Carbon Filter quality improving??

Renfro

Well-Known Member
I got a phresh filter from amazon because of recommendations here. I’m scared to use it because it seems like just an accordion shaped filter paper in there. It weighs almost nothing. (6”x 12”) The can filter I have is 10 times heavier. Is this how all phresh filters are made?
Never seen one like what you are describing. You have a link to it?

What cfm fan/filter size do you have and do you vent to outside? I've tried every brand and still end up with that green smell after 6mos or so
Mine run 24/7/365 as scrubbers.

Without them you can smell me at the street real solid and I only had my veg room running then with 4kW in flower. Now I have the veg room just for veg and two 10kW flowering rooms and you can't smell it standing in the room but if one of those filters stops it's a few minutes and the smell starts creeping.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Could a fan pulling less air keeping the exhaust air in contact with the carbon surfaces inside the filter longer possibly remove more odors?
Yes.

Filters are rated with a CFM number, different for single pass (exhaust) versus multiple pass (scrubber). A single pass number will be lower than the multi-pass number. Running as a scrubber you get better results moving the air trough quicker since you get to keep recycling the same air. As an exhaust the filter only gets one stab at it so you don't want to out run the filter.
 

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
Never seen one like what you are describing. You have a link to it?


Mine run 24/7/365 as scrubbers.

Without them you can smell me at the street real solid and I only had my veg room running then with 4kW in flower. Now I have the veg room just for veg and two 10kW flowering rooms and you can't smell it standing in the room but if one of those filters stops it's a few minutes and the smell starts creeping.
So you have an exhaust and a few filters just set on the ground with fans on them to scrub the air as well?
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
So you have an exhaust and a few filters just set on the ground with fans on them to scrub the air as well?
No exhaust. I have 6 scrubbers around here, all the same setup. Each flowering room has two 48x12 inch phat filters with 12 inch vortex fans, one in veg and one in my drying room (that one only runs when weed is in there). I use the output flow directed with an adjustable elbow to blow under the lights and above my canopy to move some heat, saves me on needing more wall fans.
 

sandman83

Well-Known Member
Thanks renfro, I'm gonna do the same and toss my xxl 6" in for scrubbing then grab another phresh for the exhaust just in case.
 

twalte

Well-Known Member

That chart shows the different numbers for single and multi pass filtration.
Wow...for single pass filtration, you basically take half of the rated cfm! So I should technically be using a monstrous 800cfm filter for a 5x5x8 tent running a fan at about 400 cfm? Under this calculation, I’ve never had enough filter to effectively filter on a single pass, so I guess it’s really not fair to judge the cheap Amazon filters too harshly. They are probably 400 cfm or less filters, so you’d only want to be running your exhaust fan at 200 cfm. That’s not enough to cool my 1000 watt air cooled hood.
 

Gemtree

Well-Known Member
Wow...for single pass filtration, you basically take half of the rated cfm! So I should technically be using a monstrous 800cfm filter for a 5x5x8 tent running a fan at about 400 cfm? Under this calculation, I’ve never had enough filter to effectively filter on a single pass, so I guess it’s really not fair to judge the cheap Amazon filters too harshly. They are probably 400 cfm or less filters, so you’d only want to be running your exhaust fan at 200 cfm. That’s not enough to cool my 1000 watt air cooled hood.
That's probably why everyone has the wrong cfm for years they were saying the high number was for exhaust and low for scrubbing. They changed it now but dug through pics to find one.
Can 33 .png
 

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
I think you are on to something there. Never liked that brand anyways. Phat and Phresh always advertised the correct numbers.
Can-filter will probably see some changes now that they are under the Hawethorne Gardening Parent company.
A few still have their panties in a wad over that but it will be interesting to see what's up once all the dust settles from the mergers
 

kotobide

Well-Known Member
Ive just used cheapo vivosun filters they last about a year or so then I toss them out I don't take them apart to try to extend them they are pretty cheap.
 

Big Green Thumb

Well-Known Member
I have only used cheap filters and while they filter air well, but they plug up. I have plugged up 2 6" and now my 8" is barely flowing any air. I just ordered some new activated carbon to try to rework one of the 6" filters, but am also considering buying a better filter.

Do you guys know what is causing this? The grow area is cooled in summertime by a swamp cooler -- maybe the humidity is doing it? Doesn't make sense to me, but maybe. Or maybe these cheap filters are just junk.
 

Gemtree

Well-Known Member
I have only used cheap filters and while they filter air well, but they plug up. I have plugged up 2 6" and now my 8" is barely flowing any air. I just ordered some new activated carbon to try to rework one of the 6" filters, but am also considering buying a better filter.

Do you guys know what is causing this? The grow area is cooled in summertime by a swamp cooler -- maybe the humidity is doing it? Doesn't make sense to me, but maybe. Or maybe these cheap filters are just junk.
Could be dust or humidity do you live on a busy road? Ive attached a cheap furnace filter to the back of a box fan to to help with dust.
 

Big Green Thumb

Well-Known Member
I experimented with a plugged filter last night by removing the carbon and soaking it in pool (muriatic) acid for an hour, rinsing, and heating it in the oven. The carbon did not get rinsed enough so when heating it stunk like acid so I cut short the heating process. Oops. Something I noticed was a lot of carbon dust coming off when rinsing the carbon. I had intended to heat it to 400 for an hour or so to burn off any impurities in the carbon. After that, the carbon was put back in the filter and reassembled.

I am happy to say the filter flows like new, but has an acid odor. The carbon is still damp from rinsing so I am running the fan/filter outside to dry and destinkify the carbon. One thing to note is I was not able to get all of the carbon back into the filter housing even though I was packing it in with a long spoon. I got probably 95% of it in.
 
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