Does A Carbon Filter Remove 100% Smell

There is only one answer to this question and it's NO. You need to spend time feeding and watering the plants and when you do the smell will leak out of where ever you are growing. It will smell and someone will notice.
 
MonkeyPickAss said:
There is only one answer to this question and it's NO. You need to spend time feeding and watering the plants and when you do the smell will leak out of where ever you are growing. It will smell and someone will notice.
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Absolutely totally incorrect if it is setup properly. As someone who has worked in asbestos remediation industry i have 10+ years experience building negative air pressure containments for areas as big as a four story apartment building that used to have 80+ individual apartments. In an area that large it is impossible to eliminate all air leaks. A negative air pressure means that the airflow going out is so strong that any air leaks (like when you open the door) result in air getting sucked into the room and out through the filter. Thats what negative air pressure is. In asbestos, mold and other hazardous material situations the failsafes are to have double or triple chamber entrances. In a grow room as long as you have enough outbound cfm its totally not an issue.

A key aspect if you want to maintain negative pressure that many growers overlook is to have quality prefilters before your fans and to maintain them regularly.

To the guy who said a complete exchange every 5 minutes, thats honestly overkill. In a hazardous material situation the minimum guideline is 4 complete air exchanges per hour with a goal of 8 per hour and thats in a level 3 (the nastiest) asbestos remediation where youre required to have battery powered respirators to even enter the building. Keep in mind thats with something that can kill you so its very much on the safe side. Calculate the volume of your area and have a fan capable of exchanging it ever 10 minutes and you will have zero issues with smell ever as long as you have adequate carbon and maintained prefilters.
 
You can also add Gonzo Odor Eliminators which are like lava rock. A one pound bag is $10 at Lowes but Wal Mart and others sell them. They last forever. Recharge once a year by putting them outside in the sun for 8 hours. They work.
 
I work in industrial air handling where we use carbon for plastic extrusion applications (very stinky). The amount of carbon is dictated by the room size. You also don't want too many cfms as the odors needs "dwell time" in the carbon. Use a VFD and dial back the cfm and find the sweet spot.
 
I finished a grow using a 240cfm fan with a 6inch carbon filter made by phresh on a 8x4x9' tent. I didn't even have one smell problem. Even with both doors open for about an hour and no smell problem. People who knew I was growing would come to my place and be like dude are you even growing?! lol because they couldnt smell them at all. and my apt is 800 sq ft so its small. Never once had a smell problem getting out of the tent. And I grew some stinky strains. I was able to have all my windows open 24/7 to allow air to come into my place, and not worry once about smells. And I live in apartments near lots of people. So yes, you can get a fan and filter setup that will mask 100% of the smell. Just get the right setup.
 
camdengolf said:
I finished a grow using a 240cfm fan with a 6inch carbon filter made by phresh on a 8x4x9' tent. I didn't even have one smell problem. Even with both doors open for about an hour and no smell problem. People who knew I was growing would come to my place and be like dude are you even growing?! lol because they couldnt smell them at all. and my apt is 800 sq ft so its small. Never once had a smell problem getting out of the tent. And I grew some stinky strains. I was able to have all my windows open 24/7 to allow air to come into my place, and not worry once about smells. And I live in apartments near lots of people. So yes, you can get a fan and filter setup that will mask 100% of the smell. Just get the right setup.
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Like i said if your cfm exchanges it at least 4 times an hour you will have zero issue. 240 cfm for 800 sq feet is about 5 an hour. As long as u keep the fan clean, usually by a prefilter u should ha
ve negative air pressure no problem. The reason a clean fan matters is cause debris will add friction and slow it down.
 
I bought a cheap Apollo filter and it eliminated the smell.. For now. I've had it in my 5x5x6.5 tent for about a month now with humidity around 55%. We'll see how well it does in another couple weeks.
--- I guess I should also mention that there is always negative pressure and air is pulled thru the carbon filter, thru a few feet of ducting, thru my cool tube, ducting, and then the fan and finally ducting again that goes thru the wall into a cellar type room. Works great.
 
BushMaster15 said:
I bought a cheap Apollo filter and it eliminated the smell.. For now. I've had it in my 5x5x6.5 tent for about a month now with humidity around 55%. We'll see how well it does in another couple weeks.
--- I guess I should also mention that there is always negative pressure and air is pulled thru the carbon filter, thru a few feet of ducting, thru my cool tube, ducting, and then the fan and finally ducting again that goes thru the wall into a cellar type room. Works great.
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The airflow of the fan means more than the size of the carbon filter, as long as the venting size isnt a bottneck for the fan then a smaller filter just means you'd have to replace the carbon in it more frequently. if your tent is 5x5x6.5 thats 162.5 cubic square feet. High humidity does decrease the effectiveness of carbon but its not really an issue until its 80+% humidity but if that happened in your room the smell would be the least of your worries.
 
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haze010 said:
The airflow of the fan means more than the size of the carbon filter, as long as the venting size isnt a bottneck for the fan then a smaller filter just means you'd have to replace the carbon in it more frequently. if your tent is 5x5x6.5 thats 162.5 cubic square feet. High humidity does decrease the effectiveness of carbon but its not really an issue until its 80+% humidity but if that happened in your room the smell would be the least of your worries.
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I'm running a 440cfm inline fan and 450cfm Carbon filter.
 
haze010 said:
Like i said if your cfm exchanges it at least 4 times an hour you will have zero issue. 240 cfm for 800 sq feet is about 5 an hour. As long as u keep the fan clean, usually by a prefilter u should ha
ve negative air pressure no problem. The reason a clean fan matters is cause debris will add friction and slow it down.
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dude you need to seriously recheck your math lol. tent is 288 cubic ft. not 800.
 
camdengolf said:
dude you need to seriously recheck your math lol. tent is 288 cubic ft. not 800.
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No need to be a dick, read carefully first, i said 800 SQUARE FEET not CUBIC FEET which is what you said your whole apartment was. and then i said your cfm is more than enough for the tent. I didnt say your tent was 800 cubic feet and i did zero math i just said the own numbers you gave. My mistake is i meant to type your 288 cubic feet for the tent instead of the 800 for your apartment. Sometimes i wonder why even bother trying to help people.
 
BushMaster15 said:
Exactly what I was going for. But, going to have to look into cooling the room the tent is in.
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Yup i was just reinforcing it for ppl wondering how much cfm for their own spaces. If smell is the only consideration you could have gotten away with 200-250 cfm and not have a smell issue.
 
OP

I was skeptical of the carbon filter being able to remove all smell and let me tell you ..... wow. I can stand right next to my tent and smell nothing. It smells normally like my house would. I also have my carbon filter hanging inside of my tent and my actual fan on the outside of the tent sucking the air inside of the tent through the carbon and out. It also helps lower temperatures which is great. The wattage use for my carbon filter is fairly low too. I am glad I made the investment. I spent roughly 160ish for a very good 6 inch carbon filter/fan and I do not regret it at all.
 
SydneyGirl12 said:
OP

I was skeptical of the carbon filter being able to remove all smell and let me tell you ..... wow. I can stand right next to my tent and smell nothing. It smells normally like my house would. I also have my carbon filter hanging inside of my tent and my actual fan on the outside of the tent sucking the air inside of the tent through the carbon and out. It also helps lower temperatures which is great. The wattage use for my carbon filter is fairly low too. I am glad I made the investment. I spent roughly 160ish for a very good 6 inch carbon filter/fan and I do not regret it at all.
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Yep this is exactly what im trying to preach. Anyone who has their space discovered by smell has severely f'd up. It should be the easiest thing in the world to control and the absolutely last thing to ever get you caught. To be incredibly blunt the only way smell is an issue is if you are just lazy or stupid. Its a relatively inexpensive thing to do as well and in my mind is equally important as providing the right nutrients and light to the girls.
 
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