DC Squirrel Cage Microblowers vs. PC Fans

[trem0lo]

Hey quinoa that idea is nice but you need a big fan, like the Panny. If you apply this idea to a smaller, quieter fan, it will back up rather quickly at more than a few inches of carbon.

In my experience with multiple designs, the dual cylinder is the *only* filter that removes 100% of the odor. 100% as in you never smell it, even 9 weeks into flower. Here's why:

Greater surface area allows weaker, quieter PC fans to pull through it with good results. When I say greater, I mean 10 times or more depending on cylinder size. It's significant.
It holds more carbon, meaning more scrubbing power and less time between changes. Mine holds 2 cups and still needs to be changed every week during late flower.
It guarantees even carbon depth and air pressure if packed well. That means air is traveling at exactly the same speed into all sides of the carbon bed, which is critical.

My implementation of the cylinder design is vertical so that gravity pulls the carbon down evenly. Even if it settles a bit (which it does) the carbon depth is always the same.

I can change the carbon by detaching it from the cab ceiling (it's held on by magnets) and simply pouring the carbon out.
You got me on carbon depth--that's something that needs to be experimented with by the grower. Usually 1-2" is good enough. I use 1" and it works.

Sorry to come off like a know-it-all but I've been battling smells in micro grows and finally just built a mini can filter. The big growers use them for a reason.

 

[quinoa64]

That makes total sense, trem0lo - you get the surface area of the entire cylinder, versus a 3 inch circle filled with carbon.

And I think your pencil cup model is exceptionally tall, as far as DIY scrubber designs go, so lots of surface area there.

But I got excited by the concept in that stoney way, so you know I still have to try it out.

I should have all the parts by next week, I'll put one together and report back on how deep the carbon can get while still pulling decent airflow from a PCI slot fan.

 

[Oregonism]

First off, thanks to everybody for weighing and adding.

@quinoa
Look forward to seeing the scrubber build, Im in too. Just got a new cab [mini-fridge] and its time to operate! But I may re-engineer a bit to fit in the back of the "hump"

@Tremolo
I am trying to find some info vs. push/pull. Does a blower have better inlet static pressure than outlet static pressure?

and thanks for your responses, I did figure out the gist of that early post. I have seen two threads, that I haven't tracked down again, one was gutting a 120mm fan and using the housing stuffed w/charcoal butted up against another 120mm fan. The other was somebody used a car filter housing, one the aftermarket cool air intake version, pretty slick actually, quite a lot of surface area. A diesel version can be had that is similar in shape and surface area to DIY one, maybe a thought.

But I definitely want to mess around w/ your version of the diy scrubber and a blower.

Then I re-checked your Quantum PC Thread, I thought I had read it once, but glossed over it, my bad, LED's and blumat's, are you reading my mind?! ;]

 

[Oregonism]

One post here, then I need to make my own micro-thread. Got a new flower box, GE Mini-Fridge got it for free from a scrapper! Already much of the information in this thread [and the trails to others] is being analyzed by moi....
Normal stuff:
-CFL for now. Probably Four 32W's ---- [2]2700k and 4100k and 5xxxk to mix it up a bit.
-Blowers hopefully [dam Pci Slot Blowers, never showed from NEwEgg, oh well]
-thinking about active intake rather than passive.

[Would like to go 150 hps or full on LED in the future.]
I would love to go blumats or aero, but neither is in the budget currently although, blu-mats is more of a time thing, they are cheap.

Side note I am a veteran and my buddy is a veteran, he was with me when it was dropped off and he is begging me to build one for them to use as a veg/clone box and then maybe turn it into an isolated pollen chamber. Im stoked.

Crazy Stuff:
# Hardwired PSU
Mainly I want to run multiple fans etc without having to rewire everything. Then.....timers on their own circuit to bring down RH in the off hours:
# Thought about this guy as a USB Fan Timer/Controller USB-Time-timer-Control-Board-Power-Supply but.......

....just thinking about wiring in a relay to the PSU so that I can run an Anduino module or a Raspberry PI. [This is where my buddy came in, I want to datalog for the longest time and now I have an excuse I think]

# Making my own activated charcoal [that's another thread entirely tba.....]

 

[trem0lo]

That makes total sense, trem0lo - you get the surface area of the entire cylinder, versus a 3 inch circle filled with carbon.

And I think your pencil cup model is exceptionally tall, as far as DIY scrubber designs go, so lots of surface area there.

Definitely. Actually my design uses the smaller pencil cup they sell at Staples as the inner core, and the larger one as the outer core. The inner core is not even that big.

When I actually did the math I was astounded--a 120mm fan only has ~17" of surface area to pull through. The surface area of the cylinder is 46". Huge difference in airflow.

@Tremolo
I am trying to find some info vs. push/pull. Does a blower have better inlet static pressure than outlet static pressure?

That's a good question. I would guess pulling would give better performance, but I actually don't know.

....

Crazy Stuff:
# Hardwired PSU
Mainly I want to run multiple fans etc without having to rewire everything. Then.....timers on their own circuit to bring down RH in the off hours:

You can buy a 12V hard drive power supply and wire it to a fan header which mounts inside the case. I bought an adapter at RapidLED that works really well for that. They are high enough amp that they can run multiple large fans, even the big boys, without breaking a sweat.

Looks good, anxious to see how it works out.

 

[Chloemobile]

....just thinking about wiring in a relay to the PSU so that I can run an Anduino module or a Raspberry PI. [This is where my buddy came in, I want to datalog for the longest time and now I have an excuse I think]
]

That would be very cool! So many directions you could go with that thing if you get it installed. excited to see what you come with with the fridge because i can also get my hands on one but have just been dis-enthused about cutting holes in a fridge.

 

[Oregonism]

That's a good question. I would guess pulling would give better performance, but I actually don't know.

I never have used an anemometer, can they be used to register the suction of the intake side and then use some fancy equation to convert to h[squared]? ......or whatever the hell the static pressure measurement they currently use.
[/quote]

You can buy a 12V hard drive power supply and wire it to a fan header which mounts inside the case. I bought an adapter at RapidLED that works really well for that. They are high enough amp that they can run multiple large fans, even the big boys, without breaking a sweat.

Looks good, anxious to see how it works out.

That is excellent, definitely will check this out 2nite and see whats out there, saaweet.

I am anxious too, but my situation dictates small and this is gonna rock I think. Enough to supply my personal stash until the outdoor guerrilla is finished!

 

[Oregonism]

That would be very cool! So many directions you could go with that thing if you get it installed. excited to see what you come with with the fridge because i can also get my hands on one but have just been dis-enthused about cutting holes in a fridge.

Will try and stay simple at the moment. The electronics are a dream. Ive been waiting for something sturdy and small [test platform-ish] and my situation right now dictates something small it is what it is.


I have made smokers before, so that doesn't bother me, cutting the insulation does, hate it. Even saw a guy one time make a charcoal cooker [pyrolyzer] out of min-frig. That's where I got the idea to just make DIY activated charcoal.

 

[Oregonism]

Posted new links 1st Post! Cleaned it up a bit.

Might be leaning towards an EPM Papst blower or the whisperflat fan from HIDHUT @$19.

Would like to find this one:
Nmb Technologies Fan BG0903-B04-700-0 Specs:12vdc 19.2w 1.60a 5200rpm 1.932 in H20/ 482pa $11!!!!!!

I am beginning to think, a blower mounted scrubber will have to mounted inside? Can't seem to find a way around it!
I might just go with an Axial AC Ball Bearing Fan from EPM-Papst and pull either a home-made cylinder or a short 4" by 10"

 

[microsmyname2]

hey man idk if you got my PM or not but i might of sent you three my mistake my internets messing up...but to answer your question it's totally kool.

 

[Oregonism]

hey man idk if you got my PM or not but i might of sent you three my mistake my internets messing up...but to answer your question it's totally kool.

 

[quinoa64]

I finally put together that PCI blower + netpot micro carbon scrubber.

You could only use it for a very small grow, but it's dead easy to put together and to change the charcoal.

The scrubber needs to be mounted so that gravity is holding the charcoal flat against the fan intake.

Ingredients:
- PCI blower
- black nylon stockings
- 3 inch netpot
- activated charcoal, 1-2 cups
- 3 rubber bands

Cut off the foot of the stocking, stick the netpot in it, fill part of the way with charcoal, tuck the open end of the stocking down the side of the netpot, and secure with a rubber band. Make sure the stocking is completely flat along the edge of the netpot.

Use the other two rubber bands to secure the netpot to the blower intake. These should be strong bands, and you'll want to replace them regularly since they are the key to a tight seal.

Use more charcoal for better odor absorbancy, use less charcoal for better airflow. I filled the netpot and there is now about 25% of the unimpeded flow.

This is a Roswell blower with 35CFM out of the box, so something like 8.75CFM now.

It's still really quiet, tho. Could use a couple of them to move more air. And obviously this model will need to be taped in order to be light-proof. I recommend finding a black blower instead.

 

[Oregonism]

Rad quinoa! thank you for posting!

These were the blowers I ordered from Neweggers, that never showed up, oh well. I still need carbon, just went to Walmart and they had none, very dissapointed, but like your setup!

Have you considered carefully taking the blower case apart and painting it? Just hit the light side with some testor's flat white and hit the exhaust side w/ black? Might be a cheap way to lightproof it quickly.

 

[Oregonism]

What I am wondering with these filters, is if you would have better circulation if the center was hollow, just like Tremolo described earlier, hate to beat a dead horse.

But if a second net pot was used to press up against the outer pot and press carbon in this contact area and then have a hollow center to allow the inlet breathing room?

Any thoughts on that? My budget is blown to do testing, but I am on a mission to buy a couple of cheap blowers off Ebay and review them in the future!!

 

[trem0lo]

What I am wondering with these filters, is if you would have better circulation if the center was hollow, just like Tremolo described earlier, hate to beat a dead horse.

But if a second net pot was used to press up against the outer pot and press carbon in this contact area and then have a hollow center to allow the inlet breathing room?

Any thoughts on that? My budget is blown to do testing, but I am on a mission to buy a couple of cheap blowers off Ebay and review them in the future!!

Absolutely you would have better airflow. You'd need to find a similar netpot with a larger diameter, and fill the space difference with carbon. But I really think quinoa is onto something.

Actually with that particular blower, the 2 standard pencil cup sizes would work well. The smaller is just over 3 inches in diameter; the larger is just over 4. Cut the bottom out of both, add a rubber gasket and a few magnets and you could detach it to empty and refill from the top.

 

[quinoa64]

Anything larger than 3 inches and you're hanging over the edge of the fan. Not sure if that's good or bad. Could make things top-heavy and harder to position or seal correctly.

I'll try nesting a 2-inch net pot in there to see what happens with the airflow. I suspect that most of the flow is around the outside of the fan, but maybe opening up the center a bit will create more draw.

I really need to get some incense to smoke test this thing... imagine, a stoner with no incense! So ashamed.