Question about keeping smell on the DL w/ AC Infinity tents

Hi all,

I did some janky indoor grows many years ago where I wasn't in charge of the equipment. When I did those grows, they were just all out in the open in a room in my house where I had carbon filters attached to ducts+fans+HIDs and a sus standanlone scrubber with a 5' can filter that looked really old that was in the room and we piped exhaust into the attic. The smell was intense around my house during flower, and when people came up to my front gate 10ft away from the grow room, it was a dead giveaway.

So clearly I was doing something wrong with smell and want to nail it this time. I think since I am not venting into the attic and instead venting into the room that the tents are in, that should help but previous experience makes me expect heavy smell inside the house if it's anything like what was coming out of the attic. I don't necessarily mind that, but would like to cut out to be safe. Maybe my scrubber/filters weren't up to par/overused - i've read that one good carbon filter before you exhaust should be all you need and that wasn't my experience.

This time around I have 2 tents exhausting into a 15x15ish room in my house, central air at 72ac:

1 2'x4'x6' tent for mother/clones: (All AC infinity equipment)

• 4" intake fan pulling from room
• 4" exhaust fan + 4"x13"carbon filter exhausting into room

1 5'x10'x6.7' tent for veg/flower which I expect will run: (all AC infinity equipment)

• 6" intake fan pulling from room
• 10" exhaust fan + 10"x39" carbon filter exhausting into room

The question: I have a 6" ac infinity fan/filter being used as a standalone floor carbon scrubber - to reduce smell best, would it be better to put the carbon scrubber inside the 5'x10'x6.7' tent or outside in the main room during flower? Some people have said that 1 carbon filter on exhaust should be all it takes but I'm trying to err on the side of caution here.

Side note: My mother tent is finally dialed in and automated and i've got to say that these AC infinity systems are frikkin' amazing!

Thanks to anyone who might have any input!

Interesting angle. On the one hand, inside the tent you're tackling the problem at the source AND getting more air movement (watch out for wind burn issues potentially?). That way the exhaust is dealing with less of the issue so therefore it would emit less odor. On the other, if running the scrubber outside the tent - then you're only dealing with the odors that did escape and get emitted. So in theory since you don't care about odor inside - I'd probably go outside. The problem there though is to be effective you need negative pressure and to be able to cycle the volume of air correctly so you might need a bigger scrubber rig.

If you're really in a situation that it's that important - do both. Use a miniature scrubber rig inside the tent to also give you air movement for the plants and then a mid-sized rig outside the tent for any odors that do escape. Budget permitting of course, but if it's spend more -vs- worse consequences - pony up the money.

Thanks for the response! Appreciate the input. I had originally thought of going one inside one outside too. Maybe that should be the way I go.

oversize the carbon filter and double if you have to. Pull the air thru a filter then push it back through one on the other side with a booster in between. Rather have more filtration than not enough imho. Budget permitting.

Things like temp and humidity affect the 'scrubbing' potential of any carbon filter.

Great info here everyone, thank you!

Usually pulling through the filter works better than pushing through it in my experience. I use 2 6" inline fans both having carbon filters, inlet is outside, exhaust filter is inside, inlet fan on low, exhaust fan on high, creates a nice vacuum effect where the smells wont get pushed out into the room. You always want a slight negative pressure in your tent if possible, this will also ensure good fresh air exchange.

Inlet filter is optional of course, I double-duty carbon filters, also keep in mind they go bad every 2-3 years. It's a recurring expense unfortunately. So keep that in mind when doing your setup, don't buy crazy expensive filters.