My house is impervious to negative air pressure

[Dman1234]

Yeah theres nothing like having bags of crap laying around, stinking the place up.

There is no reason his filter shouldnt work.

 

[Landing]

I don't know the exact physics of why pulling is better than pushing.... I do know my vacuum does a better job of cleaning than my leaf blower, it's the same principal. As it stands your setup is acting like a leaf blower and is blowing stinky air everywhere, now move that fan to the other end of the line and you're now vacuuming the stinky air. I can't explain it any simpler than that.

I'm not sure what you're talking about.

I'm not pushing air into the carbon filter, I'm sucking it out of it and into the vent leading to the attic.

Are you suggesting that placing a duct BETWEEN the fan and filter would make a difference? Why? What'll be the difference?

Go ahead and leave it like it is.....if you want to go to jail.

I just don't see the difference between our setups.

The only difference is that your fan sucks the air out of the filter through a bunch of cooltubes.

How can that be the solution?

Why would it blow out like a bomb? you are supposed to be sucking air from the area not blowing in. Your fan is in the 400cfm range which is not that big, do you have a speed controller on your fan. The only way you will solve your problem is to give your plants their own space that you have better control of the environment.

I said blow it OUT like a bomb. Like what would happen if you had a 1000cfm fan in a 1 foot grow box.

880 M3/h for a tiny <4M3 area? That's 10 times too powerful.

imo---seal up that vent and all the holes you drilled for hanging stuff pronto---make new passive intake air holes furthest distance from the new filter location---

Done. No difference.

get rid of the ducting as it does not appear that u are even using air cooled lights/hoods---mount the filter/fan at the top location where the existing out take hole is---

You mean mount the fan directly into the hole in the ceiling? Why?

It would chafe the fan voiding the warranty when I can just use a small bit of ducting to avoid that..

get urself a speed controller for the exhaust fan/filter---adjust the settings on the speed controller till u get a reasonable negative pressure that's not whistling or over working the fan and u should be good to go

The fan is set to two speeds - 880 M3/h and 700 M3/h.

At 880 M3/h there is a ton of negative pressure and it makes no difference.

It also makes a whining noise when the door isn't open because the negative pressure is so high, which I'm worried is hurting the fan.

looks like the way u are creating negative pressure now and not scrubbing all the air is because the fan/filter are scrubbing the air coming into the room from the holes directly above the location where the filter is hanging---its not actually exchanging all the air in the room and normal house drafts is why u have pockets of smelling herb in different locations

But the air still has to go through the carbon filter regardless of where it's coming from, so it doesn't make any sense.

I closed the holes but that hasn't changed anything. The only likely option is that the filter is bad, which is impossible.

Somethings not right, this should be way easier for you, if you have true neg pressure any hole in the room will not matter at all, put your filter in your grow room and your fan in the attic and PULL air threw filter and out to attic, if your pushing it the fan is probably pushing more than the filter can handle and unfiltered air is escaping.

How can the fan pull more air through the filter than the filter can handle?

The filter is 1000 and the fan is 880/700.

But yes, I do agree that something is incredibly odd here. This should not be this hard.

You are also right about the holes - closing them did nothing as there was sufficient negative pressure.

Let me guess, you didn't move your fan yet?
I love how you came on here looking for advice but you won't take any of the advice given to you.

I love how you pretend to give advice only as a pretext to mock someone for not taking it.

No, actually, I don't love that. It's incredibly lame.

 

[AluminumMonster]

Did you move the fan to the ceiling???? No?????

Go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Nuff said.

 

[zem]

Yeah theres nothing like having bags of crap laying around, stinking the place up.

There is no reason his filter shouldnt work.

:rofl:

 

[zem]

Landing, I think that you have a wrong setup. my guess is that the fan is not effectively changing the air because your intake holes are not big enough or your exhaust holes are not big enough... your house abides by the laws of physics, it's just something that you are doing, is just not right. I always have my fan at the very end of any duct pulling from my growroom straight to the outside. i avoid small ducts and curves, works great for me

 

[orangesunshine]

ok man this is not that difficult and ur space is not impervious to negative pressure---why will the fan get chafed if u eliminate the ducting?

is the fan that white looking bubble between the duct and the filter?

does the filter have a closed end cap on it?

are all the holes/leaks sealed?

is the intake of passive air on the opposite end in the room of the scrubber/fan?

is it set up passive air intake---scrubber---fan---exit out?

are you forcing air into the space in any way?

is there any chance that the filter is used---the carbon spent---or absent?

enlarging the passive intake furthest point from the fan/exit should rid you of whistling/over working the fan

where is the whistling coming from?

have you entered the room with a some incense burning so the smoke can show you which way the direction of the air flow?

be patient---there's obviously been some sort of mis-communication going on here and we are all here to get you sorted.

 

[Landing]

Did you move the fan to the ceiling???? No?????

Go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Nuff said.

Yup. I moved to right under the hole you saw in the photo.

I then placed the carbon filter standing up right next to the plants and connected it to the fan through a duct.

Result: More smell than ever.

 

[Landing]

ok man this is not that difficult and ur space is not impervious to negative pressure---why will the fan get chafed if u eliminate the ducting?

Because the ceiling is made of reinforced concrete, i.e. not something soft and fluffy.

is the fan that white looking bubble between the duct and the filter?

Yeah, man. It's the S&P TD Silent 800.

does the filter have a closed end cap on it?

Yes.

are all the holes/leaks sealed?

Yes, I made sure.

is the intake of passive air on the opposite end in the room of the scrubber/fan?

Yes. I have a 240M3/h fan-filter exhausting into the room and the rest comes from a couple of holes on the same end.

is it set up passive air intake---scrubber---fan---exit out?

Yes.

are you forcing air into the space in any way?

As written above.

is there any chance that the filter is used---the carbon spent---or absent?

Well, it's brand new. You tell me. Maybe it was in storage for a while?

But that's not likely since the other filter worked just as poorly.

enlarging the passive intake furthest point from the fan/exit should rid you of whistling/over working the fan

I don't know. I just lowered the speed, so it stopped on account of that.

where is the whistling coming from?

Sounds like it's coming from the exhaust side of the fan.

have you entered the room with a some incense burning so the smoke can show you which way the direction of the air flow?

No, but I did use the lighter test.

be patient---there's obviously been some sort of mis-communication going on here and we are all here to get you sorted.

 

[Landing]

Landing, I think that you have a wrong setup. my guess is that the fan is not effectively changing the air because your intake holes are not big enough or your exhaust holes are not big enough... your house abides by the laws of physics, it's just something that you are doing, is just not right. I always have my fan at the very end of any duct pulling from my growroom straight to the outside. i avoid small ducts and curves, works great for me

Thanks, man.

But really, there shouldn't be a reason why there is this much smell regardless of all these variables.

This is simply a case of "Ripley's Believe it or Not."

 

[lowrydergrower775]

honestly what I would do is visit rogue hydro they have an amazing shop online ship everything pretty much for free the two option I do see you having is going with a ozone filter which would prob need to be set on a timer, but they also do carry the ona gel fans pretty nice sized fan you just screw it on to the jar and let it do it's thing. Like others said I would def invest in a tent if I were you would make things alot easier on yourself but yes no reason an ozone generator or ona gel shouldn't work hope this helps bud.

 

[pcduck]

Carbon filter .......check

Centrifical fan ....check

Smell in house....Operator error

 

[AluminumMonster]

Landing, sorry I got snippy with ya. Lets move past all that and get you safe. If your fan is still mounted to the exhaust hole and you still have odor issues there is really only one option left. Your passive intake isn't big enough to allow enough air flow.

Would you be willing to conduct another test? Try cracking a window for a bit and see if that makes a difference. Your apartment might be too air tight to get a good air flow.

 

[MR1]

Is this right, you are growing in a room with your plants sitting in the corner of the room? If so what are the measurements of the room itself, and the spot your plants are in and can you give measurements in LxWxH.

 

[orangesunshine]

not exactly sure what your answer was when asked if you were forcing any air into the grow space? sounded like you were supplementing the passive air intake with a fan---passive air is not forced air by fan---get rid of the fan at the passive intake location and let ur silent 800 do its job in pulling air thru the grow space and scrubber

if you use your lighter next to the filter---is the flame being pulled towards the filter?

r u positive there is carbon in the filter and a cap on the end? no leaks

positive there are no leaks from the grow space? air has 1 way to travel---in thru passive and out thru scrubber

positive there are no leaks in the ducting and u have a tight fit from filter thru exhast from the room?

 

[Hushpuppy]

I just read through this and looked at the pics that you provided. It appears that you you have the exhaust fan and filter configured correctly. If that fan is turned so that it sucks air into the filter, not blow air out of the filter then that is ok. Now the air flow should be from outside the house/apartment, into the house, into the room, and then into the filter, through the ffan and into the attic, and then out of the attic back to the outside. If that air flow is blocked anywhere along that route, the air cycling will become ineffective and cause unfiltered air to seep to other locations. Air is like water in that it will spread out to everywhere if it is not given a constant corridor in which to flow.

If the attic space is not "breathing" properly, that will cause it. Have you verified that there is free flow through the attic space from where your duct goes in, to where it can get outside?

This air cycle is a circular event in which air inside gets pushed out while air that is outside gets pulled in at nearly the same volume. In order for the air to properly leave the inside air space, it must have a free flow connection to the outside(at a different location within the house)to replenish the air that is being pulled out. If you don't have proper passive intake(from outside) into the house and into the room, that will also cause this problem.

I read where you said you have a filtered fan that is bringing air into the house. Is that correct? You have 2 filtered fans? one bringing air in and the other pulling air out? If that is the case, that may be the source of the problem. You don't want to have a fan pushing air into the house while the other one is pulling out. I don't know why it does it but that will cause you to have air pressure and airflow issues.

 

[DankHobbyist]

Are you saying forced air intake is problematic? Is this the case if you have speed dials?

 

[Hushpuppy]

Yes a forced air intake can cause the issues that you are having. Unless you have special measuring devices that you can use to precisely set the flow rates and pressures, it is impossible to dial in a system like that. And you really don't need to have a forced air intake when your exhaust will do the job by vacuuming the air in with negative pressure. Try removing the intake air fan and allow it to be drawn in by the exhaust. Give it 24hrs and see what happens.

 

[zem]

I didn't catch that before, but Hushpuppy did, you have forced air intake, that may be the cause of this happening, you don't need it anyway and it can cause positive pressure in your growroom which causes smell to seep everywhere