The Cab Club

[barth]

Thanks simon.

Dang that's a lot of dust Disco!! Yuck! I guess I need to go cut me some furnace filter!

You will never look back when you see the build up on the filter.

I just buy the 3 pack of filters for $3. Then cut them to fit and staple them in place.

I would like to find something that is reusable but for now ill stick with the cheap filters.

 

[Bengi]

My cabs on a hardwood floor and I have 2 cabs. Already noticing some cat hairs randomly showing up on some of my buds. I will def. be buying a filter this wknd. Thanx for the advice.

 

[m00nchild]

Yeah, mine is on hardwood floor also, and I too have 2 cats. I don't want to wait til this is out of hand, so furnace filter is being installed tomorrow!

 

[m00nchild]

Well I still haven't installed a furnace filter, but I've temporarily attached some fine small-mesh window screen until I can make it out to the store. I can already see cat hair and dust accumulating on it, after only 2 days!

Here's my issue, that I need everyone's help with. No matter what I do, I can't keep the vegetative chamber much cooler than 87-89 degrees (F), depending on where exactly the thermometer is at the moment. I know that's not excessively hot, but it's hot enough and I want it cooler.

The way I have everything should allow for the temps to be a bit cooler, but I must be wrong because I can't make it work. Here's the deal, and I think, what makes my cabinet a bit different than other people's:

The way I have it designed, the cool air comes in through the floor of the bloom chamber, then goes up into the veg chamber, which contains the carbon scrubber and blower. So this means that even as the air enters the veg chamber, it is already containing the heat from the 250w HPS below. I know it's not a popular design choice, but I wanted to make this cabinet favor the buds, and not necessarily the mother plants (I mean, I can always grow from seed and have one chamber, if necessary, I just don't want to do that!).

So I expect my veg chamber to be a bit warmer than the bloom chamber, which it is, but I didn't think it would be that much warmer. My ambient temps in the room are around 78-80 degrees, the bloom chamber seems to register at around 84-85 degrees, and the veg chamber is getting up to 90 degrees. I don't get it, because I have a 265 cfm dayton exhausting it all, through a scrubber which is rated for up to 265 cfm, and the passive intake is twice the size of the 4" exhaust hole. Yes, the intake has darkroom louvers, but we're talking about twice the intake space here.

So yeah, the bloom chamber seems to be doing just fine, and thankfully that will not be my problem. But I do want to be able to keep mothers, and I have to contain my operation to this one cabinet, and it's all I have to work with. I'm thinking it's possible that a) my thermometer is just registering incorrect temps, b) the dayton blower is just the suck (I've had it for almost 7 years now), or c) my bedroom needs more air circulation in general, and the cool air from the window AC is just not making it down to the floor area around the cabinet.

I probably don't need to worry about it if I grow sativas or mandala genetics, because all my hashberry seedlings are doing fine, and the super lemon haze seedling is almost too big to even call a seedling anymore. They all seem to be loving the warmth. But I would like to keep temps down toward 80-ish.

Any suggestions? I was thinking maybe I could try replacing the dayton with a Lasko blower from walmart?

 

[Tatz]

What is the proportions intake vs. outlet ? Is your intake like 2 times your outlet ? I´ve understood this to be a critic point int temp control....
My 2c


Ed.: Ooops, sorry ! Read your post again and noticed.
My bad !!

 

[m00nchild]

I'm starting to wonder if the problem is the fact that the vegetative chamber and the bloom chamber are separated by the same size hole as the intake to the cabinet? Should the hole that passes air from the veg chamber to the bloom chamber need to be bigger?

 

[Batboy]

I'm starting to wonder if the problem is the fact that the vegetative chamber and the bloom chamber are separated by the same size hole as the intake to the cabinet? Should the hole that passes air from the veg chamber to the bloom chamber need to be bigger?

It is certainly possible that increasing the holes from flower to veg might help. It is also possible that the louvers are limiting the air that is being taken in, so you aren't really pulling in 2x the exhaust. . . so making larger intakes and flowthrough holes MAY help, HOWEVER, I think your biggest problem lies outside of the cab.

Your ambient temp is already several degrees hotter than the ideal temp to grow MJ. If you are starting with 78-80 degree air, you are going to have a bitch of a time keeping your interior cab temps down. You need to figure out your cooling issues before the air gets taken into the cab. You could go out and get the biggest, baddest fan around, but you will still be pulling 80 degree air into the cab where the temps will only go up once they hit the lights. It may be time to invest in some AC.

 

[m00nchild]

Hmmm. Yeah, I finally decided to put the thermometer right next to the intake, but outside of the cab, and it shows that the air being pulled in is about 81 degrees. So yeah, that's my problem. I can't really do much about it, though, other than grow heat-resistant strains. It gets hot here, and the window AC I already have in the bedoom is just barely keeping the room at 78 degrees. I suppose I could convince the landlord to replace the window unit with a more badass one. It does kind of suck.

Thanks for chiming in batboy. I know what you just told me should have been common sense, but I totally didn't think about it that way. I can be pretty stoopid sumtimez.

 

[Tatz]

...and that´s one of the great things about this forum, there´s allways help around for a grower in disstress !!

+rep for all of you who make life easier on others !!!

 

[m00nchild]

So, here's what I've done: I've decided that the photoperiod for the HPS lamp will be from 11pm to 11am. This way the light will only be on while the rest of the bedroom dips down below 75 degrees. Last night was the first night of this new photoperiod, and the highest temp in the cabinet was 86 degrees. I can handle that. I also think my genetics can handle that. So, during the day now, when my bedroom is the warmest, the only lights that are on are the compact fluoroscents in the veg cahamber, which only raise the temp of the cab by about 2 degrees over ambient. So my cab should never get hotter than about 86 while I sleep, and about 80 during the daytime.

Thanks again for everyone's help. I'm sure glad we have this club!

 

[Kelly.]

...

 

[Tatz]

My Micro Cab

...and it´s population

...an 2 months old pic of veg side of cab

http://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=15976&pictureid=325397
I´ll get a new pic, some are gone and others came in.
Also, I´ve since mounted the CGL´s horizontally with DIYreflectors.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Lookin' good, Kelly and Tatz.

Merlins Magic - 45 days flower.

 

[nolosses4]

Can you guys talk about how you're light proofing the area around the hinges? I recently finished building my Closetmaid 48"x72"x20" cabinet, but the light leaks are pretty bad around the three hinges on each side. I already caulked the entire back panel joints, and put weather stripping along the door edges, but I can't get anything to stay/fill the joint arond the hinges. Stealthiness is an issue so I'd like to make it 100% dark from the outside.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

A 3" wide strip of panda, cut to length and adhesive sprayed to the inside corner(s). Leave the middle 1" of material adhesive free. Pleat the non-glued part at the corner to allow door travel.

If you don't have panda laying around, rubber or vinyl might work. Anything that will block the light is fine, as long as it's thin enough to flex.

 

[nolosses4]

This is perfect. Thanks so much

 

[El Diablo]

awesome thread!

 

[Pinkladyeater]

awesome thread!

I agree, there is a wealth of great useful information in these posts. Please keep them coming.

 

[m00nchild]

So if anyone's interested in my drama, it looks like I've finally gotten it all resolved... by changing the time that the HPS is on, I have effectively brought my cabinet down to workable temps. I now have the HPS on from 11pm to 11am, during the coolest part of the day in this house.

So during the day, when the ambient temperatures around here pretty much stay at 79 or 80, the HPS is off, and the veg chamber registers 82 degrees, while the bloom chamber registers 80. Then when the HPS is on, the veg chamber registers 86 while the bloom chamber registers about 82.

That should work, especially for mandala genetics. (Whew!)

 

[HansHanf]

schweet thread

after the mills pride is nearly dead
good to know a place where cab growers can meet and speak