Refilling carbon scrubber

Herb & Suds said:

if you clean it you need to bake it to reactivate the charcoal, as far as rivets go a pop rivet gun is cheap and you just go up a size

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Yes I've seen people say you need a kiln. And I've seen people say 300 in the oven for an hour. Also seen someone say 500f and 200f. Nothing very clear.

It's winter here so I'd have to use the oven method. Roof definetly not an option. Snow coming Tuesday lol

I gave this a try one time. It wasn't worth the hassle an I didn't achieve the desired results. Ended up buying a new filter.

I put my used carbon in my compost..

I would be afraid of odors baking it.

Well I got bored and ended up baking the carbon pellets for 2 hours at 300f then bumped it up to 350. I kept checking the temps with the pellets every 10 or 20 minutes to make sure no weird stuff was going to happen.
The smell was horrible but more like spray paint or lacquer.
It wasn't to messy at all but I could see it being messy for some.
I figure the worst case is it didn't work.
But after thinking about that vivosun filter with reversible flange or whatever.
I'm thinking just moving the carbon around should give it a little more life.

I'll have a new filter by the time I go into flower so if this doesn't work then oh well.
But if it does then sweet I got a little more life out of it.
Here's a pic of the nuts and bolts I put on the flange to replace the rivets. Sorry if it's a shitty pic. My camera sucks.

Oh for anyone wondering. I taped a small flower pot over the center hole upside down to prevent the pellets from falling in it. I also used a flour sifter to dump the carbon back in.
Also I didn't have a vibration table or a working washing machine so to settle the carbon I smacked the sides of the filter and that worked great for settllg the carbon. It all fit right back in like new.

Was gonna toss my first good Active Air filter and ran across someone who had refilled theirs. Been doin it for years. Don’t have the nerve to bake used pellets for the smell.

Aby55 said:

I figure the worst case is it didn't work.

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Ya

I just took a 3 year old filter took a little brush and cleaned the tiny holes out with brush took back inside plugged in and fresh carbon smell again! They last pretty long after one year I bought new ones after that year I replaced with old ones lol I grow some stank ass weed but the cheap ipower filter has been working forever

It is just hard to throw anything out that can be easily reused, recycled or repurposed. Almost a little side hobby.

hillbill said:

That’s the propaganda I was talking about, right there.

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LOL. Years ago I owned a hydro shop. I was friends with a guy who was a rep who took on "Phat" filters when they first came out. I carried those filters and the charcoal to repack them as well. I'd been telling him I kept hearing folks say "you can't repack them like the factory" etc. >myth< and hadn't sold any replacement carbon other than to myself. On his next visit he said "Remember our convesation about packing carbon in filters and how you said folks were saying you couldn't repack it as tight as the factory does?".....and then he handed me a photo of an aboroginal boy...maybe 10...dumping carbon in a filter with a plastic bucket and a peice of wood in his hand.....

hillbill said:

It is just hard to throw anything out that can be easily reused, recycled or repurposed. Almost a little side hobby.

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Yes I agree. Im a big recycler or repurposing.
If this doesn't work I can always just buy some activated carbon pellets from the pet store and refill it.

It is dusty but if you don't throw it around the dust doesn't go everywhere.