I need advice from growers..Quick Question

I just purchased the 170 cfm fan and filter combo from htg and it showed up at my door this week. I opened the box and plugged that sucker in and its really audibly loud from inside my grow room. I used a 4' to 6' adapter on the output side of the fan to create less pressure and it lowered the noise quite a bit. Now that I have opened up the ducts on the fan, the noise I can hear the most comes from the carbon filter. It makes the most of the woosh sound.

My question is...What can I do to make this fan stealthy as possible? If it means I will have to build and insulate a room inside my grow room then its gonna cost a few bucks I'm sure. Any of you have any ideas you would be happy to share on this? I am a legal MMJ patient but I have kids and the fan will probably catch their attention if they are in the basement. I built my room under the stairs in a locked room that is not accessible to anyone but myself. I just wanna cut the noise down to save myself the questions from people who may hear the fan.

Thanks alot RIU!

You need a speed control for it it should reduce the noise..

you can try a duct silencer, not sure you want to turn the fan down, defeats the purpose of buying the size you did

http://www.google.com/search?q=duct+silencer&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#q=duct+silencer&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbs=shop:1&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wf&biw=1016&bih=513&fp=9111c1d610a8252

I suspended mine with bungee cords to absorb vibration. Could be worth a try.

Get legal and then who gives a shit.

I'm legal, but I still think it's none of my neighbors business. They don't need to know what your doing.
If talk starts getting around and the wrong people hear about it then you might find yourself robbed...or worse.

Hang it from bungy cords and use insulated duct vents to keep it quite.You can wrap the venting in insulation too if ya dont want to buy the insulated stuff. Fans are loud, period so you can only do so much. Quitest one I know of is the S&P fans or the vortex. Use rubber for a gasket if hooking to say your basement wall to cut vibration and noise. Bungy prolly works the best tho

htg sells duct mufflers, but i dont know if they havent went over well or if they just bought alot more expecting to sell alot more because they have(last time i looked a week ago, but theyve been up at that price for months now)a good deal of them on ebay for quite a bit less than on their website.

all good advice above. duct muffler (if can't buy, google a DIY project), bungy cords, pipe wrap. also consider elevating the noise in the next room to cover the sound from the kids - computer (the fans), small radio playing constantly, a fan downstairs ('keeps the air fresh and moving, eh?")

coming from another Med state, my advice for anyone with a Med Card - (common sense as well, but not always so common these days .... ) - it's still federally illegal, don't flaunt it to neighbors or the feds. odor control is VERY important. lock your shit up - grow room AND your meds/paraphenalia - the last thing you want to happen is to get a knock from a cop who says "no problem that you are a state med patient, but that pipe on the table with your stash in plain view .... you are putting your children in danger, so maybe we need to involve child protection services" .... BS, yes. But it happens. so buy a $90 safe and keep it in there in between medicating. it at least shows you are trying to do your due diligence (which sounds like you are anyways with locking the GR).

Well I tried all of the advice given to me with no avail. You can still hear the fan and light ballast through the stairs. So what I think im gonna have to do is use some soundproof egg crate foam on the back of the stairs and frame a roof. I will put some pink insulation in there and cover it with plywood or drywall. Then I can put panda film over that and tie it in with the rest of the room. Im sure thats gotta work eh? Any other ideas?

I think the egg crate foam is more for acoustics(eliminating echos) rather than sound proofing. But if you have some you might as well try.
Is your fan touching anything solid?

No its just under the stairs and nothing is insulated so u can hear it when u go down the steps.

Can you upload some pics?

I will upload some pics later im off to work in this snow disaster.

This is how I have things for now. I have a passive 6in intake in the wall that looks like a regular heat vent. Then I blow the hot air out of the room pulling through the filter to the fan to 1 6in duct and out of the grow room. The stairs are carpeted as you walk down them which is good. As you can see the underside has no ceiling or insulation hence why so noisy.

What I have thought is...Run either 2 by 4 or 1 by 2 and nail it to the runners on each side of the stairs. That will raise the nailing surface up from where the steps meet the runners. The 90 deg that the steps make stick out under the runner about an inch or so, so that will enable me to nail drywall to the 2 by 4 i nail up. With that i can make cross beams 16 on center and pack the steps with pink insulation against the bottom of each stair and secure it with staples. then nail up some 5/8 drywall to the frame I installed which will seal the insulation and I hope cut the sound down to nothing. If I have to I can put 1 more layer of 5/8 on top for a 2nd layer. Pack any gaps between the runner/stairs and the existing finished wall with the pink insulation too. Then when i hang the drywall all of the gaps will be covered and insulated.


2 of the walls are concrete basement walls the ceiling is the stairs and the other wall is the outside wall shown in the 1st pic. I can insulate and drywall that wall as well but as for the foundation walls idk what I can do there. I think that insulating and covering the ceiling will cut the sound to nothing though.

At least thats what I am hoping..lol


What ya think?

Keep in mind that sound will travel through the nails.

Well here's an Idea...not sure if it will work but here goes...
Get some ceiling insulation, the kind that's in rolls(with out the paper front), and some landscaping plastic/visqueen. The idea is to make a sort of pouch under the stairs to hold the insulation up.

Start off by stapling the plastic through cardboard(so it won't rip so easily) beginning at the bottom and stopping 2ft up the runner. Stuff some insulation in the small amount of the pouch you've created. You want the plastic to sag so you won't compress the insulation. Keep working up the stairs 2ft at a time so you have room to add insulation.

Or you could try gluing that hard foam insulation to the bottom of the stairs. If that doesn't help enough then try the pouch idea.

Are you just going to be growing in front of that door?

Beagle said:

Keep in mind that sound will travel through the nails.

Well here's an Idea...not sure if it will work but here goes...
Get some ceiling insulation, the kind that's in rolls(with out the paper front), and some landscaping plastic/visqueen. The idea is to make a sort of pouch under the stairs to hold the insulation up.

Start off by stapling the plastic through cardboard(so it won't rip so easily) beginning at the bottom and stopping 2ft up the runner. Stuff some insulation in the small amount of the pouch you've created. You want the plastic to sag so you won't compress the insulation. Keep working up the stairs 2ft at a time so you have room to add insulation.

Or you could try gluing that hard foam insulation to the bottom of the stairs. If that doesn't help enough then try the pouch idea.

Are you just going to be growing in front of that door?

Click to expand...

Yes I am only gonna grow in the space right as you open the door. Its about 4 by 4..I was gonna use the space further under the stairs to put all the ducting and wires etc. It looks messy right now but when I figure out my final move I will trim everything down to size and clean it all up. I also have panda film I am gonna hang up to section of my plants from the wires and ducting/fan. So essentially when u open the door it will be the two duct pipes you will see plus the plants and light. At least thats what I am shooting for lol.

Good idea Beagle...I think that would work as well. The drywall way I was thinking was because I insulated my laundry room with 1 layer of insulation and drywalled it and I can't hear my washer or dryer anymore when they run unless I really try to. Im open to all suggestions at this point to save myself the trouble of taking shit down if I do it wrong and it dont work ha ha...

Should work. Seal the whole room when finished so you can ad co2 later if needed and smells dont excape where ya dont want them to.I caulked the crap out of my room when I was building it and sealed everything. Bungys for the fan will cut that sound down to all most nothen. It does on both my 6" 450cfm vortex fans so should work great on your little one.