Dave's Area 51/Inda-gro combination grow

[The Dawg]

Thanks brother Dawg. You can see in the photo that I'm already using insulated ducting with fiberglass inside. I'm a little concerned about the noise because the fan already howls at setting '1'. It sounds as loud as my furnace's fan. I'll try gluing foam rubber to the closet walls and covering some of that near the fan with fiberglass insulation (covered so that loose fiberglass doesn't clog up the air filter).

Putting the filter on the floor would be easier, but I want it to suck the hot air out of the room. It'll remove more of that if it's near the ceiling where the hot air collects.

I think I can make it work, but was just a little surprised when I heard how loud this fan runs in comparison to my old bathroom ceiling fan that I had in my cabinet. That one was nearly silent, just not as strong.

Oic Said The Blind Man With The Wodden Leg.So You Did Say Fart Fan Well Heres The Quitest Fan Avaliable And Its A High Tech European Fart Fan

 

[The Dawg]

I guess I COULD make a high table that folds out from the wall after I hoist up the Gator to set on top of it. Then I could vent straight up, using only a short piece of ducting. That would make it high enough, too. Making the table should be fairly simple. Just a board, a couple of hinges and a couple of legs to prop it up...

Im Liking This Idea Alot Better Brother

 

[NeWcS]

Just out of curiosity, do you happen to know what that little protrusion is on the end of the main bulb? It looks to me like some kind of crud catcher. That's just a wild guess, though.

I think that is where the mercury or gas resides, my light has the same thing. . Once the electricity hits those coils it excites the gasses and creates light. This is my understanding of how induction works.

I could be completely wrong, in which case; don't listen to me.

 

[OnlyFractured]

Here’s what I did with the fan:

That Max-Fan is strong, but it’s also awfully loud! My wife won’t be able to sleep unless I do some serious soundproofing around it. And if the wife can’t sleep, I might wind up sleeping in the garage.

Anyone have advice on how to make this thing a little quieter? It’s probably stronger than I need it to be, so I was thinking of connecting a second speed control switch to the fan’s power cord, to slow it down even more…

If you get even more industrious, what I did with my fan was enclose it in a plywood box lined with about two inches of foam rubber, then wrapped the exhaust pipe with more foam and put a router speed control on the fan. I'm only venting a 3x3 tent so I don't have to run it hard but even so, before I did that I didn't even like being in the same room, and it's my computer/tv/music room as well. I worried about it maybe overheating in the box or something, but it has been going for about 12 weeks now with no problem. Now it's not silent by any means but quieter than the two six inch clip on fans I've got in there to move air around, unless I turn it up to full speed and then it would probably collapse my tent.

I'm not much of a carpenter. Found it surprisingly difficult to build a plywood box.

 

[greatbranch]

My recommendation would be to stand your filter up on end and run straight - on a shelf maybe up higher than the floor. (put supplemental circulation fans under it, so you capitalize on space) If you can't get the fan up out of the closet and into where it's venting (which I wouldn't recommend to anyone NOT running a Green Gator as you lose efficiency the farther down the duct your fan is from your filter), insulate the crap out of the lower portion, but keep your motor area free to keep from overheating. If it has to stay in the closet, you will still be able to dampen the sound by hanging it with some heavy duty bungie cords or mount eye bolts in it and use cable ties of some sort. I use ratchet straps. If you keep your ducting straight, you can run it at 25% or less, I'm betting - even with your fan on the lowest setting (and I would get a voltage controller...but don't skimp...fire, fire...danger, danger...). Now, if hanging is out, or proves too difficult, or you need to wait a little while with your seedlings going, get something like some rubber mounts for the way you have it hung now to go in between the fan bracket and studs - kind of like motor mounts. The Green Gator flows so much better, it will actually increase your dwell time, and scrub oh so nicely I run both fans in here, and can't hear them over my window unit. Bedroom is on other side of the wall, and my wife is ONE OF THOSE...lol. My fans are 440CFMs...I don't know how large yours is...but I bet it is probably better quality.

 

[greatbranch]

My recommendation would be to stand your filter up on end and run straight - on a shelf maybe up higher than the floor. (put supplemental circulation fans under it, so you capitalize on space) If you can't get the fan up out of the closet and into where it's venting (which I wouldn't recommend to anyone NOT running a Green Gator as you lose efficiency the farther down the duct your fan is from your filter), insulate the crap out of the lower portion, but keep your motor area free to keep from overheating. If it has to stay in the closet, you will still be able to dampen the sound by hanging it with some heavy duty bungie cords or mount eye bolts in it and use cable ties of some sort. I use ratchet straps. If you keep your ducting straight, you can run it at 25% or less, I'm betting - even with your fan on the lowest setting (and I would get a voltage controller...but don't skimp...fire, fire...danger, danger...). Now, if hanging is out, or proves too difficult, or you need to wait a little while with your seedlings going, get something like some rubber mounts for the way you have it hung now to go in between the fan bracket and studs - kind of like motor mounts. The Green Gator flows so much better, it will actually increase your dwell time, and scrub oh so nicely I run both fans in here, and can't here them over my window unit. Bedroom is on other side of the wall, and my wife is ONE OF THOSE...lol. My fans are 440CFMs...I don't know how large yours is...but I bet it is probably better quality.

EDIT: I bet by going with a shelf, and just plopping the fan on top, it will be quieter than mounted to the side. There is actually SOME material between the flange and the filter. Putting some foam rubber under the filter to keep whatever you have it on from reverberating will further help, but the "foam" design of the filter will probably do just fine. Many options, but I think the easiest and fastest for you would be this...

 

[The Gator]

Here’s what I did with the fan:

The Green Gator filter will hang from ropes just above it with the open end facing down.
That Max-Fan is strong, but it’s also awfully loud! My wife won’t be able to sleep unless I do some serious soundproofing around it. And if the wife can’t sleep, I might wind up sleeping in the garage.

Sorry to get here so late, its been a crazy week here. What speed is your Max-Fan running at? If you are using one Filter then you can run your fan at 400CFM and get a .102 dwell time which is ideal for odor removal. Are you using more than one?

Also I see a lot of good ideas on here to solve where you are going to put the filter. All of those ideas would work, im eager to see which one you go with.

 

[daveroller]

... Now, if hanging is out, or proves too difficult, or you need to wait a little while with your seedlings going, get something like some rubber mounts for the way you have it hung now to go in between the fan bracket and studs - kind of like motor mounts....

Already tried that idea. I think the fan itself is just loud. I might try to put the filter on the flange the way it is, just to see if it's a lot quieter with the filter covering that end. But I'm leaning towards making a shelf for it to sit on and venting straight up like brother Dawg originally recommended.

Thanks to everyone for all your ideas. Very helpful.

 

[The Gator]

Already tried that idea. I think the fan itself is just loud. I might try to put the filter on the flange the way it is, just to see if it's a lot quieter with the filter covering that end. But I'm leaning towards making a shelf for it to sit on and venting straight up like brother Dawg originally recommended.
.

Let me know if the filter helps to cut down the noise. Cant wait to see how you finish your set-up

 

[daveroller]

Ok, I figured out a simple solution for setting up the fan and filter. Don’t need a shelf after all. (Whew!) I’ll just hang the Gator upright from the 2 crossbars. I had to make some simple mods to the Gator that didn’t appear to hurt it.

Had to drill 4 holes in the Gator’s metal frame:

(Note: It’s a good idea to remove the outer white pre-filter before drilling near it! It got all twisted up in the drill bit because I didn’t think of this in time. It’s ok though.)​

Hooked a hanger under the bottom at the hole and ran the rope through the top hole. Did the same thing on the opposite side. This will keep the Gator pointing up.

Here it is hanging in the closet:

Also had to cut the corners off the magnetic cap to let the ropes go through it. I taped the sharp edges with heavy duct tape:

Here it is hanging with the cap & fan on top. Reminds me of that NOMAD floating robot from the original Star Trek series. “NOMAD, I AM YOUR FATHER. EXECUTE YOUR PRIME DIRECTIVE!”

• Oh, and yes it is a lot quieter with the Gator covering the fan intake! I still need to soundproof a lot and seal up all the cracks in the closet that I can, but it should be ok after that.

Tomorrow I’ll raise her up and see if I can clamp it on the duct by myself, using my standing frame to get up there. It’s just hard to reach up when your back muscles don’t work.

Thanks for all the helpful advice, everyone! It really does help to get positive feedback from people who’ve been doing stuff like this for a while.

 

[greatbranch]

Tomorrow I’ll raise her up and see if I can clamp it on the duct by myself, using my standing frame to get up there. It’s just hard to reach up when your back muscles don’t work.

Thanks for all the helpful advice, everyone! It really does help to get positive feedback from people who’ve been doing stuff like this for a while.

Working above your head sucks no matter who you are. I don't know how you manage all of the stuff you do. Now, let's get those seedlings under some LIGHT! - BTW, when you're making those hydro bins, you can always just make a couple extra.

 

[The Gator]

Glad to hear the filter helped to quiet the intake. I must admit I have never seen that done with our filters before, how long did that take?

 

[daveroller]

Glad to hear the filter helped to quiet the intake. I must admit I have never seen that done with our filters before, how long did that take?

It probably only took me an hour to 90 min to drill the holes and feed the rope through them and back through the ratcheting pulleys again, then snipping off the 2 corners of the flange. I could do it a lot faster a second time though.

 

[daveroller]

I had to get the wife to climb up a ladder to fasten the clamp around the duct and the fan. What a freakin ordeal! I can’t complain too much because she puts up with my gardening, but this lady resists being told how to do things by a man with all her will. So she makes a point of trying every other possible way to do something until she finally decides to try my way. Women! Someday she’s gonna give me a stroke and move to Florida on the insurance money. Anyway, after she fastened the clamp, I tightened it up and moved the Gator into the position that it’s in.

You can see that I also hung the Inda-gro light tonight. Tomorrow I’ll figure out how to hang the Area 51 light. Since the Gator is hanging straight down from the duct now, the Area 51 light might not fit under it. If necessary, I’ll move the Gator over to the left again. I don’t think it makes that much more noise if the duct is bent.

Here are a few pics with the light turned on:

 

[greatbranch]

I had to get the wife to climb up a ladder to fasten the clamp around the duct and the fan. What a freakin ordeal! I can’t complain too much because she puts up with my gardening, but this lady resists being told how to do things by a man with all her will. So she makes a point of trying every other possible way to do something until she finally decides to try my way. Women! Someday she’s gonna give me a stroke and move to Florida on the insurance money. Anyway, after she fastened the clamp, I tightened it up and moved the Gator into the position that it’s in.
You can see that I also hung the Inda-gro light tonight. Tomorrow I’ll figure out how to hang the Area 51 light. Since the Gator is hanging straight down from the duct now, the Area 51 light might not fit under it. If necessary, I’ll move the Gator over to the left again. I don’t think it makes that much more noise if the duct is bent.

I have a feminazi wife too. Very much the girl power sort. If there is a man supervising a woman, and there's a problem, he's sexist to her. I grew up in a house full of women, so it's cool. I can deal. I CAN'T rebuild an engine, but I can cook, and I NEVER leave the seat up...but I digress...lol. Despite it all, she is very tolerant of my hobby like yours is of yours. It IS awfully nice to be able to sick them on people when you need to, though!

Lookin' good, Dave! Move the fan over if you have to. That slight bend won't affect anything at all. It is far more important to get that bad ass panel in there!

 

[chazbolin]

ahh from little closets great things will come! Loving it!

 

[The Gator]

I had to get the wife to climb up a ladder to fasten the clamp around the duct and the fan. What a freakin ordeal! I can’t complain too much because she puts up with my gardening, but this lady resists being told how to do things by a man with all her will. So she makes a point of trying every other possible way to do something until she finally decides to try my way. Women! Someday she’s gonna give me a stroke and move to Florida on the insurance money. Anyway, after she fastened the clamp, I tightened it up and moved the Gator into the position that it’s in.


You can see that I also hung the Inda-gro light tonight. Tomorrow I’ll figure out how to hang the Area 51 light. Since the Gator is hanging straight down from the duct now, the Area 51 light might not fit under it. If necessary, I’ll move the Gator over to the left again. I don’t think it makes that much more noise if the duct is bent.

Worst case if you have to use the hanging tabs and hang the filter horizontal to fit the light, then one 90 degree bend wont kill the airflow of the filter. Regardless, it looks like a cool set up, im going to have to show the engineering guys here what you did, they would find it interesting. Doesn't look like you have too much left to do before your growing in there.

 

[daveroller]

Just finished gluing foam rubber to the inside of my closet doors, since that's where the noise is leaking out. Can't hear anything from the adjacent bedroom or the hallway. In my previous setup with a ceiling fan in a cabinet, you could walk into my bedroom and hardly hear anything. I want to make it like that again if I can.

The foam rubber helps, but I need to do a lot more. Mainly need to seal up the cracks in the door frame. I'm thinking of screwing some paneling against the foam rubber to cover it up and also hold it in place. That should add a little more sound block.

I really need to start wearing my glasses!!! Mr Magoo here. My 4 little girls started to turn a little yellow and dry, but I didn't notice until my wife pointed it out today. So I soaked their little Rockwell cubes with diluted nute solution and sprayed it on their little leaves. I hate to stress them when they're just getting started. I need to accept the fact that I need to wear my glasses at my advanced age, as much as I hate wearing them.

 

[daveroller]

Did lots of work on the closet today. It’s fuckin tight as a witch’s cunt now. I screwed some paneling on top of the foam rubber on the doors where it needs support or where some cracks needed to be covered.

Left door:

Right door:

Here I glued some foam rubber behind the cracks in the door frame:

There’s a flap that covers the gap between the doors:

This sucker is TIGHT when I close it up!

And stealthy:

I can still hear the fan through the doors, but it isn’t loud anymore. Sounds like a bathroom ceiling fan running in the next room. I might glue some foam rubber up around the fan to absorb some more noise.

Here are my poor ladies!

It was only 10 days from seed when they turned yellow. Snuck up on me because I didn’t look at them close enough. I think they’ll be ok, at least 2 of them. I was planning to grow 3, so I got my fingers crossed.

 

[mc130p]

I think they will all live- it looks like it's mostly just the cotyledons, which will yellow anyway.