Best fan for stealth grow

Hey everyone!

I am in the process of setting things up for my next grow. My first one was done in a rubbermaid bin, but I want something more stealthy. I am going to go to the thrift store and buy a cheap small(ish) dresser and convert it into a grow box. My question though is what is a good quiet fan? I need it to be able to push air through a carbon filter....my first grow reeked up the whole house, and after all, it you can smell it, then it ain't stealth . I have looked around on the internet and various forums, but I can't seem to find a good recommendation for a fan. Oh yeah, my first grow, I used an inline fan for ventilation, and it sounded like there was a damn jet plane in my room haha. I have a high velocity fan that I can use to cover up a small amount of fan noise, but I wanted to ask the pro's what yall would recommend. Thanks a bunch everyone!

I'm in the same boat as you, the only thing people say consistently is ona gel. But id rather do a carbon filter like you. So hopefully someone answers.

i have also thinking of this for the cabinet im building. I think im going to use like a small personal fan and mount them somehow. Everyone says to use computer fans like wired with cell chargers or something but I dont want to use anything that is any kind of fire hazard. I tried the small personal fan tonight and it is really loud. For me this has been the hardest part for me to figure out with my build. Ona gel worked well with my closet grows in the past, I agree.

I tried a personal fan with my first (failed) grow. It really didn't work that well. I don't think I ever got the temps below like 90 lol. You might have better luck than I did, but i gave up on it after like a week of trying to get it to work. So the ona gel worked well for you? How much of the smell did it take care of?
My plan is going to be do use a carbon filter in the grow box. Odor eating CFL's in the room that the grow box is in, and some ona gel for good measure. Haha, better safe then sorry!

Ya the gel worked but that was a closet grow with two plants. Maybe it wasnt a stinky strain but one in the closet and one in the room itself and I never had a problem. Ya we will see what my temps get up too Im testing my boxes temps right now, just got my therm. today.

yo old computer fans are deff the way to go for a small dress or cab... i just so happens to have a couple old desk top towers laying around so i pulled some fans out the power supply and the cooling fans and cut and spliced them up to an old sega video game ac/dc power supply (any old ac/dc adapter will do though).... pc fans run off dc current which is safe to touch even when there plugged in it wont shock you and the only way there is any kind of fire hazard is if you try and run to many amps off one ac/dc plug my sega one was rated for 800mili amps.. all three fans are 250 mili amps which add up to 750 mili amps so im in the clear..... the plug gets a lil warm, but nothing really to hot.... been plugged in none stop for 4 weeks now i have two fans at the top of my box blowing out and one at the bottom blowing in keeps my box right at 75 degrees running 6 - 23 act. watts cfl's in a 3ft wide,2ft deep and 4 feet high dresser..... here is a link to a video with step my step instructions how to wire up the fans if your not very electronicly inclined..... oh and the best thin about computer fans is they are almost silent........ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9DMTQ2e7oM

you can buy one of those small desk fans, take off the base, zip tie it to the appropriate sized metal ducting, and attach flex ducting to that.
it works good, and those fans are quiet.

I broke down and spent $79 on a hydrofarm 96 cfm "snail" fan.....it's quiet, moves alotta air and low wattage

I hope this helps!
happy growing!

i'm using vantech tornado case fans for my pc box. the only problem is at full throttle they're loud as fuck. but if i turn them down, i can keep my temps ~77*F no problem. i modified the diy carbon filter with a pencil cup with the carbon prefilter sheets and a solo cup. and with those, i can maintain temperature and hopefully filter smell. i just switched to 12/12, so it'll be a week or so til they start really flowering (assuming they're females) and i guess we'll see. if it doesn't work as well as i had liked, i'll probably just switch out the sheets for the actual pellets like in the original thread. the tornado fans move a lot of air if you can run them at 100%, but the 92mm is rated at 56.4dB (but is rated at 119cfm). if you want silent fans, noctua is probably going to be your best bet..but i don't know if they'd be able to move enough air through a filter..i might order some and see how they work. and just as comparison, the 92mm noctua is 37.6cfm @ 17.6dB. i guess we'll see. to those of you who used ona gel, i have heard people say the buds take on the smell/flavor of the ona gel. from your experiences, true? bullshit?

lol I used the vantec tornado on the first pc I built. Loud as a fucking vacuum cleaner. The Scythe fans have a good reputation for being quiet (I have some, but I haven't used them). I am using an antec case fan that I got with a case that has 3 settings that are easy to switch between right now.

when i was looking for fans awhile back i saw some "quiet fans" or something like that. they were made to be quiet

The quietest fans ever, hands down, do not argue with me because you will be wrong are the case fans with magnetic bearings, then get some old case fans , gut them down to the frame, get hard screens and activated carbon and make your own carbon filter, make sure the fan is sucking air through it not blowing through it, it may not move as much so you might have to make a couple of these little contraptions, but you want quiet, that's as quiet as it gets.

i found putting filters and such directly in front of the fan (so that it's pulling the air through the filter) increases noise a fair amount. if you do the DIY carbon filter thing with the pencil cups, even though it's blowing air into the filter, rather than pulling it through, because there's more room for the air to move through before the filter, you don't lose as much air flow and you don't get as much of an increase in noise. it may not be as efficient, but as long as the filter is sealed well to the case/fan it'll work. but that also does kill the stealth-ness of the box

If you want to be extra safe with the pc fans use scotch locks to attatch them to the charger, cheap easy and safe.

This site has some really quiet fans with dB readings and also has fan attachments to make them even quite than the usual ones that attach the fans to the case.
http://www.endpcnoise.com

I just brought my fans the other day, look on my threads and there's a video and you can hear the difference when fan is off and fan is on and there's 2 fans, exaust and intake, they are extremely quite!! (With the quit adapter they gave) it was the Zalman ZM-F1 Plus, otherwise another I have placed on order, I heard is even quiter (silent) is the Noctua 80mm fan

Fouralarm said:

Hey everyone!

I am in the process of setting things up for my next grow. My first one was done in a rubbermaid bin, but I want something more stealthy. I am going to go to the thrift store and buy a cheap small(ish) dresser and convert it into a grow box. My question though is what is a good quiet fan? I need it to be able to push air through a carbon filter....my first grow reeked up the whole house, and after all, it you can smell it, then it ain't stealth . I have looked around on the internet and various forums, but I can't seem to find a good recommendation for a fan. Oh yeah, my first grow, I used an inline fan for ventilation, and it sounded like there was a damn jet plane in my room haha. I have a high velocity fan that I can use to cover up a small amount of fan noise, but I wanted to ask the pro's what yall would recommend. Thanks a bunch everyone!

Click to expand...

I have a small dresser converted to grow-box. For odor control I have a small 4" carbon filter with 4" inline fan. It moves a lot of air, the fan itself isn't that noisy but the turbulence noise is pretty high from all the air it moves. (http://www.amazon.com/Fan-Filter-Combo-Inline-Hydroponic/dp/B00725XWME/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372086953&sr=8-1&keywords=4"+carbon+filter) So I just run it for odor control, it can eliminate odors in just a few minutes. To keep air moving inside the cabinet, I have 2 of these fans for active exhaust and 2 passive intakes. These fans are designed for AV Audio Racks and they are very quiet and move a lot of air. They also get power via USB, and you can daisy chain the fans together if you wish. They come with a USB > AC Adpater and mounting templates.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009COQYA0/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

.......... duct muffler and a fish tank...............

read about a guy using a whisper quiet fan from Panasonic. here is the write up https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=45196

Here are two fan's that are very quiet.
http://www.hvacquick.com/products/residential/AirFlow-Boosting/Inline-Air-Booster-Fans/SP-TD-Series-Inline-Fans
I have the td-100 it's pretty quiet. They have a silent series too. Supposedly real quiet.

This company I just found yesterday similar design.
http://vents-us.com/cat/470/
They have in-line fans with built in speed and tempurture control. They have a slient series too.

A carbon filter is not the place to be a wad....you can make your own clone machines, not get sucked into the whole hydro crap thing and stick to dirt and the money you save can be spent on a 180-200 dollar carbon filter that will last a long time...you can get a cheaper carbon filter if you want black dust all over the place.