Originally Posted by DaGambler

i love when people actually test shite out. makes it so much easier for me to beleive what they are saying.

i've been so impressed with some of the vertical results that i've been reading about that i've been split between 6" vented hoods and an external winged cooltube. since electricity is more of a concern than space, i'll probably go Flat again (and i hate the idea of losing lumens from poor reflectivity)... but those stadium setups look pretty cool, for which a cooltube (from HTG) would be the shiz-nit. i hate making decisions.

Originally Posted by Jtoth3ustin

im sorry i didnt read. but.... its not whether to get a cooltube. its whether you can afford cooltube... always get a cooltube over a normal hood...

Originally Posted by Landragon

Kudos for not feeling beat up and responding to my post with eloquence and candor.

As for elaboration, the internal reflector offers very poor spread and near useless angles unless being used in the most constricted spaces, as you seem to be doing. They cool amazingly, such is why you get away with a 600 in there. The external batwing is worlds better than the internal sleeve, but still poses problems. Much of the light must pass through glass, hit metal bounce back through glass, gets partialy blocked by the arc-tube andthen passes through glass again. This cuts overall light quite a bit, and uv-b completely in the zones most effected. It's tough to wrap ones head around my verbal diagram I know. In my tests, the bakearound blocked 30% more red than the true hydro tubes and 12% more blue.

By all means, the cooltube has it's place. I think it holds great promise for small vertical applications.

I spoke with the engineers at Soler & Palau fans about the temp range I intended to run through their fans. Their stand was the max of 140•F was to insure the permanently lubricated bearing was not damaged. They said it would take a while at 140•F to damage anything, more like around 180•F for sustained periods. Their response about 120•F was to chuckle. I figured that was all I needed.

Cool air is more dense,and therefore gives more "bite" to the impeller. But this is negligble in the range we deal with. My 400 raise the air from 73•F to 88•F. When I also ducted my exhaust fan over to my veg side as well which uses 365 watts, the temp goes to 95•F. We aren't dealng with simar situation to "high and dry" for helicopters.

I tested using a crude but reasonably effective method to determine my fans pull better. I got a big card board box. I cut 100 2" holes all over it. I then cut visqueen to size of each panel. Next I taped all visqueen panels to form a "box bag". I inserted boxbag into big box, mounted a 6" flange and got super high. Then my girlfrien came home saw my contraption in the living room and just went in the bedroom shaking her head. Finaly I hooked a sixteen foot length of insulated Thermoflo brand duct to each side of the fan. The box went in the kitchen and my fanaconda stretched across my home. First the push, then the pull. The fan was turned on and the duct fitted over the flange. Stopwatch engaged right then by other half, and turned off when bag filled box. Similar test to deflate. Deflation was 15% quicker.

Originally Posted by Picasso345

Very nice. It is so easy to decide we like something and then we find the facts that support that decision instead of looking at the facts first and then making a decision.

I appreciate it, great info.

Originally Posted by Landragon

There is a phenomena whereby once a human has spent money on something, or feel like they have stumbled upon a great discovery, no facts an convince him or her of it's unworthiness.