Carbon filter - giving out weird burnt smell

Hey all,

Iv'e got a carbon filter for over 6 months now working great. However, I found out recently that is actually producing a wierd smell, not strong odor but smell like something was burnt, but not harsh. more like leaving an oven on 200c open for an hour and the heat will just somehow give a burnt\smoke smell to the house... thats what I get (when lights on\off , it doesnt matter). When I leave home and close windows I just get back and get this thick odor... not something I can say its cannabis but just something weird that people tend asking where it comes from.

anyone know about such issues?

check your fan isnt burning out or dust or i dunno

it could be that you are smelling your lights heating up your aluminum hood (assuming you have one) or like spliff said it might be your fan but i think it is your light
it smells like that when i get close to my lights and you said that you had your filter for 6 months well thats how long they last at an average depending on how much air flow goes though it they say they last for 8 months to a year but thats only with a pre filter that goes in before the actual charcoal filter

More than likely, you are getting the smell from your fan. I would seriously consider uninstalling the fan and the scrubber and taking them outside and start sniffing closely. If the scrubber doesn't smell and the fan does, consider servicing or replacing the fan.

also , what way do u have your fan, is it extracting the warm air through it then out, or is it pushing the warm air out. if its extracting the warm air through the fan then out , the heat can cause damage to the inner workings of the fan, this heat greatly decreases the life of the fan. there is a few different ways to get airflow, some more efficient and effective than others!

cameron666 said:

also , what way do u have your fan, is it extracting the warm air through it then out, or is it pushing the warm air out. if its extracting the warm air through the fan then out , the heat can cause damage to the inner workings of the fan, this heat greatly decreases the life of the fan. there is a few different ways to get airflow, some more efficient and effective than others!

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How hot of a grow room are you in? If the heat was that hot, the plants wouldn't live...

Also, most of us know that a vortex fan should push little, and pull a lot...

Well, it's not the light since I get the smell also when lights are off.....
If its that fan its gonna be a problem its a closet screwed inside another closet (for stealth) and the only way to get that fan loose (its a serious 240cfm that blows air from cooltube out) is getting the closet out of closet (meaning unscrewing my whole project). well I got an compressed air machine to clean it from inside, i'll probally do it that way to check it out after this operation.

im having a hard time beleiving it to be the fan aswell... I mean... im allergic to dust and I would of felt a difference but it's smells baked.... like cookies coming out of the oven... seriously!

edit: i just put my nose on one of my extractor fans from my very dusty PC... its got a dusty smell, nowhere near the smell coming from my grow op.

well, the vortex fan actually does get hot. The light (400w hps) its putting out great heat but its with a cooltube so it might actually be that the air is really hot (it comes out from the grow box at around 35-40c) altough with great air circulation inside the grow room my plants get to 27-30c (with co-2 so they performing extra well). The fan is only 240 cfm on the 400w hps light.. with a total of around 5 foot of ducting (about 2.5ft each side of it).

Hi... I know this post is super old, but I stumbled across it because I was having the same problem. I figured it out and thought I'd share for your future reference, if you never figured it out, or for anybody else having the same problem that happens to stumble across this thread. There is a leak in the electrical box connected to the side of your fan. Air trapped in an enclosed space with an electrical current generates ozone. That's what you are smelling, ozone creation. It's not likely going to produce enough ozone to do anything bad and as long as you don't smell the cannabis, then the fan is doing its job, so you don't necessarily need to fix this. However, if you'd like to, this is what you do... You'll need duct or electrical tape and a couple different screwdrivers...

Unplug your fan

Open electrical box

On the inside back wall of the box, locate the screws holding the box to the fan and remove them

Gently pull the box free of the fan. You will only be able to pull it a couple of inches away. It will still be connected by wiring.

Take about a half inch piece of duct tape and wrap it half around the wire coming out of the box and half around the protruding hole on the back of the box that the wire is coming out of.

Gently use your finger nail to push the tape around the wire up against and/or into the hole in the back of your box to block air entering the box.

Take another half inch piece of duct tape and fold it in half so both sides are sticky. Wrap it around the plastic bit that the wire is coming out of so the sticky part can be folded down against the back of your electrical box (like a duct tape washer). DO NOT overlap the tape when doing this. You have to wrap the tape in a way that both ends meet, but neither overlaps the other or else you will not be able to fold it down properly. It may be easier to use more than one piece. It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to make a seal when everything gets screwed back in.

Lastly, screw everything back in.

I hope this is helpful to anybody having a similar issue.