what does the exhaust from your carbon filter smell like?? when I first made mine and tested it, the exhaust smelled like carbon. I've been using the filter for a month or so now for veging, and I swear, it smells like fresh cake! it's a very sweet smell. do I not have enough carbon in my filter or something? is the carbon not removing all of the smell and leaving the sweet smelling part, or is it just a byproduct of how it works? I don't think it smells like the plants, it just smells really good, like fresh moist sweet cake. either my filter's not working, or I'm whack..
carbon filter exhaust smells like cake?
- Thread starter lorenzo08
- Start date
iamthatguy
Well-Known Member
mmmmmm cake ......
The sweet smell would worry me. Have you tried taking the carbon filter off and smelling it by it self in another room to isolate the smell to either the air being pulled through or the filter itself?
The sweet smell would worry me. Have you tried taking the carbon filter off and smelling it by it self in another room to isolate the smell to either the air being pulled through or the filter itself?
I'll try this when I get home. I plan on having the exhaust blow into a crawl space that smells like bad mildew, but I haven't done this yet. it's just exhausting into my house. I haven't noticed the smell when I walk into the house, but I do when I go in the bathroom where the exhaust hose is.
iamthatguy
Well-Known Member
You kind of affirmed my worry. You say you plan to exhaust it into a crawl space that smell like mildew .... which means that you already have mold in your house which means that your house is probably very humid which promotes the growth of mold. My worry is that you have a type of mold growing in your scrubber ...... maybe .... it might be time to change out the carbon?
but I just re read your first post and you said it was only 1 month old ...... ? Did you use any glues to make your scrubber? Did you replace the carbon with cake batter .... jk
oh wow.. the mold thing isn't really a problem. it's just from leaks and stuff. rain water running in. but I have plans to fix that soon, so it should dry out over the months. but something growing in my filter, I didn't realize it could be anything that serious. think it could be a health hazard or will it be ok? is there anything I can do to clean it? I did use that liquid nails stuff and some bathroom calk to seal it all air tight.
iamthatguy
Well-Known Member
I am just stating worse case scenarios. But a cake smell sounds weird to me. Once you take it off and isolate the smell from the box or the scrubber you can diagnose it from there.
ok, I'll post in a few hours with the results. hope my house isn't flooded with fat coppers looking for cake
tommy gibbs
Well-Known Member
i doubt its mold, i had mold in my basement and it smells like wet shit, not like a fresh cake.
it could be some odd type of mold that is picky about where it grows. the carbon could be a perfect place for it to grow. this is just a guess. I have no clue what it could be yet, so it could be a health hazard, I really don't know. that's why it worried me all of a sudden. there are types of mold that grow in large air conditioner units and are deadly. my filter isn't damp, but who knows. I don't think baking it would hurt anything so I might try that and see if anything changes.
that's kinda what I smell. it's so weird. thanks for the post. at least I finally know I'm not the only one. lol
I talked to a guy at my local grow shop. his answers are usually pretty opinionated like everyone elses online, which should be expected. I think we figured out the problem. my carbon is spent. duh! I tried baking it at 400f for 20 minutes. didn't help at all, but the house smelled pretty good the whole day. I'll have to get fresh carbon soon. what I have now must be pretty saturated. it's getting stronger.
has anyone ever tried washing carbon? don't really have anything to lose trying it. does it help any?
has anyone ever tried washing carbon? don't really have anything to lose trying it. does it help any?