ind of the core, stretching them and covering the entire core with two layers.

There are pics missing for a couple of steps, I appologize, my battery kept going out.

So that's the core, it's finished. Oh yeah, I added a 3rd hose clamp in the middle of the core for additonal structural integrity, though it's not necessary.

Next, take the collar-end of the core and set it into the 6" x 8" reducer as shown. Flip it over and tape the collar to the inside of the reducer. I used aluminum tape, but a good quality duct tape should do just as well. Fill in the space between the collar and the core with Poly-fill (batting or anyting of that noture will work just as well).
Once you have that done, it's time to fix the HC to the 8" reducer. Place the 8" cap in the opposite end of the HC for spacing and structure.
Form the HC around the reducer, just as it was done with the 6", and clamp it down using two 4" hose clamp together-running into each other. I couldn't find 8" hose clamps, so I put two 4" together.

Now take the panty-part of the hose, the waste band and whatnot, and stretch it over the outside of the HC. Repeat with the other pair, so you have two layers.

Now for the exciting part, fill it in with the carbon You may need to hold the core at first to keep the spacing even. This will give you a continuous 1" layer of carbon. Perfect.

Leave an inch or two of space and fill in with the Poly-fill.
*Not* At first I built it using the full 24" of the HC, after filling it in with carbon, I was left with about 6" not filled, so I snipped the HC rolls to a couple inches above the carbon line.

Now replace the 8" end-cap, clamp it down, and you're done
To refill, simply loosen the clamp on the 8" end cap, remove the cap, dump the carbon, re-fill, replace cap.


In my bloom room, I'm running a Hurrican 6" 307 cfm in-line. I have it T'd, one line pulling from the sealed, air-cooled hood (which pulls non-stinky air from outside the room through it), and the other line running to the filter. So the filter is actually "underpowered", but that's fine as it allows for slower, more even flow of the stinky air over the carbon. The open design of this filter creates minimal air-flow restriction.

This guy works like a champ, the stinky-ass air that was being blown into the backyard no longer smells at all.

I'm sure there's a couple things and points-of-interest I'm missing, but I'll get them as I remember

I hope somebody can make use of this, and I hope this is as easy to understand as I think it is.

the pro carbon filter can't be bought here that cheap, but conversely all the things on the list are readily available at most any hardware/home improvement store, save the poly-fill and carbon. Oh, and the panty hose. I think with this, the poly-fill isn't even necessary, and when I rebuild it (to do a better tutorial) I won't be using polyfill. But anyway, the polyfill is just the stuff you'd use to stuff pillows or whatever, so I'm sure there's something similar everywhere.

This filter is incredibly eay to refill, no less than the pro filters. You simplu loosen the hose clamp for the 8" cap, remove the cap, dump the carbon, reill, replace the cap, clamp it down. Couldn't be easier really.

And as for the size, rather then using 6" and 8" parts, one could easy use 4" and 6" parts instead. Also you can make the filter any length you need, if you don't have a big room, you could make a little 6"(diameter) x 10"(length) filter, for example. That would save on carbon too, making this even cheaper to build. So you can easily make whatever size you need. Hell, you could even use 2" and 4" ducting parts for a very compact filter if your room is that small.

As for the hardware cloth, why it's called hardware cloth I don't know, but it's nothing more than steel fencing/mesh, with about 1/2" spacing. Something comparable should be able to be found just about anywhere as well.

 

[xsailbox]

do you know of any alternatives to pantyhose? I just built one and it was a pain because it snagged on the hardware cloth(even though i cut out the pointy ends, theres still a tiny bit that sticks out)

 

[R00KIE]

I just finished building one and I used panty hose...
I used the poly fill first to wrap around the core, then panty hose second...
I still got some runs but hey nobody's perfect... As long as you get pelletized charcoal you should have no problems with it coming out. Maybe some dust at first....
Do the first run outdoors to get rid of any dust there may be... My charcoal wasn't nearly as dusty as i expected....

 

[Kush King]

fallen. The can-filters can be used lots of ways....

1. You could have your air Shooting into the Filter After its gone out the exaust.

2. have your fan Sucking into the filter and the scrubbers in the room and that beeing the main exaust pulling all the air out of the room.

3.Have your exaust running to another room witch is sealed off and in that room you have the filters Sucking it and shooting it back into the room...

4. have a few around the room With the can-fans Pushin the room air into the filter.
not going anywere with the air just cleaning it. kinda like a air freshiner.

I find the best way beeing number 2. cause i have a smaller grow... I have the max CFM my carbon filter can handle. I no my grow rooms air tight my walls suck in

 

[NiteTiger]

Just for reference, the reason the salesman recommended that configuration to you is because he doesn't know you're growing an illegal plant that smells like a cult of skunks all drank the koolaid.

For a straight indoor growroom (yeah, people do have them, believe it or not ), the main odors you're trying to remove are the offensive musty odors of soils and fertilizers, and for that application, his suggestion makes perfect sense. If a stray bit of air gets out unfiltered, then it very easily goes unnnoticed. Even if it is noticed, who cares? At worst they think you're a shitty house keeper.

Our worst fear if a stray bit of unfiltered air gets out involves Flash Bangs and heavily armed men. So, we make absolutely certain, with absolutely no doubts, that NO air leaves our rooms without passing through plenty of carbon.

That's actually why I dislike fresh-feed air cooled lights like you're talking about - one tiny little hole in that thin aluminum foil, one teeny crease or tear in a joint, and you end up actively promoting the smell of your garden throughout your house or neighborhood.