Need someone with A/C knowledge

I'm about to start my first grow, I'm supposed to pick up the clones tommorow. I finished the reflectors today which was the last thing before getting the clones, and I rechecked the temp just in case.

I have three 400w HIDs in a walk in closet that's 4' 8" x 7'. I'm using 2 fans and 2 A/C units, one wall unit and one portable. The portable is in the closet and I rigged up 25' of 6" duct to the wall unit so I can run it into the closet.

After adding the portable A/C a couple of days ago, the temp under the lights had dropped to 74 degrees. But when I double checked it tonight the temp was 87. I checked the equipment and noticed that the air coming from the wall unit's duct wasn't very cold, so I'm guessing that's the problem.

Do I need to add an inline fan to the duct to help the A/Cs compressor push the air the extra 25'?

Would not having an inline fan cause the A/Cs air to not be as cold as it should be?

If that guess isn't right, do you think I might need a refrigerant charge? Is there any way to test the refrigerant to see if the AC wall unit needs any?

I appreciate any help, this problem has to be fixed tonight.

The air blows out of the back pretty fuckin fast. Probably like 265cfm? Maybe less idk, but its strong. It would probably carry 25 feet no problem.. but a small inline would def help. And no, it won;t effect the temp of the air produced, unless the exhaust gets plugged

ReAVeR said:

The air blows out of the back pretty fuckin fast. Probably like 265cfm? Maybe less idk, but its strong. It would probably carry 25 feet no problem.. but a small inline would def help. And no, it won;t effect the temp of the air produced, unless the exhaust gets plugged

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After I noticed that the air coming out wasn't cold I double checked the line and there were no obstructions to the air flow. But for some reason the air wasn't cold and neither was the duct.

I took the duct out of the closet and was checking a few things when I noticed the duct starting to get colder again. Checked the air and that seemed to be getting colder too. So I put the duct back into the closet to give it another try, but same thing happened. 20 mins later the air wasn't cold anymore.

You can't beleive how frrustrated I am right now. Any ideas?

ReAVeR said:

The air blows out of the back pretty fuckin fast. Probably like 265cfm? Maybe less idk, but its strong. It would probably carry 25 feet no problem.. but a small inline would def help. And no, it won;t effect the temp of the air produced, unless the exhaust gets plugged

Click to expand...

Oh, and it's a wall unit so the air doesn't blow out of the back. The intake is right below the cold exhaust. The coils are on the other side of the wall (outside) so you don't need to vent the hot air from the coils.

most wall units are shitty and waste lots of power the best way is a water cooled chiller if u cant afford one go to your hardware store get 50' of 1/2"or 5/8 copper tubing and run cold water through it put a strong squirrel cage fan behind it will need bout 1/3 hp fan but that should get u through good luck

Inline fan is your answer......lol

capecodkid said:

Inline fan is your answer......lol

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Thanks man, that's what I was thinking but didn't know if it could be refrigerant. I'm guessing that the cheap Home Deopt fan will work since it's just helping a little.

I have all the wires hung & everything so as soon as this is fixed I'll be starting my journal.

I guess I'll get some sleep, there's a Home Depot that opens at 7 I think. I'll shoot you a message with a link to the journal as soon as the first message is posted.

spiker said:

most wall units are shitty and waste lots of power the best way is a water cooled chiller if u cant afford one go to your hardware store get 50' of 1/2"or 5/8 copper tubing and run cold water through it put a strong squirrel cage fan behind it will need bout 1/3 hp fan but that should get u through good luck

Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea Spiker, but I'm broke as a joke right now. This is my first grow and I wasn't planning a career change. 4 months is a long time.

yea you're going to need an inline then... you may not think anythings constricting the flow, but there is. the space

It sounds like there might be something wrong with your AC, but just a couple things first.
It's not the compressor that pushes the cold air - that's done by a fan, that blows your warm air across the cold side, into the room.
Since the unit you have is designed to only move the air directly into the room, I would recommend an inline fan. No way it will push air 25 without it!