$30 DIY Carbon Filter (Design by Ryoko)

[Guest]

Mine's not as pretty - more ghetto than anything, but it appears to be working. We'll see when things get stinky.

Here I have fans pulling air from the cab. One pulling from the veg/clone section and one pulling from the flowering section into the carbon filer set up. I also have fans pulling in fresh air from outside the cab.
click pic for a bigger view

Here is a view of the carbon filter set up. I used 3X4 flanges for the passage holes. connected fans on one side (drawing - no back pressure present if you're wondering). A Sanitary tee and a 90 degree elbow, connecting both shelves to the carbon filter.

Another view of it.

 

[x10fast]

:

very nice DIY setup

 

[NOFpuXnk]

i like the looks of this carbon filter and design a lot... even with the missing pictures it seems like the easiest in fact maybe the only one i sorta understand at all..

i hope i can find some of those things...

 

[HILLBILLY 420]

which page are those other pics on thaT DIDN'T SHOW UP??

 

[Guest]

Hey cool, one of my old threads has been ported from hempcultivation! What a blast from the past.

 

[bounty29]

Huh, I don't know why those pictures aren't showing up. They were all in my gallery, and I didn't delete them or anything.

 

[Haps]

This is a cool design, how long does that filter keep working? I used the web one in earlier systems and they would not be heavy duty enough to last more than a month at best. If you want a more robust air scrubbing, for about the same cost, and ease of build, check out my "simple scrubber" thread, the link is in the DIY stickies. I may try this idea on a new office scrubber to see how it works over time, the simplicity is attractive.
H

 

[Guest]

I built an even larger one than the one pictured, 5" diameter, and change the filter sheet once per grow.

 

[TheOneWill]

Would this work for a 420watt cab? The size is 44inches long 68inches high and 24inches wide.

 

[Ganja Guerilla]

bump...

bump...

So how is the filter holding up?

 

[INFI Addict]

Yup, wanted to know the same!

Cheers

 

[bounty29]

Hey, sorry about the wait for my reply, been real busy lately. I didn't get to test this out in flower, and when I did have it it was only scrubbing half the exhaust so I really can't say whether it worked well or not. I built the scrubber from Durban Poison's tutorial, here.
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=509470

It worked out very well, I think I need to pack the carbon a little tighter next time. Sorry I couldn't help out more with questions on this design though.

 

[onecuriousmonk]

Any reports on how well this filter works? Looks much easier than the loose activated carbon filters -- too good to be true?

 

[hoosierdaddy]

If a strain is a real stinker, cloths won't stop it unless it has been layered pretty well.
For small cabs and moderate smellers, these probably would work out.
But, if you absolutely need to eliminate odors, for $50-$60 you can build a full on carbon scrubber that is the same as bought units.

 

[onecuriousmonk]

Cool, thanks hoosierdaddy. Looks like I'm off to the pet store

Good airflow and starter box posts too!

 

[onecuriousmonk]

Ryoko's follow-up

Ryoko's follow-up

From another forum where Ryoko posted a follow up to his original design:

Carbon Filter Update
permalink
I just thought I'd return with a status report so you all know how well the filter held up.

The filter was originally installed during a grow with 4 weeks of flowering left to go. The plants were at their stinkiest at this time and the smell improved right away. After that, I started a new girl with the same filter. By the time she was done, 10 weeks later, things were starting to get a bit smelly again. Not nearly as bad as without the filter, but still noticably worse than with the brand new filter.

I think that you might be able to stretch a filter to last for two grow cycles at the most. You are probably much safer with a new filter for each new grow. Considering a grow takes about three months, buying a new filter four times per year isn't too bad. (If you are doing it full time.) For my size, it's $7.50 CDN each time to replace it, from Home Depot.

When I replaced it finally, the amount of crap the filter caught was crazy. The sheet of carbon wraps around my tube about 2.5x. The first layer was all white and had a bunch of dusty crud on it. The second layer also had visible residue, but less. The very end of it was mostly clean; the first two layers stopped a lot of junk.

OK I'm done for now. It's nice to see that others have tried out the method and are now killing their smells the DIY way.
[end quote]

 

[conehead]

Hi Bounty nice design, do you think the Carbon filter wrap works as well as granulated carbon?. If so its a lot less messy to make & change carbon.
Nice work, anything that keeps big nosy noses at bay has a big thumbs up by me!.

 

[BagseedBoy]

hey where did you get the carbon Cloth.. See I went to wal-mart in the fish section and got active carbon(little pieces of rocks) I was wondering why my 530cfm fan was having a hard time pushing through it....lol.. I see why now.. Did you get that at home-depot or something????? Its a honey-well replacement filter or replacement carbon cloth???? RIGHT... Well I just read the threaD AN ITS HOME-DEPOTS THANKS THOUGH

 

[Nemissis]

My girlfriend found out the hard way that if you have soft hands wear work gloves while handling that mesh!

Lucky mine are rough from construction and I had no problem but she was definitely a bleeder

 

[sirbudsalot]

I didn't have great luck with this design for odour control. Even with the filter cloths doubled up, they weren't able to knock out the smell from my five plants in a small cabinet.

Anybody else have experience with this design?

I would recommend other designs using loose activated carbon. I just built one of these and it's working fine so far:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=86726