how good are dual hose A/C units

I plan on running co2 in my room and realize I will need to make it a sealed room with no exhaust. the only option I see is using a dual hose A/C but i am worried about the smell. is the input/output hoses sealed from the room? anyone with experience please chime in

no, they will exhaust odor, your best bet is one of these http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1311&_nkw=mini+split+air+conditioner&_sacat=0

They are sealed to a point. They do a fairly good job, however, there is inevitably a little bit of room air that gets pulled into the exhaust chain. We ALWAYS run a Ozone generator (http://www.blueairproducts.com) inline of our exhaust.

Now, I knew a guy who created his sealed room using polyfilm then cut a space for the AC to go in, so the front side was inside the room and the backside was out of the room. This way, the majority of the air that it might grab from indoors was already relatively clean. This also prevented his CO2 levels from being affected inside his sealed room. To make sure the air being picked up by the A/C was clean, he also ran a can filter as a scrubber with a 90 degree elbow that pointed TOWARD the back of the AC unit, giving it the cleanest, freshest air to suck up.

We run a dual hose A/C, and no matter where we connected the intake, the machine pulls SOME amount of air from the room slowly lowering our CO2 levels. The AC is able to cool faster than the CO2 generator can create heat so we don't have any issues in the end, but it is not exactly the most efficient method.

So in summary, if you have the hoses and/or the back of the unit inside the room then you will inevitably be pulling some amount air from that space. Your best bet is build it halfway in/halfway out if at all possible. There are also amazing units by IDEAL that actually send the air OUT a tube instead of out of the front of the unit like all consumer types. This allows you to put the A/C OUTSIDE the room completely and just duct the cool-air into the room. Of course, they cost around $1500-$2500, but hell, over time, it's efficiency and CO2 savings could probably pay for itself over time.

I am going thru the same thing at present. I use a "scrubber" inside of the room and it keeps the smell at bay; however, I am having a hard time finding or figuring out a solution to the cooling of the room. I use a portable single hose at the time, but am installing CO2 and don't want to be exhausting all of the CO2 out with that unit. I thought that the dual hose was the solution, but this post makes me think it may still be problem. I am wondering if anyone knows how much air that the dual hosed units leak. If it's minimal, maybe I'd stick with it...I'll check out the IDEAL, but that is pretty steep penny for that unit it appears. I am wondering if anyone has built a box for a window unit and been successfull. Included a intake and exhaust in the back of the unit, of course. Besides the window units are alot more efficient than the portables anyways and more cost effective. Any one?

after much research and opinion canvasing I have decided not to go with co2. it would cost me around $1200 to correctly implement co2 to include a 20 lb. can, regulator, environment controller, 10000btu airconditioner, humidifier. and even after that I won't be able to completely cover up the smell, which is a huge no no for me. I'm gonna stick to air cooled hoods with a scrubbed exhaust/passive intake. To me it makes more sense to buy 2 more 1000w hps and filter/fan for $650 and just double my harvest plant wise. I understand the need to get co2 for those who have maxed out their grow space but since I am not even using 25% of my floor space I will opt to expand the amount of plants I grow. it would also be a different story if co2 was proven to increase potency of bud.

dual hose works great i wouldn't worry so much about co2 loss but maybe a little smell between the 2 intake but this is supposed to be separate i ran a window AC in my co2 sealed rooms with no smell problems.

an ozone gen is a good choice if you do have a smell leak out of the back of the AC/s. as it could fit in the ducting or in the case of a window AC inside the shell.
best way to make sure the AC is sealed and not leaking air between the 2 sides is to open it up and fill in the cracks with insulation

I returned a dual hose that was claimed to not "create negative air pressure in the room. Simply put , it sucked, room air out. CO2 was being pumped out and the burner was on half the time. Corrected with wall mount AC, burner runs less than 25 percent of the time.