[RedReign]

I've had the same thing happen twice, both time new rooms with new burners. The brass pipe connections were leaking propane into the room and poisoning the plants. Oddly, neither room ever smelled like propane.

The first burner just needed the brass pipe/fittings snugged down and pipe sealant added to all connections. The second burner needed all the pipe/fittings replaced between the inlet fitting and the burner bar.

Easy to check for leaks. I sprayed soapy water on the fittings and blew compressed air into the inlet fitting. Make sure you check for leaks, before and after the solenoid.

[GrowerGoneWild]

Nm.. I see you're at 1000 ft elevation. hmmm..

I wanna know too, I cant say i'm having problems, but when I add co2, it seems to do better when the co2 is lower.
Its like the calculations I got going dont jive.

The only think I could think of is a gas monitor they use for confined space entry, it pretty much covers everything, O2/CO/ etc..

Now I have a gas alarm just incase I do have a propane leak.. but I never found one.

Well I guess we could start with the basics.. verify its not setup up for LNG, make sure you got the right burners in there.

[bmp420gti]

the video shows that its burning fine, something else associated with it like the two things stated, micro leaks and dirty fuel from the get go is causing this, but its not the burner itself that thing is burning clean and doing its job.

[mowood3479]

ya the burner looks ok to me.. much cleaner blue flame than any of mine.
i second the idea to check thoroughly for propane leaks...
good luck op, sounds like its been a tough year... i hope u get it dialed in asap

[growshopfrank]

Originally Posted by bmp420gti

the video shows that its burning fine, something else associated with it like the two things stated, micro leaks and dirty fuel from the get go is causing this, but its not the burner itself that thing is burning clean and doing its job.

I would be curious how the flame looks after the door is closed and the room is sealed up for several hours
my guess is that the flame would be more yellow than blue
when the video was shot the rooms atmosphere was not realistic to the normal sealed operation of the room

[RoadRash]

>> "Sealed up a room 10 months ago"

Does that mean it's literally sealed - no inlet, no outlet ?


one of the products of combustion is also water -

e.g. burning methane -

CH4 + O2 ==> CO2 + H2O

(not worrying about the stoichiometry, the numbers that go in front of the molecules to balance the equation)


More water in the air, that is, an increase in humidity - I doubt that is causing the problem.

But it's something worth knowing about, if you are using combustion to get your CO2. If it's increasing humidity enough to cause bud-rot, then it's a problem.


One other way besides a tank, is fermentation.

e.g.

2 gallons warm water
4 pounds sugar
4 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon champagne yeast

puts out loads of CO2, saw the chem. math once and it came to about 1 pound of CO2 for every pound of sugar.

[bmp420gti]

Originally Posted by growshopfrank

I would be curious how the flame looks after the door is closed and the room is sealed up for several hours
my guess is that the flame would be more yellow than blue
when the video was shot the rooms atmosphere was not realistic to the normal sealed operation of the room

This is true and he also didnt mention how big the room is, that burner might be too much for the sealed area and once the oxygen burns out frank is right the propane would burn dirty and some would be left to enter atmosphere. Be careful about overbuilding your setups, peeps.

[the gnome]

Originally Posted by bmp420gti

This is true and he also didnt mention how big the room is, that burner might be too much for the sealed area and once the oxygen burns out frank is right the propane would burn dirty and some would be left to enter atmosphere. Be careful about overbuilding your setups, peeps.

excellent detecive work guys
that makes perfect sense the O2 would overly depleted too much if its a really space.
another thing... maybe the auto pilot sniffer is screwed up?
has it been recalibrated,
I have a greeneye monitor/data logger that gives me a back up ppm reading so at a glance i can see
if there's a a big difference

[newestguy]

The room itself was 12x15x8 with an appropriate number of lamps. I do not suspect o2 depletion as the issue do the fact that the room ran better when pulling negative pressure with a 6" fan filter combo. It was still sick and fucked up but it was nothing like the devastation if the room was completely sealed.

The atlas 7 that was controlling that generator is currently controlling the bottled gas with no issues. I do not suspect it being the problem. I have not re calibrated or checked it with a second meter (wish I could but gonna wait awhile before buying anything else). One of the reasons I trust the meter is I am able to calculate the time it will take the bottle to bring the room up to correct saturation at the right PPM. So far I have always seen it on an appropriate amount of time.

My honest best guess based on everything I have seen is that it may be ethylene. That is the only issue I have ever seen listed as a problem with generators besides incomplete combustion.

I have emailed autopilot and showed them the video of the flame, they thought that looked acceptable. I didn't really get any feedback on the burner buildup.

[newestguy]

Originally Posted by RoadRash

>> "Sealed up a room 10 months ago"

Does that mean it's literally sealed - no inlet, no outlet ?


one of the products of combustion is also water -

e.g. burning methane -

CH4 + O2 ==> CO2 + H2O

(not worrying about the stoichiometry, the numbers that go in front of the molecules to balance the equation)


More water in the air, that is, an increase in humidity - I doubt that is causing the problem.

But it's something worth knowing about, if you are using combustion to get your CO2. If it's increasing humidity enough to cause bud-rot, then it's a problem.


One other way besides a tank, is fermentation.

e.g.

2 gallons warm water
4 pounds sugar
4 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon champagne yeast

puts out loads of CO2, saw the chem. math once and it came to about 1 pound of CO2 for every pound of sugar.

Definitely had the humidity dealt with, honestly most people running mini splits or central air aren't gonna have much of a problem. For whatever reason it kind of works out that by the time the AC has dealt with the heat from the burner it has also dehu any RH associated. Have plenty of dehus and definitely have the room well monitored (kind of an environment junky)

Honestly whatever this problem is/was it was extremely insidious in the sense that all parameters were as close to perfect as is possible and yet the general health was so low.

All I can really say is if you are running a sealed room with a generator and you are fighting phantom problems and a lack of general health do yourself the biggest favor and switch it up to bottled gas for a minute. LOL everyone has an old bottle laying around, and holy shit what a difference it made. Can't tell you how frustrating this was to deal with.