Thinnest, heat-resistent, clear material for air-cooled hoods

[ooga booga]

Non-air-cooled hoods always seem to produce the best yields. I'm not sure if this is more attributed to light lost through the glass lens or through the duct ends, but the glass must surely play a significant role.

I'm thinking of swapping out the lens on a reflector with a noticeably thinner lens of sorts.

What's the thinnest glass or glass-like (clear, heat resistant, strong enough) material available to a layman? Noticed the glass on some hoods are a little thinner or thicker depending on the manufacturer or model.

I think OSH will cut glass for you but I'm not sure how thin theirs is. Also unsure whether I'll really need tempered glass, I don't think it will ever matter unless the fan fails... but if that happened even the tempered glass likely won't help.

Probably won't make much of a difference at all in the end, but if it's not expensive it'd be an interesting thing to check out.

 

[trademanny]

I think the manufacturers have already done this research and determined tempered glass was the best to use.

 

[ooga booga]

I highly doubt it makes a difference as long as the fan is cooling the lights. The glass never gets so hot that non-tempered glass will crack or break or otherwise be affected.

 

[trademanny]

You hit the nail on the head though, 'as long as the fan is cooling the lights'. I dunno that I would want to risk shattering glass due to extreme heat in my cab if my fan decided to shit the bed on me.

The extra couple grams isn't worth the possible safety risk IMHO..

This being said, however, I'm not sure if there is any lumen-loss difference between tempered and non-tempered glass.

 

[FRIENDinDEED]

i know what your saying, although i tend to agree with others that it really doesnt make a difference, in regards to the thought processof what if.

if you think that its making that much of a difference though, then you can try LUXON (or if i remember correctly that is the spelling of it). they sell it in sheets of different cuts at HOMEDEPOT.

one side of the luxon is supposed to face the direction of where the light is coming from, so it has two sides to it. part that faces light is the heat resistant side; side that faces out stays cooler.

i have heard that some people that make their own cooltubes of normally thicker glass, they do notice some color discoloration and intensity changes than when the bulb was out side of that.

its about as thick as 1/8th" or maybe even a lil smaller than that, and its clear like glass once you buy it caused it has a protective film on either side of it. its hell to peal off but once you get a lil edge of it off/up, it normally pulls straight off.

post pics of like then and now and maybe a difference can be noticed.

 

[SmokingGlass]

is there really a diminishing return from using aircooled hoods because I just picked up 2 600w aircooled's and i really dont want any lower yeild.

 

[samba]

On PICO's thread on aircooled hoods someone made a test, with and without the glass,the difference was minimal... With aircooling you get the light closer to the plants,thats more important

 

[catman]

is there really a diminishing return from using aircooled hoods because I just picked up 2 600w aircooled's and i really dont want any lower yeild.

Try without the hoods and see if you can control the temperature. People don't use hoods for no reason.

With cooled lights your going to be able to get your light close to the plants which allows the light to penetrate further down which will yield you more bud! Light dimensions very quickly over distance.

 

[VenturaHwy]

If you are looking for the biggest yield then the Base up bulbs with the cone hoods from the 70's are the best. The kind they make today direct the light downward so the light is not evenly distributed over a large area - its too intense right under the light and not enough light to the sides. The big 4" cone hoods allow the light to spread out and you won't need light movers...... 1,000 watts are nice

 

[kaljukajakas]

You can always buy a few simple thermal fuses (melt and cut the power when hot) or small bimetal thermostats and put them on the outside surface of your hood so when it gets too hot the light shuts off.

 

[ooga booga]

If you are looking for the biggest yield then the Base up bulbs with the cone hoods from the 70's are the best. The kind they make today direct the light downward so the light is not evenly distributed over a large area - its too intense right under the light and not enough light to the sides. The big 4" cone hoods allow the light to spread out and you won't need light movers...... 1,000 watts are nice

If you're talking about the parabolic hoods (shaped like an umbrella), I thought those were one of the least efficient reflectors available?

 

[samba]

If you're talking about the parabolic hoods (shaped like an umbrella), I thought those were one of the least efficient reflectors available?

Thats what I thought to,I think pico tested one and it was bad...

 

[Charg5152]

I've tested some different materials on a micro level. I've used regular window glass, Lexon or Luxon (spelling?) plexiglass, and regular sheet plexiglass. The window glass and plexiglass both performed noticeably better than the specialty "Lexon" kind of plexiglass. To the human eye the regular plexiglass let more light through than the window glass, but it did cause any noticeable difference in yield.

 

[kaljukajakas]

How hot did the plastic get in your experiments Charg5152?

The other plastic is "Lexan", BTW, a polycarbonate often marketed as bullet proof. Lexan will not stand the test of time as well as acrylic (regular plexiglass), it will start losing it's transparency quite quickly. Polycarbonate can take slightly higher temperatures though (up to 130 deg. C/265 deg. F) and indeed it's not as transparent: about 85-90% vs 92-98% for plexiglass are the usual figures I think.

 

[Charg5152]

How hot did the plastic get in your experiments Charg5152?

The other plastic is "Lexan", BTW, a polycarbonate often marketed as bullet proof. Lexan will not stand the test of time as well as acrylic (regular plexiglass), it will start losing it's transparency quite quickly. Polycarbonate can take slightly higher temperatures though (up to 130 deg. C/265 deg. F) and indeed it's not as transparent: about 85-90% vs 92-98% for plexiglass are the usual figures I think.

That is exactly what happened to the Lexan plexiglass. I noticed that it was blocking more light than the standard plexi glass fromt he beginning, but it became more and more cloudy as time went on.

I am using 8 55 watt 2700K CRL's in a microsetting (2ft x 2ft x 4ft tall. The CFL's are covering the entire ceiling and seperated from the plants by traditional acrylic plexiglass. Even though the bulbs are incredibly hot to the touch, the air flow keeps the plexiglass relatively cool. There is only a quarter of an inch between the bulbs and the plexiglass and I have not had any issues with heat and the acrylic's integrity. After how I have seen how the shield has help up so far, I am going to experiment with adding a smaller hsp bulb.

 

[kaljukajakas]

Good luck with the HPS. They do get a lot hotter than CFL-s so I'd keep my eye on the plexiglass for the first hour or two and move it a bit further from the light if the plexi starts sagging

Returning to the original topic - actually the thinnest, heat-resistant clear material that's easily available is the plastic film those bags used for cooking in an oven are made of. You could stretch it flat on your hood an that's it. I think they're made from clear nylon, which is optically unexceptional (to say the least), but as the film is so thin it's still pretty transparent.