Hey, so I love to make stuff and I will need something to control the odor of the air getting sucked out of my tent.
I have been kicking around the notion of building an air scrubber using a sealed bucket, some charcoal briquettes and some 4" ducting.
Has anyone tried this? Am I wasting my time? Seems like it would work, but I am a little nutty, so…
I think if you search YouTube you will find some instruction videos.
I have made a few things. It’s all about the container size with some. I thought of making one out of 5gallon buckets. The problem is it gets dusty. You can get a cheap filter. I wouldn’t make one. The basket one is ok. With dryer sheets.
I’m sure you can get it on Amazon. I have that one. It’s ok for fresh air. I use mine like a fan. If I get a plant that’s too wet I got it fixed up or I can take it and put it on top of my soil to dry it out. I have mine to where I can just stick it in any tent for fresh air. I don’t see why you couldn’t use it as an exhaust filter it’s not going to take care of the smell of 50 plants. 2 to 4 you’ll be OK. I run seven. Not at one time. I use different size filters for different things especially during my grow cycles. Got a big 8 in don’t have it set up yet. 6 and 4 in I run. Air in and out. With a filter. I have done this before if you got an old one you got to be careful I’ll put them in the oven before. It will give them a little bit of time but it also may kill you the smell is toxic I believe. Most of that stuff is charcoal it’s not good for you to be breathing
It’s not worth it those are the containers you will needI once had coltrabod’s filter they made, it was posted up on here around 2002-2003 maybe. I must have not saved it proper like, as I can not now find it, and that was a few computers ago…and 98 Second Edition sucked bigbig!! Well so did my nonexistent computer skills, as I was teaching myself, and it was denseman against the machine, LOL!
Maybe someone smart can find it buried in the archives, if they exist. WayBackMachine?
Just my opinion:
They are so cheap, and mine has lasted for 12-13 years before I disassembled it, and using high pressure air, from inside to outside, as it gushed the collected dust from the carbon. Once no more dust gush. Hell I never removed the stuff. I just resealed it, screwed back together and back in to the fight it goes. I think it was $75.00 back then. I learned from the fish keepers how long carbon lasts, they said just clean it, what can go wrong with it?
I am also a tinkering fanatic, but somethings are just what they are.
If you have the stuff to make it out of already. They do sell the virgin diamond charcoal. And you don’t have anything else to do they make great filters. I have one 6 inch that I have changed the charcoal out of it wasn’t that hard. It’s good to hook it up to a vacuum cleaner first for a while to make sure it sucks up any loose stuff
If you must make one they will work.
But they are so cheap.
All the best
I made them back in the day with some HVAC parts, construction cloth, quilt batting and raw charcoal. That being said, buying all those parts vs. buying a finished filter, today I just buy the filter.
If ya DO make your own, i suggest you rinse the charcoal like you would rinse perlite, to get rid of the dust (there will be plenty!).
You can also buy activated carbon at an aquarium house. I did this when I made tiny ones.
they really are pretty much all the same nowadays right?
i mean they all pretty much use the lightweght virgin australian carbon and pretty much the same thickness and percentage of airflow besides maybe a little right?
i guess what im really asking is are you getting the value for the dollar for the expensive ones like Phresh Filters or the Original Can-Filter or even Can-lite compared to cheap ones like the one posted above?
and i have both expensive and cheapies, i started out buying expensive ones but the last one i got was pretty much the cheapest one i could find.
I buy the cheap ones and I swap them out yearly. Not because they die, but because I’m rigorous about security.
For $40 you can go wrong
lol - can or cant?
ya im debating swapping filler or just trashing and buying new when needed.
Can’t.
I figure it’s the cost of doing business. It works out to like $3 a month.
yep, agreed. i don’t see another expensive one in my future.
i run aquariums also so i have the carbon laying around. i may try a filler swap but they are so cheap now even that may not be worth the effort.
I even use the cheap ones. No complaints about smell. They work
Don’t use briquettes, they have lighter fluid in them. You can use the regular charcoal but
breaking that up is a really nasty job.
I would follow Hemp’s suggestion with the virgin diamond charcoal.
Cheers
G
lol - im laughing thinking about someone using the ready start charcoal briquettes… to funny
edit: man i really hope ppl know better than to do that.
Great info as always, everyone!
I didn’t know they were so cheap to buy and last as long as they do.
Part of my thought process is having something outside of my tent for space savings. My height is pretty limited.
Thanks!