help finding quiet extraction??

Hey guys and girls,
Just started my first grow, and the girls have been vegging for about a week now and are looking pretty healthy (I'm surprised!).
Problem I have is in my vegging area I'm using a 4" extraction fan (no where near powerful enough for extraction in my flowering area so need to buy a bigger fan) however the noise of my 4" fan is just under the level of being a problem (noise is a big concern to me!) I was wondering what different brands, techniques, equipment anyone has used that is quiet and has worked well for them?? Any help much appreciated! Cheers, hmmf

Hmmf said:

Hey guys and girls,
Just started my first grow, and the girls have been vegging for about a week now and are looking pretty healthy (I'm surprised!).
Problem I have is in my vegging area I'm using a 4" extraction fan (no where near powerful enough for extraction in my flowering area so need to buy a bigger fan) however the noise of my 4" fan is just under the level of being a problem (noise is a big concern to me!) I was wondering what different brands, techniques, equipment anyone has used that is quiet and has worked well for them?? Any help much appreciated! Cheers, hmmf

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I have the same concerns cause I am a apartment grower in going to try insulated ducting. And hanging fan from bungees in tent. Bought the wrong size of filter so I have to spend more money on that.

Let me know how it goes man, an il do the same! What fan are you running? Could try making a filter, supposed to be pretty easy an cheap!

Sound is transmitted through vibration. So, number one thing you can do is, mount the fan directly to charcoal filter. Then hang charcoal filter/fan combo up high with non-metal straps. That helps big time. We always use insulated ducting everywhere ducting is needed. The other noisey part of a fan is at the actual point of exhaust or intake. Exhaust in this case. If this is where the sound is killing you, i know of only one thing that will help, and that is a silencer. I personally don't use them. If i have to worry about sound when designing a grow room, i duct air from/to where it won't be heard.

Cheers dude, I heard somewhere for one reason or another, not to connect the cf straight to the fan without ducting? Dno if it was legit tho. Have you ever heard or used one of those fans in an acoustic box? Can be quite pricey so don't want to waste my money if it ain't as quiet as I expect! "/

Supposedly, it's not the most effecient placement for the fan. It's most efficient towards the end of your exhaust. I can only imagine how much louder the exhaust would be with the fan at the end of the exhaust run. Now, I, and every single person i know of, all over Cali, have been hooking them up the way I mentioned in my earlier post, since they came out.
Do this with the proper fan/filter combo: Stand up a charcoal filter. Plug in the fan, hold fan while it's blowing in your face. Drop it down onto the filter with a snug fit. Not much change in flow.

I've never made or tried an acoustic enclosure for a fan, so, i dunno about that.

My fans are mounted directly to my carbon filters and are hanging fron ceiling using old tie down straps. What I would suggest is this get a fan oversized and put a speed controller onto it as half way up the fan will prob be almost noiseless. I have a hurricane 8 inch 760 cfm is kinda loud. I have a 6 inch hydrofarm 400cfm fan thats louder then my 8 inch. I had a 8 inch maxx fan 749cfm and it was the quietest imo. Put duct work on exhaust side facing away from the worry area or as above install a silencer. Def recommend speed controller as it does make a huge difference

Sweet cheers for the advice! Il give your suggestions a try and fingers crossed everything works out!

I have used an oversized fan dialed way down with a variable transformer (variac). it is not a cheap solution but works well, and can be "stacked" with isolation and muffling to achieve serious quiet.

My tent is 1.2 x 1.2 x 2 m and I am using a 600w hps. What sort of cfm fan you think would be a good pick to then use a speed controller to dial it down? Cheers again for the help people, much appreciated!

400 would be plenty. Whats the temps around your tent. Higher temps outside of tent will need more cfm to keep temps to a minimal. So I would upp the fan if you adding filters silencer etc I would get a 700cfm so you can turn way down and it would be super quiet but im like tim allen alwayd want more power then needed

It's on a variable ballast so could lower it. Does lower watt reduce heat? Or will the light always reach a certain temp? The room can get up to 20 degrees Celsius. I'm growing 2 vanilla kush, 1 mk ultra and 1 underdawg og, will 400w be sweet over the 4? Would using a reducer to 6" ducting make it louder? (Just to save buying new carbon filter aswell)

Couple questions
1. You have a 400 watt bulb or what exactly?
2. Do you have a fan to move air in and out of tent for air circulation
3. What other equipment will you be running
4. Your reflector has what size holes for ducting?
5.your carbon filter what size duct work is it for

Three things used in combination work great for me - hang from bungies to eliminate vibration, use insulated ducting, and get a bigger fan than you need and dial it down with a speed controller. I use the cheapo inlines and they're pretty quiet doing it that way. If you wanna really go stealth get one of the new vortex or TD-silent fans and do those things along with an end of line silencer and you'd probably need to strain to hear it in the same room.

1. I'm not 100% sure at the minute, a friend got it for me awhile back, but the ballast you plug in has the option of 330w 500w or 660w.
2. I have a small fan for intake (if I have to, less noise if can do without) and I'm looking for a decent fairly quiet fan to start with then follow some peoples suggestions on top.
3. carbon filter for 6" ducting, 8" fan to move interior air in tent, my shade isn't a cool tube, just cheap and simple, this my first attempt so tryin to keep costs relatively low... Difficult!

4 and 5 covered in 3, cheers again for the help people, I've done a lot of reading but a lot of the time you can't beat answers to your personal situation!

So your reflector is a basic bad wing type reflector?

Yeah mate. That a problem? Can look into another one but probably not till after this grows done

The problem i have with slowing down the exhaust fan, is that by doing that, the fan is no longer matched to the filter. You woudn't put a huge fan on a small filter, you shouldn't put an undersized fan(slowed down fan) on a huge filter. The fan/filter combo should be closely matched for a sure thing with the smell control. I almost always dial in the intake with a speed controller though.

Check it. You already have a 4" fan rite. Use that for intake. Get a 6" for exhaust. Mount it to the filter and use insulated ducting, to take it out the tent. Try using a much longer length than needed, that will help a bit with the noise(a little)you can always mess with it to sort of muzzle the exhaust sound. The 4" in/6" out will give you the negative air pressure you want for the smell. This should work sweet in these Cooler months even without an air cooled hood. When you get some more money, buy an air cooled hood. You do already have a 600w bulb rite? I wouldn't hesitate to rock it, at least try it. It won't cost you anything to find out.

One last thing. Where are you exhausting your air to, and where are you pulling air from?

Sweet il look into it, can you get 6" fans powerful enough to use slowed down and still be powerful enough to control temps? There is a fireplace in the room and one in the room below (both unused) was thinkin could exhaust up and intake from down (as the hot air will rise and you can feel the cold air in the chimney) what do you think?

tallen said:

Three things used in combination work great for me - hang from bungies to eliminate vibration, use insulated ducting, and get a bigger fan than you need and dial it down with a speed controller.

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The dialed down, bigger than needed fan, can definately work. I can just see giving that advise to someone and they turn it way down, and completely mess up the fan/filter match up.