Panasonic Whisper Fan Carbon Scrubber Tutorial: Quietest most efficient fan ever!

[catman]

Could some of you with 80CFM ceiling fan post the size of the whole fan without the grill? Im designing a microbox and want to be sure that it fits.

As for now I think I have to put it vertically.
Kinda big fan for a micro grow but I asume this is the most quiet alternative out there which can pull through a carbon filter!

The regular 80CFM ceiling fan is > 0.3 sone. I could go with the Lite model, the 50CFM has the same sone > 0.3, but the 80CFM lite has 0.5 sone.

Is this a big difference in sound?

The box is small, about 60x70x70cm. I guess I dont need so thick carbon layer,but would the 50CFM be able to pull through it at all? I really want to go with 80CFM to be on the safe side.

The 80CFM fan will fit just fine and that is too big of a size for 50CFM. I had a 80CFM rated at .3 sones in a smaller cab about 45x40x72cm and I can't recall the model number, but I've posted it here on the forum a few times. I can't seem to find it online and it seems the model was discontinued. Make sure you go to Panasonic's website and are purchasing a fan that will have 80+ CFM with at least .25'' static pressure. The DC motor in the fan is the secret, but it looks like they got more expensive as mine was only $110 about two years ago. They take up lots of valuable space inside the cab, but the carbon filter design saves some money and it is cheap and easy to replace the carbon. There are no quitter fans that can pull through an effective carbon scrubber so the cost should be worthwhile for peace of mind. Good luck.

 

[pho]

Ah.. after about a day of work (my plants are almost done flowering but there's no way I could have waited), I got my Whisperlite hooked up, 400cfm one.. got the Whisperline bathroom fan that I'm going to make into a carbon scrubber too.

Anytime I go in my grow room the smell just clings to me for so long. Stanky ass buds! Gonna be a good smoke. Oscillating fan sounds louder than the Whisperlite. Very satisfied.

 

[187020]

my panasonic whisper ran 24/7 for 5 years and performed flawlessly!

 

[señorsloth]

This thread inspired me to get one a month or two ago, ended up getting the 190, i ended up cutting the 3 inch metal shroud that goes around the bottom of the box off and taping up all the cracks, so i had more room in my flowering room, after a quick coat of mylar it tucks into the back corner nicely, my cab is 40" X 24" X 72", with the top 4 feet being the flowering room and the bottom 2 for mothers and clones, i thought the fan was a bit overkill but im pushing through a 400w cool tube, and out the cab through a carbon filter, instead of sucking through the filter like in the tutorial. I feel it saves me room in the flowering room and makes sealing the light leak easier that way. After this next harvest i may swap it with the inline model and line the cab with dynamat as it does get a little louder with the filter attachedbut i did want to thank you guys for the tutorial and info! Ive been out of growing completely for almost 4 years and wanted to come back very stealthily, this fan is helping me to do that, when i first plugged it in i couldnt believe it was even running, let alone huffing out so much air! These things rock!

 

[krashx6]

Where are you guys purchasing these from? Im running a 110 cfm s&p and it sounds like a jet engine.

What would you guys suggest to replace it? There seems to be different series of these now like "green" and "value", so im unsure which is the best. Can people post the exact one they have, price and where they got it?

 

[StealthDragon]

I've ordered several from wamhomecenter. my 110's # is fv111vq5 and my 150 cfm one's # is FV-15VQ5 with links to both.

looks like the 110 is on sale/clearance right now at 76.62 (I paid around 120$shipped for mine) ..that's a steal imo.

looks like the 150 is $137.75 ...I think that's about what I paid for mine.

I looked at alot of sites and wam had the cheapest shipping and price....no I don't work for them

I'm not sure about what other sizes people a re using...but these ones I have are super quiet...and I'd think any on this page with the flat style screen and box shape would be the quiet ones...but always double check the sone level.

 

[MMJcali]

I have the super low profile 50cfm one...and the ducting is oval...but i removed it and just cut a square in the back for my exhaust. it said it was 0.8 sones, but holy shit this thing is quiet. i hear the AC running outside louder than this. straight up win.

 

[krashx6]

I was going to buy that 110 but it looks like it sold out. There is no Add to Cart button :/

 

[StealthDragon]

There is no Add to Cart button :/

yup looks like someone jumped on it already...I'm positive the add to cart was there the other day

 

[Yes4Prop215]

i wanna use one of these for my new 4x4 hydro hut veg tent with a MH bulb. i dont need any carbon scrubbing or anything like that....just something to exhaust the air in the tent and bring in new air through negative pressure.

which model should i get....dope thread btw.

 

[StealthDragon]

I'd get the 110 I listed a few posts back...it's currently soldout on the site but maybe you could call them? or find a better deal.

 

[señorsloth]

One thing i have noticed in this thread, a lot of people who are complaining of noise bought thr smallest model and run it full blast and through a carbon filter. If the basic namebof the game is bigger blades moving slower pushing as much air as smaller finned models but quieter, why buy the smallest model right off the bat? I would bet my next harvest that my 190 cfm model at 50 percent power would put out as much wind as the 80 but much much quieter, because the blades are much bigger and spinning much slower. This would most likely be even better buying an even bigger model and running it at even slower speeds. Once modified the 190 cant take up much more room than the 80, it seems to me that the best way to get the quietest setup with this fan is to order the biggest model you can fit in your space and then use a cheep speed controller to slow it down as much as you can, while still getting the desired ventalation that your space requires

 

[krashx6]

link to cheap speed controller that wont mess up the fan over a year?

 

[StealthDragon]

AFAIK you can't run these with a fan controller. The panasonic whispers have a built in ...I dunno what to call it.. "gearing system"...and if the fan loses speed or power it automatically compensates for it. If I put my hand over either the intake or exhaust on any of mine the fan will kick up into a "higher gear" and blow harder(and louder) to compensate for the resistance.

I think the problems people are having with these is that they're either buying the wrong models or they're running them through some crazy zigzag ducting or a high resistance filter..then the fan kicks into a higher gear making much more noise. I have mine set up so that none of them have to kick into that second gear. In some setups I can understand that it would be hard to test if the fan is kicking up into a higher gear once it's all sealed in place and everything.

 

[MMJcali]

Alright my cab is 95% complete, all I need to do is build the carbon filter! I bought the 1x3 to make the frame, but now the 1x3 wont fit in the cab because the 3" (or 2.5" to be exact) is too high...I was thinking of getting a 1x2" and using that, but then I'd only be able to use a 1" bed of carbon...will this not filter the smell as well?

if its not gonna filter the smell I may as well just use a PC fan with an ozone generator...

 

[big twinn]

not to troll, but i considered getting a whisper fan....nervous that a vortex would sound like a jet engine, or by the looks a car turbo i figured it was going to be one loud fan...especially considering pc fans seem loud to me. well i was strongly urger to by a 280cfm vortex...which i did. Could not be happier!... full speed and its quieter then the 40mm pc fan in the same room. its a very fluid like smooth fan and it surprised me how quiet it was...on the speed control i literally can not hear it at all...if you need supreme cooling power that can pull through a scrubber and thats cheaper...i dont see how a vortex is "too loud"...mine might as well be called a whisper fan.

 

[señorsloth]

has anybody tried to put a speed controller on one? ive noticed a lot of fans change speed when you put something right up against it...i mean it's just a motor in there right? if they did put some fancy controller don't you think they would include it in the description of the product? i mean seems like they wouldn't put money into something and then completely forget to brag about it in an effort to justify the price...i mean why would a fart fan in a bathroom even need a "gearing system"? i know you didn't probably mean actual gears but i'll mention anyway that it doesn't have any of those either...lol if i remember correctly when i gutted mine, there was just wires, no pc board or anything like that...seems like it would be pretty straightforward...

 

[Bulénath]

I first started with the DIY in this post, problem being it didn't pull worth a shit, so I figured the problem was the surface area of the filter. A cylinder filter is going to have much more surface area than a square one, so I got a 150cfm bought filter and connected it using a custom made adapter... Still didn't pull worth a shit.

Did you get the inline model?

If you somehow hooked up a can-filter to the square intake of the ceiling fan model, I would assume the amount of carbon is too much, or the can filter itself has too much resistance, or the way you connected the filter has too much resistance.

You want your air flow to be as straight foward as possible. No fancy bends or connections. That is why the carbon-tray works so well and that is the real beauty of the design.

The ceiling fan model does not need much carbon at all. The tray provides PLENTY of surface space, so there was no need to worry about that my friend. For example, the 4" model has an intake of over 3 times the size of the exhaust.

Perhaps you went a little overkill and it happened to be counter productive. That happened to me a lot when I was starting out.

On a side note,
All fans are STILL running 24/7. That is almost 7 years of usage on the oldest one with no signs of slowing down!

Also, the inline models are NOT THAT GOOD with carbon filters. My 1200w cabinet's 340cfm Panasonic Inline's custom carbon scrubbers (A totally different DIY) has only required 1.5lbs of carbon each to kill the smell of 18 fully ripe plants. That is because the inline models do not pull as well as the ceiling fan models- The carbon itself taxes the inline fan's CFM so easily, 1.5lbs of carbon brings the needed amount of contact time to a perfect ratio.

 

[Jellyfish]

"fart fan", lol

 

[señorsloth]

Ya thats what the hydro shop owner called it when we sat down to discuss cfm's, carbon exposure times and surface areas, he was actually quite helpful, though he had never heard of using a "fart fan" as a blower, my filter is just a 6 inch hydro net pot in an 8 inch hydro net pot, wrapped in stockings and packed with carbon, has just enough carbon to handle the smell completely, block 100% of light coming out and allow good exposure time and airflow, with more surface area than the original tray design, if the smell gets to be too much i simply buy a ten inch net pot, and fit the 8 inch one inside it, discarding the 6 incher. This will make it bigger than my 6 inch vent hose but since the hose mounts flush too the top of the cab, i simply screw it to the top of the cab over the hole and seal the edges with caulk...this could be done with a 20 and 22 inch pot to make a huge filter with tons of surface area, if you could find net pots that big, and if you were venting that much volume... but again i use my panasonic to blow through the filter to the outside rather than suck through...