Cooltube Vs Easycool Vs Eurocool Reflectors .. And the winner is...

[justatoker]

Go with the tube. Works good for me. If you plan on using the $25 fan it must be for the light only. I have one and it works for short ducting with no blockages only. If you give it any static pressure it dies fast. If you plan on using the fan for the light and carbon filtered exhaust get the $99 4" inline or even the $139 fan/filter combo. Getting that one myself.

Yep.. No scrubber or filter or anything as im still in the first 2 weeks after sprout.. Im just gonna use the 250cfm fan and attach it to the right side of the 600w HPS 6'' Cooltube and run duct from the other side and vent it out of the top of the cab.. Only gonna need to use about 4 - 4 1/2 ft of duct.. I already have plenty of fans for intake/exhaust of ambient air. Maybe ill get one of those fan/filter combos in a month or so if smell becomes a problem.But I cant afford it right now ,im not even gonna front. Im piss poor and on disability so money is the deciding factor to be honest.

 

[Jash1297]

No I have it like this....

If you have it still set up the same way ws it is in that pic then thats why.. This just looks like it would get hot the way you have it in this pic >

 

[justatoker]

looks more effecient that way.. do you have an exhaust yet?



PS -I meant to type "same way "AS" it is in the other post.. stupid typos.

 

[Jash1297]

yeah I have two 250cfm fans the intake is on the top and the exhaust on the right side. they both are connected to the cool tube, I also have a jr. carbon scrubber attached to a 4inch centrifugal fan exhausting air out the right side...still having temp problems though

 

[justatoker]

try making a dedicated exhaust for your cabs ambient air. Or try removing the intake duct from the cooltube and try pulling the air from the cab out through your cooltube out of the cab through your filter if you dont wanna make another exhaust hole

 

[SOG]

Why?


.

never mind, best of luck to you

 

[justatoker]

Well, after MUCH MUCH deliberation and speaking to several diff ppl about it, ive come to the conclusion that a cooltube just isnt the way to go. The best way is prolly getting better exhaust..I think that by upgrading /changing around my ventilation set up that it will be alot more beneficial than buying a cooltube. First of all I need to get the warm air out of the closet, as it is currently being expelled into the closet and therefor ending up going right back into the cab.Secondly, I removed all 4 120mm fans from my 4 intake holes and temps droppped 6-7 degres just from that.. Which is weird, but I wrote it up as the warm air was just being recirculated more heavily.I do not have any desk/table etc fans INSIDE the box to blow on the "canopy" ( lol my 2 lil seedlings dont have a "canopy" yet but u get the idea ) so im going to purchase 2 of those.. One to blow on the plants canopy and one to blow up toward the light in order to cool the bulb and air around the bulb and also to blow the warmer air upwards toward the exhaust fans/vents. Im fairly certain I wil be able to achieve a much higher success rate by upgrading/tweaking my exhaust set up and getting some table/desk fans for the inside of the cab than I will by going with a cooltube.. I suggest all others cosider this as well as I have seen alot of ppl that buy cooltubes and still have temps issues.Another reason I decided against a cooltube is because of light loss and distribution. I heard that you will loose upwards of 15% of your light when using a cooltube.. Especially once the tube gets even slightly dusty/dirty and that the light hitting the reflector OUTSIDE of the tube sometimes has to pass through the glass 3 times which leads to more light loss.. ALL in all, I think the cooltube/hood just isnt for me.

 

[7th1der]

Yea the 6'' cooltube paired with the 6'' inline 250cfm ( 25.00 ) fan from htg sounds like a winner

Please remember that you get what you pay for. You pay $25.00 for a 6" 250 CFM inline fan you will be getting a punk ass duct booster you could have not waited for just by going to home depot. These fans are for use in combo with a 250 CFM fan to boost the air through the ducting. I been there done that! Just look at the prices of other fans that are 250 rated CFM's or greater and you will start to wonder why this one is so cheap.

On the other hand, dont be afraid to spena little money on a fan. Shit, start to save for it! These fans are very quiet and reated higher than the duct boosters.

 

[7th1der]

Well, after MUCH MUCH deliberation and speaking to several diff ppl about it, ive come to the conclusion that a cooltube just isnt the way to go. The best way is prolly getting better exhaust..I think that by upgrading /changing around my ventilation set up that it will be alot more beneficial than buying a cooltube. First of all I need to get the warm air out of the closet, as it is currently being expelled into the closet and therefor ending up going right back into the cab.Secondly, I removed all 4 120mm fans from my 4 intake holes and temps droppped 6-7 degres just from that.. Which is weird, but I wrote it up as the warm air was just being recirculated more heavily.I do not have any desk/table etc fans INSIDE the box to blow on the "canopy" ( lol my 2 lil seedlings dont have a "canopy" yet but u get the idea ) so im going to purchase 2 of those.. One to blow on the plants canopy and one to blow up toward the light in order to cool the bulb and air around the bulb and also to blow the warmer air upwards toward the exhaust fans/vents. Im fairly certain I wil be able to achieve a much higher success rate by upgrading/tweaking my exhaust set up and getting some table/desk fans for the inside of the cab than I will by going with a cooltube.. I suggest all others cosider this as well as I have seen alot of ppl that buy cooltubes and still have temps issues.Another reason I decided against a cooltube is because of light loss and distribution. I heard that you will loose upwards of 15% of your light when using a cooltube.. Especially once the tube gets even slightly dusty/dirty and that the light hitting the reflector OUTSIDE of the tube sometimes has to pass through the glass 3 times which leads to more light loss.. ALL in all, I think the cooltube/hood just isnt for me.

Glad you decided against the cool tube! I did as well. Even after I designed my own simple and cheap one (in my sig). lol I will get a regular reflector that can house my bulb and put a carbon filter inside my cab with a 197 CFM fan sucking heat and odor out. Kinda like this (minus the cool tube).......

​

 

[justatoker]

Please remember that you get what you pay for. You pay $25.00 for a 6" 250 CFM inline fan you will be getting a punk ass duct booster you could have not waited for just by going to home depot. These fans are for use in combo with a 250 CFM fan to boost the air through the ducting. I been there done that! Just look at the prices of other fans that are 250 rated CFM's or greater and you will start to wonder why this one is so cheap.

On the other hand, dont be afraid to spena little money on a fan. Shit, start to save for it! These fans are very quiet and reated higher than the duct boosters.

I am going to experimant w/ some existing fans I have.. I have a pretty good attic vent fan used to vent an attic that is really large ( havent measured ot yet but its over 16'' diameter ) before I purchase any more fans except the cpl desk/table fans for inside the cab. I also have about 6 120mm PC fans and 1 big 200mm PC fan as well.. IM going to see what results I get by jerry rigging something on my own before spending over 130.00 on the cheapest "top shelf" inline fan..

 

[justatoker]

Glad you decided against the cool tube! I did as well. Even after I designed my own simple and cheap one (in my sig). lol I will get a regular reflector that can house my bulb and put a carbon filter inside my cab with a 197 CFM fan sucking heat and odor out. Kinda like this (minus the cool tube).......

Nice.. I think alot of ppl are just getting suckered in thinking that a cool tube is the answer to all there heat probs.. When in fact, after a ton of research the past few days, I found out that the same results can be achieved by just blowing a desk fan on your canopy/light and EVEN BETTER results can be had just by also tweaking your ventilation. Add that to the fact that you actually lose alot of light due to the poor design of most cooltubes and you actually are much better off spending the money on better exhaust.

 

[Eharmony420]

i got my 6 inch vortex fan at HIDHUT for likr 100 dollars. It is nice. I use it to cool htg's euro hood. It was the answer. I tried everything before,including a duct fan and fan on bulb and nothing. The euro hood and big fan dropped my temps to room temp or cooler.

 

[justatoker]

i got my 6 inch vortex fan at HIDHUT for likr 100 dollars.

do you have a link to that fan for 100.00? Ive NEVER seen a 6'' vortex that cheap anywhere.Actually hidhut's 6'' vortex's are 229.00 > http://www.hidhut.com/catalog/vortex-powerfans-inline-fan-449cfm-p-88.html

 

[7th1der]

I am going to experimant w/ some existing fans I have.. I have a pretty good attic vent fan used to vent an attic that is really large ( havent measured ot yet but its over 16'' diameter ) before I purchase any more fans except the cpl desk/table fans for inside the cab. I also have about 6 120mm PC fans and 1 big 200mm PC fan as well.. IM going to see what results I get by jerry rigging something on my own before spending over 130.00 on the cheapest "top shelf" inline fan..

You know I understand! I been to both home depot and lowes returning all kinds of iddish. I think when this new fan gets here I'll use my PC fans for a nice breeze inside the cab.

 

[7th1der]

Nice.. I think alot of ppl are just getting suckered in thinking that a cool tube is the answer to all there heat probs.. When in fact, after a ton of research the past few days, I found out that the same results can be achieved by just blowing a desk fan on your canopy/light and EVEN BETTER results can be had just by also tweaking your ventilation. Add that to the fact that you actually lose alot of light due to the poor design of most cooltubes and you actually are much better off spending the money on better exhaust.

OMG! You couldn't of said it better! Soon as I seen the cool tube I was like "that's what I'm getting right there". Then after I made put it all together, had all that ducting in the way, heat issues, etc...... I realized that I needed one fan to take care of all that cause its only a 400w HPS. Then I started researching other cabs without cool tubes to see how they do it (HTG, BC Nothern Lights) and got to drawing and thinking. lol

 

[EKIMRI]

Cheap but effective fan if you decide to go with a hood, moves some serious air.

$25 fan, $7 duct

reduced space 18 degrees f... on low.


Unfortunately I can't grab air down low, but I can duct up high and that makes a huge difference.

 

[justatoker]

damn I make way too may typos lol..

 

[justatoker]

Cheap but effective fan if you decide to go with a hood, moves some serious air.

$25 fan, $7 duct

reduced space 18 degrees f... on low.


Unfortunately I can't grab air down low, but I can duct up high and that makes a huge difference.

I was wondering how that fan was.. If I need to buy another fan I def will look into that one. Ive actually had that one bookmarked for a week or so lol.

peace

 

[justatoker]

Just thought i'd throw this out there..

" 8% is a minimum light loss through glass transmission, but thats for aircooled hoods Not cooltubes. Only with perfectly clean and flat glass. As soon as the glass gets dusty (happens within a few weeks) then you start to lose even more 10-15% + the longer you forget to clean it the worse it gets. Most people clean their glass once a grow tops, and some don't even do that. By the time they hit flowering they're losing upwards of 10-15%

Cooltubes are even worse. Much worse. Especially ones that incorporate a reflector on the outside of the cooltube. Because not only is your light transferring through curved glass which further reduces light transmisson over flat glass, frequently the 50% of your light it thats hitting the reflector has to transfer through the glass 3x... Any decent professionally built cool-tube will include the reflector on the inside of the glass, eliminating part of the problem. But I've seen many many DIY cooltubes with reflectors on the outside of the glass.

Major light loss, possibly upwards of even 20% Or god forbid, no reflector at all,in which case your looking at a loss of 30% or more."

If you think you need a cooltube, or your having problems with temps, you really just don't have enough ventilation. a 2:1 ratio of lighting wattage to ventilation CFM will keep temperatures a few degrees above intake without the use of aircooling. You can keep canopy temperatures the same with ample interior fans blowing directly on the bulb. Its a pretty common misconception that cooltubes and aircooled hoods improve yield by allowing you to get closer to the canopy. This is almost never the case. Sure the inverse square law holds its ground. But getting closer to the canopy means most of your light is concentrated on the tops directly underneath the bulb, overpowering them and wasting it. Possibly even bleaching them. Its much better to have your bulb slightly higher up and get a much larger footprint and even distribution across the entire canopy, rather than blasting the plants directly below the bulb.

The only time i'd reccomend using an aircooled hood (note: I would never recommend a cooltube because of the curved glass, unless you feel like paying for special reflectorized bulbs) is when the loud ventilation causes a major security concern and all options for quieting it have been exhausted. Aircooled hoods do allow you to run less fans. Other than that, save your dough you were planning on spending on that cooltube and spend it on better ventilation."

 

[jnuggs]

Thanks for the information! I actually bought 2 of the bake-a-round pyrex tubes off ebay last summer. I was about to use them on my next grow. I'm in the middle of planning that, and you just saved me some light! I think I will quit sucking through my hood, and get rid of it. I have a 24" carbon scrubber, 400w light hood, 6' of 8" insulated ducting, and a 500 CFM fan, with temps at 85F!