Need help with 250w perpetual harvest fridge

Hello all looking for some help with my 250w perpetual harvest fridge grow and I decided to go ahead and post my grow and get some much needed feedback.
The grand design is to us the freezer area as a mother/clone/veg chamber. I want 3 or 4 mothers up there and also an aeroponic cloner. Also the door will house 6 freshly rooted clones in 2 litre bottles to veg for 2 weeks then into the bottom. The bottom will be the 250w HPS flower chamber. The flower chamber will hold up to 24 plants in four groups all seperated by two weeks. But I only plan on doing 5 plants every 2 wks.. so 20 plants total in 2 lt bottles spaced out a little better.

Now that's the plan but I think I have run into some snags. First of all ventilation in the top is ok and it maintains about 78-82 throughout the day. However, I'm still waiting for a socket to wire up my ballast so I don't know what temps will look like in the fc. I fear I am going to over heat. The grow area is roughly 31" high x 28" wide x 19" deep. I bought a 50 cfm fan from home depot and its mounted in a hole cut in the side of the fridge. Its going to be pulling air through a carbon filter jamed in the 4-6 reducer flanged up on the inside of the fridge. I will probably build a hood for my light out of something. Intake is 2" holes drilled under the grow area. Does this sound like overheating or will a 50 cfm pull that area through a thin carbon filter with a 250w. I am going to test it out when I get there but I'm curious.

Another snag I hit was buying the ff line... I got the happy frog soil and the three nutes. I don't really want to grow with chems in the flowering phase. So I was wondering what ne 1 thought about using the greow big and big bloom in veg then flush and put in flower chamber ande give organic tea along with the big bloom as a tiger bloom substitute. Any recipes would be greatly apreciated I already got the air pump and know the process of aeration.

Thanks so much for reading my first post woot!

The best thing you can do is like your saying, get it setup and check it out, monitor it for several days before you put plants in there..... I think you will overheat too, i started out with a similar CFM in a smaller area, and with a 150W HPS and it was an oven. Temps went from 78 to 101 in about 5 minutes.

Awesome setup, i plan on doing this some day, i cannot wait. FREEEEKIN SWEEEEEET!!!

looks good but u might find u need to add more exhaust

Thanks for stopping by and checking it out...
Fab- by more exhaust did you mean intake or a stronger fan or just another exhaust completely please explain?? I know I need to drill more intake into the botom of the fridge. I appreciate the feedback very much

Amnoon-Hearing your previous experience does discourage me a little, but at least now I'm looking into a stronger fan...what would be a good cfm rating for this area and light rating.

Again thanks for stopping in guys I will have some more pics when I put my mothers and cloner in the freezer and get my socket and ballast put together and mounted.

i meant exhuast those bath fans dont move alot of air i use one in a small room but i got a/c running to

With proper "EXHAUST" you do not need an intake fan, just passive intake holes. Theres nothing there you cannot fix, don't get worried. I was shooting for stealth.........

When "I" thought about doing this same project, I was going to place the exhaust, motor and filter, in the freezer in a smaller partitioned section up there. Along with my ballasts and electrical stuff. That would keep all electrical cool, and keep it away from any plants, period. Also, reducing motor and sucking noise.

This in turn, that was going to vent the flower and veg area with one blower. Each having thier own dedicated path outward, but never mixing. So, ripping that sucker apart and sealing it up between the freezer and fridge would be in order.

Place several small intakes for the veg area, on the back of the freezer, as low as possible.

Place several small intakes on the floor for the flower area, which would require a raised floor, of some sort.

This is also "ASSUMING" that you have removed all of the original freon and pipes, etc...........................

Very crude usage, and i do not recommend it unless you must do this. But i took a 5 speed HEPA air cleaner, very small floor model, and gutted it and now i have a 5 speed blower that kicks MAJOR ASS. I never go above 1 and stay well within range. Its a very good blower motor, but required lots of tweaking. I have no clue what CFM it is, id say about 400 if on max.

Here is a quick drawing, hope this helps. Sorry so sloppy, not much time, L8r!

Also, I'd say you need a good 150+ CFM.

Hmm interesting where'd you got that blower sounds nice.

Any thoughts on using cfls until I can get a better fan...man I just got my light hooked up mounted in an old computer case and tried it out and tha temps went through the roof so I'm at a standstill then until I get a fan or just use cfl...thanks again for all the input I really needed it... if any body knows of any fans that would fit my application let me know.

Well since u dont have any plants going, I would just focus on getting a new vent system setup. Trust me, you want to flower with that 250 in that space, it will rock!! I was forced to start flower with CFLs and it stretched like a mofo, but stabilized after i dropped my 150hps on it.

The only real problem, is a fridge is meant to trap thermal energy and block outside environment. I read about a guy using frozen milk jugs to lower his temps. Stick 2 in the room, pull 2 out and refreeze. Looks like u got plenty 2liter bottles So, you'll need to have some real airflow. Your gonna wanna be below where you really want to be, that way when you add a carbon filter you will still be safe.

Yeah see the problem is I do kinda have some plants going already..or 1 that I care about. Right now I got 2 random seed mothers and a cloner in tha freezer but I got 1 plant I care about a trainwreck seedling that I hope will be female so I can at least make it a mother. It still has like 2weeks until I will flower to see if I got a female then maybe back in tha freezer to reveg and clone...think that might work if I still don't get my fan.
I'm thinking of geting the aero-flo af 6 6" inline duct fan rated at 240 cfm free air. I think if I put that in the 6" tubing in the side of the fridge it will work.. what do you think of that..



Also in the veg chamber is 1 cfl enough light I was thinkin of putin at least 2 any thoughts.

Another concern I'm having is with my intake holes. In the bottom of the fridge I'm drilling 1 3/
4" holes which I was going to put 1 1/4" pvc pipe in the hole about 7" long stuffed with fiberglass filter material and maybe an elbow to help bloke out the light in the dark period. Also I'm going to use the carbon filter to block light out of the echaust hole. Any thoughts on that/lightproofing intake and exbauhaust. Thanks again for your input.

Here's a few more pics.

I grow perpetual, I have a little more room than you do. But the same concepts and problems still apply.

With your limited veg space youre not really gonna have alot of room for mother plants. I just root the clones grow them as large as I can get them in my space (about 1 foot) then take cuttings from multiple plants. Doing it this way you'll have a constant flow of rooting and vegging clones.

You can grab a Y splitter for your veg light and add another CFL.

You dont have a lot of headroom in the flowering area too so a SOG approach should work well.

Thanks for the input my man and id like to see ur setup.

About the clones I thought like 3 mothers could at least supply 6 cuttings every 2 weeks but I'm also going to have 6 plants veging in the door so ar these the ones ur talking bout taking cuttings from as well.

And concerning head room I want to know how close can my plants get to my bulb. I got like 20" from the top of the soil to the bulb so how tall should I try and gwet these girls so I don't burn um. Causwe if they can get right up to the light that would be nice. Lol but what 3-4" so like 15" plants ... how much would that yield I wonder,....man I can't wait tha wait is brutal!!!!!

Pleaser any input is verymuch appreciated help me get this weed ball rollin in the honey oil...lol.

RxFrEEkLing said:

Thanks for the input my man and id like to see ur setup.

About the clones I thought like 3 mothers could at least supply 6 cuttings every 2 weeks but I'm also going to have 6 plants veging in the door so ar these the ones ur talking bout taking cuttings from as well.

And concerning head room I want to know how close can my plants get to my bulb. I got like 20" from the top of the soil to the bulb so how tall should I try and gwet these girls so I don't burn um. Causwe if they can get right up to the light that would be nice. Lol but what 3-4" so like 15" plants ... how much would that yield I wonder,....man I can't wait tha wait is brutal!!!!!

Pleaser any input is verymuch appreciated help me get this weed ball rollin in the honey oil...lol.

Click to expand...

You can keep the mothers if you want too, i used to but now dont. I just take cuttings from every plant before it goes into flowering. The Mothers took up too much space for me, it might be fine for you; try both ways and see what works best for your grow. Remember, you'll get a TON of advice here, some good some bad....you'll eventually learn that you gotta go with what works well in YOUR particular grow. Have fun and try different methods, experimenting and finding what works best is 1/2 the fun.

About light distance, a simple way of checking is to simply put your hand under the light and see how close you can get without really feeling a lot of heat from the bulb.....easy and quick way.

When I was flowering straight from rooting I would get 12-15 inch tall plants that were pretty much all bud. Heres a pic of what Im talking about, this was at 5 weeks of flowering after going straight into flower from rooting.



Heres my veg cab, you cant see the 150 HPS on the bottom that I use to veg with, Cloner and clones are all on top shelf


Heres flowering space just after installing a cool tube.



Good luck bro, any help I can give you just ask away.

Word that looks like a nice setup...

That little plant you say is 5 weeks... is it still going to flower for longer? Also did u prune it much or just let it grow.

thanks for the advise man and ill keep what u said in mind.

RxFrEEkLing said:

Yeah see the problem is I do kinda have some plants going already..or 1 that I care about. Right now I got 2 random seed mothers and a cloner in tha freezer but I got 1 plant I care about a trainwreck seedling that I hope will be female so I can at least make it a mother. It still has like 2weeks until I will flower to see if I got a female then maybe back in tha freezer to reveg and clone...think that might work if I still don't get my fan.
I'm thinking of geting the aero-flo af 6 6" inline duct fan rated at 240 cfm free air. I think if I put that in the 6" tubing in the side of the fridge it will work.. what do you think of that..

Oh yeah, that should keep it nice and cool.

Also in the veg chamber is 1 cfl enough light I was thinkin of putin at least 2 any thoughts.

I have 6 27w in a smaller space than that. - My opionion, is to add them until heat cannot be controlled. I have no card, so im not doing this half way...................

Another concern I'm having is with my intake holes. In the bottom of the fridge I'm drilling 1 3/
4" holes which I was going to put 1 1/4" pvc pipe in the hole about 7" long stuffed with fiberglass filter material and maybe an elbow to help bloke out the light in the dark period. Also I'm going to use the carbon filter to block light out of the echaust hole. Any thoughts on that/lightproofing intake and exbauhaust. Thanks again for your input.

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If u can use black pipe, just put a 90 on the outside part and have a straight stub-in. That should do it.

Read within, sorry did it wrong..........

O ok I see lol... nice to hear from you man thanks for the input. In the elbows I was wondering why u think they should be on the outside is there a specific reason... I was gonna put them inside to make the pipes flush with the ouside of the fridsge.. just wondering

Also I think either my fans in the veg room arew crap or the ambient air in there is just too hot.. I don't wanna put an ac unit in there hurry up fall lol...

Also I was thinking would I need a stronger fan than the 240 to go up tee'd up against my dryer out the existing dryer vent hole...also I wanted to run ducting from my ballast that's in a computer case on the floor behind the fridge and also pulling from the fc and vc.. also should the fan be at the dryer vent tee or elswewrh to pull from all three locations on one fan...maybe the 8" rated at 420 cfm to pull inmy manner.. or should ir blow through the ballast from the fc and vc... I wonder....should I cut a seperate hole in. The wall...

RxFrEEkLing said:

Word that looks like a nice setup...

That little plant you say is 5 weeks... is it still going to flower for longer? Also did u prune it much or just let it grow.

thanks for the advise man and ill keep what u said in mind.

Click to expand...

Yeah that was at 5 weeks of flowering, went into flowering as soon as it rooted. She had 4 weeks of flowering left. I didnt do any pruning, just rooted it and flowered.

Nice....man I'm so excited... and so broke lol. anythoughts on my vent prolem.