Has anyone used the HydroGEN Water cooled Co2 Generator?

[Grow4Profit]

I want to buy this product (the Natural Gas version) and I wanted to find out if anyone else is useing it and what thier experiance has been like.

It says ot puts out about 45 Cubic Feet of Co2 per hour and it's around $350
I was looking at the CAP one that puts out 36 Cubic feet per hour and it costs about $900 What's the deal?

 

[Grow4Profit]

Just received this UPS today. I'm going to set it up tomorrow. I'll let yall know how it works. i spoke with Steve the founder and owner of Hydro Innovations and he said there was some pressure problems with the gas lines in some areas so the NG version wouldn't work. Hopefully that's not the case in my area. I've also mailed in my 1 year warranty card just in case.

 

[feather]

I have been dealing with this product for about a month. I bought two of these pieces of garbage. I'm out about $3000.00 and a ton of work. Let me detail some problems:

1) Co2 computers will not fire the sump pumps, they are only rated for 1/2 amp for a solenoid.. I had to go to radio Shack, buy a transformer, take out the HydroGen battery pack, and have the computer turn the burner on and off ( which it does not do reliably) and let the pumps run 24/7 ( hello burnt out pumps).

2) The inlet screen for the water is tiny, the smallest particles will clog it resulting in poor water flow, then the burner shuts down.

3) Unless you have tons of space, where will you put a couple hundred gallon reservoir and chiller? So I used Hydroinnovations (H.I.) suggestion and did a open air tank outside. 725 gallons. Which of course gets debris ( see 2), after some clever filtration ( totally clean now), still can't get it to work.

4) After calling for tech support I was told to readjust the sensors ( take the burner apart) take off the gas flow regulators, and circumvent the battery pack. I also have used six different types of pumps at H.I. suggestions.

5) if you do drain to waste be prepared for a water consumption around 1000 gallons a day. How friendly are you with your water department? You do drain to waste and your gonna get much friendlier.

Here's my thought, this is a product that was rushed out and is WORTHLESS!!! At best it is so tempermental ( water flow, gas flow, batteries, etc.) that it is useless to use. It is obviously not ready for use. Wait a few years, if they are still in business post your question again.

I have spent over a month fiddling with these, I have spent thousands beyond the burner cost ( pumps, ponds, chillers, computers, numerous fittings), have done the Home Depot run about a dozen frustrating times, had several conversations with H.I. and they still DO NOT WORK!! I am now to far into my cycle to recoup anything ( assuming I can ever get this to work)

I am in the process of trying to get a refund ( or as much as I can ) from the store I bought them at and scrap this idiocy. I also plan on contacting the Hydrofarm rep and letting him know what I think about being ripped off.


If I could get it to operate for longer then 90 seconds I would be overjoyed. I'm not overjoyed, do the math.

 

[Grow4Profit]

Well that sucks...I just spent around $400 after shipping on this thing. How much water does it really use if you drain to waste? That was my plan. I have the municipal gas line and water lines being hooked up to it today with the sentinel Chhc-1 controling the water valve.

 

[noone88]

Well that sucks...I just spent around $400 after shipping on this thing. How much water does it really use if you drain to waste? That was my plan. I have the municipal gas line and water lines being hooked up to it today with the sentinel Chhc-1 controling the water valve.

I'll offer a different opinion. I'm using a HydroGEN, water chiller w/ reservoir, controlled by a CHHC-1. What has worked best for me was:

1/4 HP water chiller with a pump that feeds water into the chiller, cold water feeds into the reservoir. Stored outside of the room

Another pump connected controlled by the CHHC that feeds into the HydroGEN. This pump sits at the bottom of the reservoir.

The unit works fine. With summer coming along, I may have to upgrade to a larger reservoir/water chiller due to the extra heat generated from everything. Ultimately, I had to remove the gas pressure regulator because the unit sometimes would not fire from a cold start, even after adjusting the pilot light.

Water chiller method is more expensive due to the power consumption of the chiller. Right now, i'm doing a hybrid water chiller/drain to waste. When the reservoir reaches a certain temperature, I dump the whole thing out and refill with new municipal water. Note, 700-800 gallons a day consumption is actually on the low end for a 4 BR residence.

 

[Grow4Profit]

I'll offer a different opinion. I'm using a HydroGEN, water chiller w/ reservoir, controlled by a CHHC-1. What has worked best for me was:

1/4 HP water chiller with a pump that feeds water into the chiller, cold water feeds into the reservoir. Stored outside of the room

Another pump connected controlled by the CHHC that feeds into the HydroGEN. This pump sits at the bottom of the reservoir.

The unit works fine. With summer coming along, I may have to upgrade to a larger reservoir/water chiller due to the extra heat generated from everything. Ultimately, I had to remove the gas pressure regulator because the unit sometimes would not fire from a cold start, even after adjusting the pilot light.

Water chiller method is more expensive due to the power consumption of the chiller. Right now, i'm doing a hybrid water chiller/drain to waste. When the reservoir reaches a certain temperature, I dump the whole thing out and refill with new municipal water. Note, 700-800 gallons a day consumption is actually on the low end for a 4 BR residence.

Wow. Thank you very much for your input! That makes me feel much better. What is the average PPM in your room? Cubic Feet?

I'm at around 550 ppm when I walk in the room. That's with the intake and exhaust running 24/7. also my water heater is in my room so when that goes on it jumps to around 950ppm. Hopefully I won't have to run the Co2 unit very much to aquire the needed 1500ppm. The room is about 350sqft. my temp at 600 ppm is under 78F hopefully I will be able to run my intake, exhust, and the Co2 generator intermitenly and keep it at 1500ppm and under 88F with under 65% humidity. My 20k BTU a/c just crapped out on me so temp and humidity are my worries now.

 

[noone88]

Wow. Thank you very much for your input! That makes me feel much better. What is the average PPM in your room? Cubic Feet?

I'm at around 550 ppm when I walk in the room. That's with the intake and exhaust running 24/7. also my water heater is in my room so when that goes on it jumps to around 950ppm. Hopefully I won't have to run the Co2 unit very much to aquire the needed 1500ppm. The room is about 350sqft. my temp at 600 ppm is under 78F hopefully I will be able to run my intake, exhust, and the Co2 generator intermitenly and keep it at 1500ppm and under 88F with under 65% humidity. My 20k BTU a/c just crapped out on me so temp and humidity are my worries now.

The main issue that I can see is that if you're using CO2, you need to run a sealed environment (or semi-sealed). That means you cannot vent in/out for heat.

You'll be stuck in this vicious cycle, which is temps will rise in your room due to ambient temperature or the HydroGEN firing. If you try to remove the heat by intake/exhaust fans, you'll suck out all the CO2 generated, which will cause the HydroGEN to fire up again. This will cause a slow rise in the reservoir temperature. At a certain temp, the water chiller will shut down.

I would advise getting your AC working first before diving into CO2.

Edit: to answer your question, the HydroGEN generates tons of CO2, so size/lights/# of plants is a less important factor for you. Take care of your heat/humidity issues first. As for ideal room temps with CO2, i've done tons of research and the "ideal" number varies. The bible states 80 degrees, with 85 degrees being too hot which causes the stomata to close up. However, in my grow room, temps are between 84-88F and the plants seem to be thriving. I am afraid to go over 90 degrees though.

 

[Grow4Profit]

I don't have to worry about the resivior temp or the chiller because I'm running the municiple water through the unit then dumping it down the drain. I do have the problem of the ventalation however because I have to run my exahust at least 15 mins per hour for sent control. That is gonna suck out all the Co2 and the ppm's will drop which will ignite the HydroGEN generator. I am hoping I can run all my exhaust and intake and the generator all at the same time and keep the PPM at 1500 for the 12 hour light cycle. I think that would be too expensive to run the generator for 12 hours strait every day. I'll have to fool around with it and see what i can come up with. My buddy is a plumber and he's gonna hook it all up and make sure it runs properly

 

[noone88]

I don't have to worry about the resivior temp or the chiller because I'm running the municiple water through the unit then dumping it down the drain. I do have the problem of the ventalation however because I have to run my exahust at least 15 mins per hour for sent control. That is gonna suck out all the Co2 and the ppm's will drop which will ignite the HydroGEN generator. I am hoping I can run all my exhaust and intake and the generator all at the same time and keep the PPM at 1500 for the 12 hour light cycle. I think that would be too expensive to run the generator for 12 hours strait every day. I'll have to fool around with it and see what i can come up with. My buddy is a plumber and he's gonna hook it all up and make sure it runs properly

If you're going to drain to waste, then that's fine.

I understand about creating negative pressure in the grow room, but I would try my best to seal up the room. You can always vent in/out during the dark period and leave the intake/exhaust fans off during the light cycle. I do exactly that with the C.A.P. ART-DNe. My intake/exhaust fans cycle during the dark period and are off during the light period.

 

[Grow4Profit]

I was able to get the room to around 1200 ppm with my exaust fans on. It easily went to 1500 without them. I have sealed the room as best I can using Panda Plastic but the room is real big. There is no way that I can leave the exhaust fans off for 12 hours strait because they are only in they're 3rd week and you can smell it in the garage wich is conected to the grow by a door. That means in full bloom you may be able to smell it on the street. I may have to run another 1000cfm exhaust fan and filter.

I hooked up the HydroGEN generator by running a hard line copper water line directly into the unit. I ran clear tubing for the waste water and ziptied the end to a drain in the floor. I had the NG pipe ran close to the unit and hard piped in the regulator. I put a flexible NG hose from the regulator to the unit. It seemed to fire up most of the time right away. I was playing with the settings alot but it seemed to not fire up a few times. I heard the ignition spark and the water was flowing but no flame. This only hapened a few times but I'm worried that when I'm not there the unit won't fire.

My dilema is: what intervals should I run the exhaust fans at to 1. control the smell 2. keep the heat down?

I was thinking to set the brain up to run the exhaust fans after the temp gets up to 85 and stay on till it gets back down to 75 then shut off. I couldn't figure how to do this with the Chhc-1 but I have only had it for a couple of days. I know how to get the fans to come on at 85F and interlock it with the Co2 so the generator shuts off when the fans are on but how do I get the fans to turn off and the Co2 back on once the temp hits 75F?

If I could do this then I could keep the room at the proper Co2/temp range as well as run the exhaust fans in intervals.

The problem with the fans coming on at 85F and shut back off when they get below 85F is that the fans and Co2 gen will be battleing back and forth constantly and it will make it so the gen has to constantly kick on and off.

any sugestions? or advice on how to set the Chhc-1 to do what I need?

 

[FilthyFletch]

Wow this sounds like an exspensive and complicated way to get co2 usage. A used greenair cd-6 unit is only around $100 and in a room heat is minmal considering with co2 you want temps 80-85 F. A simple tank setup for like 4x8 tents or a small 8x8 room is cheap to figure about $150 for a time controlled solenoid and tank with hose and a simple cycle timer with 1 minute intervals

 

[Grow4Profit]

Wow this sounds like an exspensive and complicated way to get co2 usage. A used greenair cd-6 unit is only around $100 and in a room heat is minmal considering with co2 you want temps 80-85 F. A simple tank setup for like 4x8 tents or a small 8x8 room is cheap to figure about $150 for a time controlled solenoid and tank with hose and a simple cycle timer with 1 minute intervals

I don't buy used equipment unless I know the person who is selling it. The CD-6 Co2 generator brand new would be more expensive than the one I bought. Also the CD-6 is not water cooled and would put out too much heat for my room.

The whole reason I went with the generator instead of the tanks is because refilling the tanks is a pain in the ass. My buddy has to do it and he is switching to a generator. I am running 18 lights in over 600square feet so tanks are not very efficient and with the hydro system Im running there are no tents big enough.

 

[FilthyFletch]

Tents come in pretty big sizes I have seen 30 by 30 tents recently.They get used in warehouse grows to help control odor and have multiple environments. I use tanks on my 4x8 tents have to fill twice during flower but I have 4 extra tanks so it takes about 3 minutes to do as you just looses the nut then tighten it. Once every month and a half I drive 5 minutes to the welder shop and re fill my tanks at about $19 a tank. The green air cd-6 puts off very little heat and even that can be controlled by making an insulated hot box and useing fans to move the co2 to the room. In a 10 by 10 room I run 1 cd-6 got mine new for $220 shipped so not bad and came with the extra natural gas conversion lines. My little cd-3 which i got for $125 new does well in rooms up to about 8x8.

 

[Rudiger]

Did you get your Chhc-1 figured out? they're pretty easy and basic.
Have you got everything figured out with the HydroGen? I am really thinking of switching from a regular gen to that style and adding some Ice Boxes from the same company. The spring/summer time heat is killing me in electricity and smell. Just wondering which side you fall into, the 'hate it' side or the 'love it' side.
I emailed the company and they said that they are introducing a new model that gets plugged in to the co2 monitor and has the pump run constantly, instead of the unit being turned on by water flow. Problems with it i'm guessing. They figured about 3 more months till it's out, which is shit as summer will be nearing the end by then.

 

[nathenking]

Thank god I found this thread, was really thinking of buying a hydrogen... Does anybody know what the best co2 generators are?

 

[Grow4Profit]

I really like the generator but haven't got it all dialed in with the brain yet. I'm in a fairly big room and still trying to figure out how to control smell heat and PPM's all together. I think I have it though.

From what I've gathered the Chhc-1 has a deadband feature wich does the fallowing: You set the PPM at 1600 then set the dead band at 600 PPM that way when the generator brings it up to 1600PPM it will shut off and not turn on again untill the PPM drops to 1000 (1600 setting minus the 600 deadband=1000) is this correct?

If this is right I will set it up like this and put my intake fan interlocked in the cooling portion of the brain. Then I will put my exahust on a timer for 15 mins on every hour durring the 12 hour light cycle for the first 6 weeks of flower. This should help control the smell enough to not be noticable from the street. I'd like to put the exahust on the brain in the cooling section and set it to 80F with a 10 degree deadband but if the room never got above 80 then the exahust would never turn on and the Smell would again become an issue. I have to experiment with this a little and see what works. I haven't had the time to fool around with it lattley but I'm hoping I can do it tonight.

Once I have it all dailed in I will post the results.

As far as I can tell the generator is doing a great job. When I plug it strait into an outlet it easily fills my 300+ sqft room to 1600PPMs and the temp doesnt get much over 83F. I am impressed with it so far.

 

[Mcgician]

How about the Iceboxes? Anybody using those have any input as to how well they work when hooked up correctly?

 

[noone88]

I really like the generator but haven't got it all dialed in with the brain yet. I'm in a fairly big room and still trying to figure out how to control smell heat and PPM's all together. I think I have it though.

From what I've gathered the Chhc-1 has a deadband feature wich does the fallowing: You set the PPM at 1600 then set the dead band at 600 PPM that way when the generator brings it up to 1600PPM it will shut off and not turn on again untill the PPM drops to 1000 (1600 setting minus the 600 deadband=1000) is this correct?

If this is right I will set it up like this and put my intake fan interlocked in the cooling portion of the brain. Then I will put my exahust on a timer for 15 mins on every hour durring the 12 hour light cycle for the first 6 weeks of flower. This should help control the smell enough to not be noticable from the street. I'd like to put the exahust on the brain in the cooling section and set it to 80F with a 10 degree deadband but if the room never got above 80 then the exahust would never turn on and the Smell would again become an issue. I have to experiment with this a little and see what works. I haven't had the time to fool around with it lattley but I'm hoping I can do it tonight.

Once I have it all dailed in I will post the results.

As far as I can tell the generator is doing a great job. When I plug it strait into an outlet it easily fills my 300+ sqft room to 1600PPMs and the temp doesnt get much over 83F. I am impressed with it so far.

No, the deadband works in reverse. In your example, you set the PPM at 1000 and the deadband at 600. It will fire to 1600 and will not refire until 1000.

However, you can only set the max deadband to 200.

Getting it all dialed in is the hardest part

 

[Grow4Profit]

No, the deadband works in reverse. In your example, you set the PPM at 1000 and the deadband at 600. It will fire to 1600 and will not refire until 1000.

However, you can only set the max deadband to 200.

Getting it all dialed in is the hardest part

Ok. That's great to know. I wish it had a bigger deadband but I think I can make it work,

 

[noone88]

Ok. That's great to know. I wish it had a bigger deadband but I think I can make it work,

We're in the same boat, but i'm in the southern portion of your state. You're lucky to have a lot lower ambient temps during day and night. You're using drain to waste, which will make it a lot easier.

In my area, with 6,000 watts, sealed room, and CO2, one exhaust fan is far from sufficient