Hydrohut Mini ventilation help

[jcsmooth]

Hi all,

Well my hydrohut mini will be at my door very shortly, as well as my Lumatek 400 digi ballast and other goodies, but I've got a couple questions for the experts and experienced out there.

As you may or may not know, the hydrohut mini features 4" vents, something many of us here consider a design flaw (6" being ideal). Now I couldn't get a hold of a homebox which features the 6", so I had to unfortunately go with the hydrohut. Anyways, my elicient fan and hood are fitted for 6" ducts, so herein lies my dilemma.

Since my hood is not 100% air tight and there is no great way to do this without risking a fire, my ventilation will go as follows...
Scubber --> Fan plus a bit of ducting --> Hood --> Ducting to exhaust
The air that may "accidentally" leak out of the hood will be scent free, but with this configuration I don't have to worry about stink air entering through the hood and bypassing by carbon scrubber.

Anyways, I'm faced with the dilemma of keeping the 4" exhaust vent by using a 6"->4" duct reducer, OR, using something to burn a new 6" hole around the previous one and thus enlarge the existing one.
Ideally I don't want to fuck something up here. Would the duct reducer cause me a good deal of air flow restriction? Perhaps this would also increase the noise level as well, seeing as the same amount of air would have to be forced through a smaller hole.

Would do you think? All help is greatly appreciated!
JC

 

[clowntown]

If you don't have a speed controller for that 6" Elicent, it could cause a lot of back pressure through the 4" ducting, and quite possibly extra unwanted noise. Personally, I would carefully cut out a 6" hole and attach a 6" flange, regardless of whether you have a speed controller for that Elicent or not.

 

[jcsmooth]

Thanks for the response clowntown
I didn't mention that I do have a speed controller, which up to this point has always been on the lowest setting. I knew I'd need the fan for a larger project down the road (like now!), so I will have it turned up a bit.

Unfortunately I didn't order the 6" flange kit with my hydrohut. At the time I wasn't sure what I was going to do because of this dilemma. I was at home depot the other day and they had a 4" flange kit but nothing bigger. This particular place also didn't have any 6" duct pieces...I was specifically looking for those 90 degree ones we talked about in PM. I did get those 90 degree elbows at another place though.

I'm hoping more people respond to this so I can get a good idea if anyone has done this already.
I have a 6" hose clamp that I could probably heat up on a stove element and then push through the hut. Just sounds so barbaric! I'm thinking it would be easier to use something larger than a hose clamp, but that means going out and purchasing it

Any more help?

JC

 

[JoeMomma]

the hydrohut original that I bought was mysteriously already redesigned with 4 6" holes.. but what I was going to do was get a 6" pipe and heat it up really hot, get a friend to hold a piece of wood on the other side, and then burn where i wanted it. I was then going to clean it up a little and put one of the 6" flange kits that they sell separately on it (those would cover and support the newly created 6" hole). also you could stitch around the edge to give it that little extra support if you needed to.
enclosed is a 6" pic, you can see how they stitched around it etc...

hope that helps.
~Joe

 

[clowntown]

That's a great idea with the hot pipe!

With the HydroHut flange kit, with the metal ring on the other side held by the nuts & bolts, a hole made by a pair of scissors would probably work as well.

I'm going to pick up my HomeBox tonight (it's been sitting at a friend's house for a little while now), and I'll see how the duct socks are attached and how to go about attaching the HydroHut double flange kit.

 

[RuralRoute420]

^

^

burn a hole like he said up there, i believe this is what the makers of hydrohut instructed somebody to do if they wanted to alter the hut to take on 6" ducts. just make sure you have a flange on there.



i use the mini, and i use 4" ducting to a 4"->6" reducer going to my stanly blower fan going to a 6"-4" and out the flange, no scrubber. 400w. i get great temps.

 

[jcsmooth]

Thank you so much for the responses guys.
My original plan was to use 6" ducting and to use a 6"->4" reducer just before exiting the tent.
By the looks of it I will have to order this 6" flange kit soon and retrofit it into the tent.

JoeMomma....
Great ideas I'm a little confused about that pic. you enclosed. When you say this is how "THEY stitched around it", do you mean that is from the factory?
A lot of people here saw "this is how WE grow", and I never really understand who the hell WE is.
Is they you or is they hydrohut?
If it is hydrohut then I hope my tent comes with that little add on.
Why wouldn't they have made the cut for us and then just put a flap that's sealed with velcro around it? Seems kinda like they went half way with it.
I believe that budbox comes with an adjustable exhaust vent (100-200cm). I would have liked that feature!

I'll have to order this 6" flange kit soon though...another cross border purchase

Thanks again,
JC

 

[JoeMomma]

yeah, i ordered my hydrohut original (suppose to come with only 2 of the 4" flange holes in it) and when I unpacked it it mysteriously already had 4 6" holes (3 on the top and a 1 at the bottom) thats why I never had to burn or stitch anything. the stitching on that picture shows the side wall and the Velcro strip on the outside of the hut (the flap is closed in the pic). I was just trying to show what it should end up looking like if you burned, flanged, and stitched it yourself.
~Joe

 

[noobgrower]

I just have my vortex 4" sitting on top of the hut sucking air out not even taped or anything no vent hose either. I took that flange off. Probably going to get hermies anyway Im ditching this junk after this grow anyway.
why did they bother with the intakes when tons of light gets through without taping them?

 

[clowntown]

Sounds like you did something seriously wrong... you know, when something "bad" happens, do you ever consider "maybe it's something I did" rather than running around looking for something to blame?

 

[jcsmooth]

Haha...seriously, what the hell happened? It hardly sounds like the hydrohut's fault. There's quite a few happy tent owners out there, so unless you provide any evidence to make me think otherwise, I'm just going to forget about that "help" you provided.

JC

 

[stretchpuppy]

I'm glad mine came with 4" flanges since I'm running 4" Vortex's....

Personally I'd rather cut a new hole than use a reducer if I had to.

I didn't follow your air path (stoned), are you pulling or pushing? I pull from the glass hood, and push to a carbon scrubber outside of the tent.

Good luck with your tent. I used super heavy duty velcro to keep the inner flaps shut as well as the main front flap, and the tent sits in a dark room with windows sealed off in black plastic. I wouldn't keep the tent in a well-lit area...

Works great with a few considerations in mind...

 

[jcsmooth]

Stretch...no need to apologize that you're stoned
I'll try to better explain what I'm dealing with and see if others have experience and advice for or against it.

The hood I'll be using in my tent is the silverstar (not a great fit but it will work). Anyways, the silverstar has a fair amount of places where air can leak through (it's not a cool tube, which more than likely is 100% air tight when ducted).
Since I want all exhaust air to be smell free, using the standard configuration of scrubber to hood to fan, will not work as air will leak through the hood and contaminate the smell free exhaust.

What I've been thinking of doing is running the configuration of scrubber to fan to hood, meaning that most of the air will go through the hood and be exhausted smell free, and what air does escape through the hood and back into the tent will be smell free anyways.

I can put the scrubber on the outside of the tent and push through it, but in he name of stealth I don't want anything suspicious looking on the outside.

This tent will be in my second bedroom which is completely unoccupied (I live on my own), but when people come over to hang out and get the ol' tour, I'd like nothing to look out of place.

The tent is still on its way to may place so I'm anxiously awaiting its arrival!
Thanks for all the help bud. So you have no problems pushing through that scrubber eh? I like the idea of pulling through it but if things don't work out the way I planned I may have to do just that. Besides, keeping it on the outside would mean I could rig up an support stand for the heavy scrubber and not have the tent support it.

See ya around,
JC

 

[noobgrower]

Haha...seriously, what the hell happened? It hardly sounds like the hydrohut's fault. There's quite a few happy tent owners out there, so unless you provide any evidence to make me think otherwise, I'm just going to forget about that "help" you provided.

JC

Well it is a good setup except the passive intakes should really be light proof for proper airflow. I was mistaken even though I just have my blower sitting on top there's no light leaks there.

 

[stretchpuppy]

The hood I'll be using in my tent is the silverstar (not a great fit but it will work). Anyways, the silverstar has a fair amount of places where air can leak through (it's not a cool tube, which more than likely is 100% air tight when ducted). Since I want all exhaust air to be smell free, using the standard configuration of scrubber to hood to fan, will not work as air will leak through the hood and contaminate the smell free exhaust.

What I've been thinking of doing is running the configuration of scrubber to fan to hood, meaning that most of the air will go through the hood and be exhausted smell free, and what air does escape through the hood and back into the tent will be smell free anyways.

Gotcha. You'll have to try it and see. My super sun doesn't have an 100% air-seal either, even though the glass is pulled in pretty tight from the fan. Pushing has never been an issue and has me closer to 100% odor removal in my situation.

Stealth is an issue... I'm also running a similar config... with a mom cab in the room as well. It ends up being the room you know... I can tell you first hand they are not 100% light proof stock, and when you're running an HPS in there a untrained eye can tell something is up. Even with my velcro junk and added filters over the outer intake the HPS still blasts through. 400w. Keeping the room dark in general with these tents is important. You might want to consider that hobby room off limit to everyone... you'll see.

The tent is still on its way to may place so I'm anxiously awaiting its arrival!
Thanks for all the help bud. So you have no problems pushing through that scrubber eh? I like the idea of pulling through it but if things don't work out the way I planned I may have to do just that. Besides, keeping it on the outside would mean I could rig up an support stand for the heavy scrubber and not have the tent support it.

Word bro... You'll love it once things are dialed in a bit. The roof wires are kind of thin looking but do hold up the vortex, hood and two fans pretty well. The thing seemed huge when I first set it up...

 

[stretchpuppy]

Im ditching this junk after this grow anyway.

I'm a happy tent owner. I don't trust you'd be able to box it properly or I'd offer shipping....

 

[noobgrower]

I'm a happy tent owner. I don't trust you'd be able to box it properly or I'd offer shipping....

hey now come on bro even you admitted it wouldnt work well in a room with light which wasn't what I was told...that's really all I'm saying.

 

[DJ_highst_]

I have the Hydrohut OG and the HH deluxe and love both, but the deluxe is the shit and I rcommend that if you can swing the extra cash and space, but anyways.......


In my OG (also used this when I had my mini, before upgrading) I used a 4-6" reducer and it works just fine. I got a 600w HPS in there

6 hindu kush x skunk and 6 purple kush.

 

[stretchpuppy]

Very clean setup Highst, love it...

 

[DJ_highst_]

Very clean setup Highst, love it...

thanks for the love