Carbon filters... How good are they??

I've built a small grow room in a well insulated outbuilding, and am going to need to extract the heat, but am worried about the smell being noticed even if I use a carbon filter. How good are they?? The air would travel at least 12ft or 4 metres before any posibility of reaching some ones nose.

Any advice please??

They tend to do the work, you need make a decision what kind of fan to get with the filter based on the exact size of your space. I made a mistake of buying too little fan and it wasn't cutting it for me. Use the search option in these forums, there's a lot of info on odor control.

Carbon filters work great. As mentioned above you will want to make sure you have a powerfull enough fan, as well as a big enough filter to properly clean your air. A bigger filter will last longer and do a better job at cleaning the air.

well, you want a fan that the cfm will empty your grow space at least 3 times per minute. Then you can buy carbonaire or phresh filter to fit the cfm and size of the fan. I recommend 8" fan 750 cfm with the 8' carbonaire filter. As long as the building is sealed, with an intake and the only exaust being through the carbon filter, it will eliminate almost all of the smell.

I have the 8" in the room with my grow and the 6" in my tent, and there is no smell.... but the tent waswnt sealed so just the 6" in the tent wasnt enough

I never used one and my house stunk like weed real bad it was like geting kicked in the nose everytime you walked in the door. got a filter set up and now you cant smell the plants unless your right next to them. they work and i recomend it since some people like to make a big deal if they walk by your house and smell weed.

I went from being able to smell my room 1/2 block away to not smelling it when you stick your head over the exhaust by adding a PhreshFilter.

I use a medium 6" RHINO FILTER, I have it on the out-take of my STEALTH-CAB which is in my bedroom, I also use an Odor Sok on my in-take and I can smell nothing at all Filters are very VERY worth it!! an 8" RUC in-line fan with a high CFM will be needed and possibly an Odor Sok on the intake (stops back draft when fans turn off etc) hope this helps somewhat - STELTHY

I also use a phresh filter 6inch by 16 inch and it works great. I had to buy a 450 cfm fan thou i tried the 6 inline duct boost and it wasnt working at all fan needs some power.

My Phresh filter not only COMPLETELY eliminated odors that, as someone also mentioned above, would hit you in the face when you walked into the house... it also makes the room smell cleaner in general. It's amazing. If I open my tent the odor creeps out in the immediate space, when I zip it back up all odor is completely gone within seconds.

Totally surprised me, usually shit never works as advertised but my Phresh filter does.

Thanks for all your advice, and so promptly too. All i really want to do is drop a few degrees centigrade during the day. I know for best results i'll need an intake fan too, but surely just a 4"r extractor will take the edge off the temp enough. Oh i'm only using a 125w CFL, and a few 20w CFL's so there isn't a huge amount of heat created.

Thanks again

I'd recommend not cheaping out , buy the best filter you can get.

Smell is right up next to grass when it comes to getting caught.

ruck fan/rhino filter , does an incredible job, in containing the smell.

Without it my grow just would not be possible, as when I had to clean the room up for the flat inspection and was moveing the plants about (obv the filter wasnt on) house was reaking , even tho the plants where in veg.(I never realised how bad vegging plants could smell till that day). Anyway the point is when the fan/filter is running there is next to no smell , as long as you keep a negative pressure in your room.

Ventilation on a grow is a big deal. It's best if you can have continuous airflow in and through your grow area. And with a filter get one that would be considered larger for your space if you can, it will last a lot longer, this is money well spent. I've got a Can 50 with a 6" can fan and a 6" eco intake fan on a 4' x 11' room. It's been in there for over a yr and still no sent and right now I'm in wk 6 of flower, a very stinky time. Get a good fan that can be run a variable speed controller, so you can adjust as necessary to help maintain your temps.

Growin' in a shed in the backyard your biggest concern is going to be bugs.

Best of luck with your grow.

I use a PRIMA-KLIMA self thermo-stated 8" in-line fan, with variable fan speed controller... it cost over £200.00 but it is the Mutz Nutz and clears room odor in seconds.. with the added help from my RHINO carbon filter... As a lot of people will tell you.. 'You get what you pay for' its better to go big, that way it will sort you out perfectly and will also be all set for if/when you upstage your lighting Can you post some pics of your grow room/s, it will give us a better idea of what will suit your needs best - STELTHY

Also do you pull cold air in from outside (vent) or the room its set up in ? - STELTHY

Deffo you get what you pay for the first carbon filter I bought was a small cheap one , NEVER AGAIN!

I mean seriously how the place wasnt raided is beyond me , was a fuking sick joke how bad my house/outside my house smelt with the shit filter.

That bad I moved , to get a "fresh start ".

Now tho with the rhino , its all good, as you said it's one of those things you get what you pay for. IF anything best advice I would give someone is replace your filter every year atleast.

I draw fresh air from outside , via intake fan. Helps keep my room that bit cooler .

kanx said:

Deffo you get what you pay for the first carbon filter I bought was a small cheap one , NEVER AGAIN!

I mean seriously how the place wasnt raided is beyond me , was a fuking sick joke how bad my house/outside my house smelt with the shit filter.

That bad I moved , to get a "fresh start ".

Now tho with the rhino , its all good, as you said it's one of those things you get what you pay for. IF anything best advice I would give someone is replace your filter every year atleast.

I draw fresh air from outside , via intake fan. Helps keep my room that bit cooler .

Click to expand...

Pulling outside air in is key for maintaining consistant temps around 26oC (More so with HID lighting) I replace my filter every 2 - 3 grows... a new filter is piece of mind, as far as keeping unwanted snoopers at bay! I had a small cheap filter to on my 1st Stealth Cab... it was a CAN Filter I think but never the less the smell still got out... But now I've upstaged to a RHINO Filter I cant smell anything at all - STELTHY

Hi,
As these other folks said they work great! I sell them and I can tell you that the Phresh Filters are way better and lighter and easier to handle. They blow away the Can filters and the carbonaire. Also if you go to thier website there are several videos you can watch and a chart helping "size" your needs. Good luck.

http://www.greners.com/fans-ventilation-filters/products/inline-fans-blowers/4-inch-fans/active-air-in-line-fan-4-inch-144-cfm.html - 4" inline
http://www.greners.com/fans-ventilation-filters/filters-odor/carbon-filters/phresh-filters.html - 4" x 8" Phresh

Will be well worth the sub $200 price.

You might also consider building one. This way you can use the best carbon (coconut, not coal) and the proper size particle (for vapor filtration, not water).

Thanks again. Looks like i'll be getting a rhino after all then, I've got a few weeks before flower stage to save up, and the seedlings are currently in an inside grow using 2x22w CFL blue bulbs with an ordinary desk fan to circulate the air.

The outside room was built by a previous owner and has it's own fuse box and 6 x double plug sockets. Seemed rude not to take advantage of it!! The building itself is timber but was used as a workshop for repairing antique watches and is boarded out like any room in a house, and has 3" of foam board insulation all round.

I've seperated a section about 3'6" by 8', and only now plan for a small grow at one end, which i might seperate using foam insulation board on 2 sides. Currently the inner room is made up of spare chipboard, with an external layer made of swimming pool cover, which absorbs heat and doesn't let it back out. I will be using a 125w CFL to grow flower 4 plants, 2 harvested every month. I also have some home made reflectors using cooking trays that I bought for 50p each (60cent), with each having 2 x 20watt cfl's pushing out about 1450 lumens each, to even the light out.

There is currently a 4" whole cut in the outside of the building, with tight cloth bug screen, on my first grow from cuttings this seemed to help keep the air a little fresher and cooler, but obviously not much.

Oh and due to regular hoovering, disinfecting all surfaces, and leaving shoes outside, combined with every join on every wall, ceiling and window being sealed with silicone, I managed to have a grow bug free