WTF...... why ME

im in need of some advice quick. my inlets to my air cooled hoods r fuckin sweating beading with fuckin water. there not going past the first light. but its fuckin killin me. the plants r doing great. its been happening in the morning hours. i got 3 fuckin 35 pint dehues in there. ive tried running the lights through the attic, and it was worse. im runnin the grow in the day time now cuz i thaught it would stop this shit. i know why its doing it. i just need some one to tell me do it this way.

i dont really know. how warm is it in the room, if the room is warm and the air being run in the ducts is alot cooler, i could see condensation.

ya thanks brow i know why is condensating. i need it to stop. 77-80.5. my controller kicks my exaust on when temp gets 81 takes it back to 77.

if you feel like being creative, you could build a liquid res onto the bottom of the ducts before the light with a drain????

thats what my girlfriend said, i almost slapped her out of ded. but now some one else says it maybe i should say sorry. i dont know man. i feel i need to take the air from a warmer plae but where?

What's your humidity like? Maybe if you could dial back your humidity it wouldn't be as bad. Also pointing a fan up at the duct should keep the moisture off of it. Worse case scenario you may need to get a dehumidifier. =)

lmfao. if your air is coming from outside then it would be pretty hard to just take it from somewhere else. if you take it from in your house then you can redirect the inlet anywhere. i dont know how cold your air is coming in but with that size of a setup it def is a struggle to balance the room temp with inlet temp. you could try cooling the room. i honestly can only try to brainstorm.

thanks guys, brownbear i got 3 dehues in there already. the fan idea r u sure it would work? tell me the theory behind it. please. hughes keep brain stormin please. ++ to both of u

this is from another site:

So are you all saying that the input air for the light tubes are from the cold outside and if so isn't the air from outside in the winter to cold to be going over the hot lights. Will it not possibly break them? Also how do you keep the cold air from condensing as it get warm from the lights? Wouldn't it be better if you just took air from inside the warm room?
Pepper
5th October 2006, 07:50 AM

Since there is a pressure drop at the intake side, there can be issues with condensation, especially on the first light. I have seen people solve the problem by allowing the intake duct to droop and punch a small hole at the lowest point for the condensation to drip out. The heat from the lights actually helps the air hold more water as it gets warmed up.

salmayo
5th October 2006, 11:18 PM

So are you all saying that the input air for the light tubes are from the cold outside and if so isn't the air from outside in the winter to cold to be going over the hot lights. Will it not possibly break them? Also how do you keep the cold air from condensing as it get warm from the lights? Wouldn't it be better if you just took air from inside the warm room?It is a consideration, but rapid changes in temperature are usually the cause of thermal shock caused by one part of the bulb's outter envelope being a different temp than another. The air temperatures in my area get down to 28F. Since my system is a Pusher (towards the hood) that is pulling outside air in, it's under negative pressure before the fan conpaired to the room and leaking or just openning that duct to the room's air can be used for controlling the fans intake air temp. On the "cold" side of my ducts I play with cheap cardboard manifold and slide type valve pieces to ajust flow/temp.
I would like to build a slide valve box so I can switch my winter and summer arrangements with one movement of the slide, which would allow for reversing the flow in the system to handle things like exhausting in house smoke from the kitchen and what not.

If you do use warm air from "inside the room" it would be a good idea to make sure it's from an odor free area to avoid pumping odors to unwanted places.

You make an excellent point about condensation Soulmate.

I'm considerring a condensation trap on my rig. Condensation could occur on a Pusher system like mine in the cool positive pressure area between the fans outlet and the hoods inlet. Since water flows downhill it will gather at low points. Using a droopping duct with a plastic PVC "T" at this point allows for a "drip catcher" at this point. If you connect the "drip catcher" "T" to a sealled bottle top, you can make a leak free condensation trap. I'd use a BALL brand canning jar lid (already has a big hole) RTV'd (glued) to the "T" and a jar, and I could see any water that collects. If I'd see water gathering in the jar I'd just unscrew the jar from the lid, dump it and screw the jar back into the lid. If you really wanted to dehumidify the air you could cool such a jar to force condensation within. I'm more worried about electrical shorts or maybe a drop of water striking the bulb and breaking it, than dehumidifying the air.

http://www.treatingyourself.com/vbulletin/archive/index.php?t-16175.html

If I am understanding this correctly:
Just insulate the ducting.

If you eliminate the contact of moist air with a cold surface then it will not condense. Instead of intaking warmer air you create a barrier between the warm air in the room and the cool air passing through the ducting.

Could be as simple as wrapping a towel around it.

Same kind of concept as insulating your exposed water pipes to prevent them from freezing an bursting... Keep what is warm, warm. And what is cold, cold.

A mental exercise:
You fill a thermos with a milk shake and close the lid.
You fill a standard tall glass with some milk shake also.

Water from the air condenses on the glass containing the milkshake, it even might freeze.

No water condenses on the thermos because there is a barrier preventing the cold milkshake from interacting with the moist air.

oh ya did i tell u im enriching with co2?those tricks wont hep me. but thanks for caring and doing some research.

snow cash thanks but i baught insulated ducting the last grow. it got soaked had to take it off. im lucky i didnt have a mold issue. last grow wast as bad as this. fuckin weird winter in ca. out side goes from 70-80-32 degrees in the same fuckin day. + to u as well.

You'd need a lot of air passing through your insulate for that to happen. Better contact with the insulation and the ducting to ensure NO energy transfer is the solution. The better contact the insulate is with the duct the less air can get between them. If absolutely no air directly touches the duct because it was PROPERLY insulated then you wouldn't have that problem or this problem.

Water doesn't just "appear" despite coming from thin air. All you have to do is eliminate the contact of the air in the room with the cold ducting. Properly insulate the duct and that will resolve the issue. Duct tape the ends of the insulation and the plastic bag will keep the air flow around the duct effectively nil.

Or you intake from inside of the grow room and forgo pulling in the cool air.

Either way, I think this is a pretty simple issue to wrap your head around. You don't need anything special. This is the primary reason for insulation in the first place. Creating a barrier between warm and cold to keep moisture and condensation down.

Hell, you could even put a length of 8" ducting around the 6" ducting and have 1" of clearance between the two. Insulate the outer duct and tape the ends to ensure that no air passes inside of the larger duct. What you've done there is create an air barrier, then another duct, then insulation. The air in your room containing the moisture would have a hell of a time condensing on that.

ok snow crash im going to create an air barrier. 10 inch over 8 inch. should i insolate the outer duct, and do i fasten the outer ducting to the smaller ducting at the ends?

Yeah, insulate the outer ducting.

Go Ape-shit crazy with the duct tape, you want that bitch sealed up REALLY well. No air can permeate the insulation or the space between the inner ducting and the outer ducting.

We are men here. Excess and Duct tape is like... in the fucking manual.

lol! Good luck man! You'll get this dialed soon enough.

Snow Crash said:

Yeah, insulate the outer ducting.

Go Ape-shit crazy with the duct tape, you want that bitch sealed up REALLY well. No air can permeate the insulation or the space between the inner ducting and the outer ducting.

We are men here. Excess and Duct tape is like... in the fucking manual.

lol! Good luck man! You'll get this dialed soon enough.

Click to expand...

HAHAHAHA.....Just resolved an inline fan/ducting problem with "Excess and Duct tape". That combination works well with just about everything in life.

Wrap a towel around the one that is wetting. As long as the towel evaporates faster then the duct condenses, that's it.
In my state we have to wrap our above ground exposed water pipes (Indoor laundromat water point location) because during the summer they drip so much you would think it was raining.

thanks Dirty, ive already put 10 inch instalated ducting and sealed the ends. like dude said. im not worried any more i fuckin luv everyone who posted here, and those who didnt. that mother fucker SNOW CRASH saved my ass alot of grief. common sence won this battle. im a fuckin dick head.

SNOW CRASH thanks again im off and runnin only cost me 180 bucks, but fuck it. your the best, and im second best. i will be commin for that title though.

BINGO...... By preventing the air from contacting the ducting, condensation cannot occur.... This is why ducting in your attic is wrapped, so it doesn't sweat. Commercial ducts insulate the inside for the very same reason.... Just get you some insulated duct.

Snow Crash said:

If I am understanding this correctly:
Just insulate the ducting.

If you eliminate the contact of moist air with a cold surface then it will not condense. Instead of intaking warmer air you create a barrier between the warm air in the room and the cool air passing through the ducting.

Could be as simple as wrapping a towel around it.

Same kind of concept as insulating your exposed water pipes to prevent them from freezing an bursting... Keep what is warm, warm. And what is cold, cold.

A mental exercise:
You fill a thermos with a milk shake and close the lid.
You fill a standard tall glass with some milk shake also.

Water from the air condenses on the glass containing the milkshake, it even might freeze.

No water condenses on the thermos because there is a barrier preventing the cold milkshake from interacting with the moist air.

Click to expand...