Humidifiers and dehumidifiers

[Guest]

Never used them my first year or two of growing,but when I started man I noticed a difference in a few areas.First off,whenever I got a spidermite problem,it always seem to start out in the veg room.Since I've been using a cool mist humdifier in veg besides the normal benefit of having a 60-70%RH in the vegroom,the mites really obviously hated that cool mist blowing at them because I havent had a mite problem in a year and a half,a definate record for me.Whenever the RH drops below 50%,I use my cool mist humidifier.I used to notice in flower that when my lights would first come on,I could actually see the "dew" in some cases on the buds,not a pretty sight.Then I learned that when the lights go out,your relative humidity will rise 20-30%,its unavoidable.Running a dehumidifier during the dark hours is a must for flowering plants IMO,running it during lights on is a good idea also if you can get away with it heatwise.I just set mine for 40% RH,and I'll pull a little over 2 gallons of water a day out of an 8 by 8 room fullo plants,thats a lot of water!Adding a cool mist humid in veg and a dehumid in flower is going to visably improve your grow if you dont use them already.

 

[TGT]

I had a four thousand watt grow going on last year in my basement. In the winter months I started to get mold growing around my window sills because the wood was always wet. Also my neibours could tell something was going on as it looked as though I was cooking spagetti sauce or showering 24 hours a day by the amount of condensation on the windows!

I went to Wall-Mart and purchased a large dehumidifier, and have not had the problem since. It's amazing how much water I pour out daily. The great thing about this dehumidifier is that it has a drain hose so that you can have it empty itself. For a large grow this is a must. I usually set mine to 50% humidity and have no problems with mold at all. Even when my buds get really large I have not once experienced bud rot like I use to every once in a while previously. I recommend a dehumidifier 100% for grows over 2000 watts.

The only drawback I can think of to having a de-humidifier is the electricity usage. I'm not sure how much it uses but I believe it to be quite high. Anyone know how many watts they use? I should just get off my lazy ass and check my unit out myself. lol! It should have it printed somewhere on the back. That sayed, it is better to use the extra electricity if you need to.

It makes a grow less noticable, makes the living area much healthier (black mold is very bad), prevents bud rot and prevents damage to the house. Also, too much humidity is not good for the plants.

TGT

 

[Guest]

Mine is a 45 pint and uses 650 watts

 

[meduser180056]

I too am a fan of the dehumidifier. Except I really only use mine during drying. Mine runs about 600watts too and produces a good amount of heat. So I don't use it in my grow areas. But then again I don't really have humidity problems here. RH stays around 50% pretty much all the time.

Do you have ventiliation going during lights out Skeletor? My RH doesn't spike when lights go out. Maybe it's cause I leave all the fans and ventilation going. I noticed it spikes alot when my ventilation is turned off.

 

[Guest]

I have a fan in the ceiling of my 8 by 8 room,its pretty small though.Maybe good ventilation is the key,I know my relative RH always rises a lot when the lights go out regardless of whats going on outside.It amazes me that I can get 2 gallon plus a day out of there,that definately does flowering plants no good

 

[Guest]

im thinking about getting one, even though my grows just for personal use. I hear low humidity extends the life of can filters.

 

[Guest]

Lower humidity extends the life of everything lol,even the floors and walls of your room!

 

[meduser180056]

Yah mines a 50 pint and it fills it up every 12 hours or so when running in a 10x10 space with drying plants. I don't use that hose drain attachment, but those are cool makes for way less maintenance. I was amazed too by how much water is in the air that gets pulled out. Crazy to think that there are literally buckets of water floating around in the air around you.

Another plus for the dehumidifier is the water that it collects is super clean. It's around 10ppm and neutral ph. I don't use mine enough to produce enough water, but I could see it coming in handy for somebody out there.