itsgrowinglikeaweed
Well-Known Member
I made my own carbon filter which seems to work pretty good so i figured I'd share it. Its nothing fancy, and I'm sure there are others pretty much just like it. So my apologies for being unoriginal. But i just cant see spending a hundred bucks for something as simple as a carbon air filter.
This one cost me about 25 bucks to make. And $20 of that was the carbon i bought, which I'm sure you can get for less than i paid at the pet store.
Here's what i used.
1- Premium Grade Filter Carbon. I got a 2 quart container at the pet store. Cost 20$.
2- A cut-to-size mesh furnace filter. $5 at home depot. They have different sizes. The one i got started out about 2ftX3ft and 1 inch thick.
3- A cardboard box.
4- Some packaging tape.
If you are going to use this or any other carbon filter you need a powerful enough fan to move enough air to make it work. I use a 6in. centrifugal inline fan rated at about 450 CFM. I have the fan inside a 2x4x5 tent connected to a DIY cool tube. The carbon filter is outside the tent, sitting on top of it above a 6in vent hole.
Since i use a 6 in fan, i decided to use a slightly larger filter. I made a 8in. X 8in. box. (depth undecided at this point). I cut a 6 in. round hole in the bottom. My fan goes directly into this 6in hole from inside the tent. I cut the 2ftx3ft furnace filter into 8x8 squares (like the one in the pic above).
I put one square in the bottom of the box (covering the 6 in round hole for the fan). Then i poured a layer of carbon into the box and spread it around ontop the filter. Then i put another square in and put more carbon on it. I completely covered the surface of each layer with carbon. I did this for about 10 layers, and used about 2/3 of the carbon i had bought.
My original plan called for a piece of window screen to be placed in between each layer to keep the carbon from falling all the way to the bottom of the filter. But the carbon i got is coarse enough it does not fall though the furnace filter material i got, so i didn't need the screen. If you use a coarser filter material and/or finer carbon you should get some screen.
Basically thats it. You can make it as big or small as you want. The deeper it is (more layers) the better odor filtering you will get. But more layers will require more CFM's. My 450 CFM fan blows PLENTY of air through this filter. I could probably put several more layers into the filter and still be moving enough air to cool my tent.
This filter does NOT take out ALL the smell. But it helps very much. I also use Ona Pro Gel.
So i hope i described this in a way you can understand. I'll gladly answer any questions you have about it. And feel free to criticize my design or recommend improvements.
This one cost me about 25 bucks to make. And $20 of that was the carbon i bought, which I'm sure you can get for less than i paid at the pet store.
Here's what i used.
1- Premium Grade Filter Carbon. I got a 2 quart container at the pet store. Cost 20$.
2- A cut-to-size mesh furnace filter. $5 at home depot. They have different sizes. The one i got started out about 2ftX3ft and 1 inch thick.
3- A cardboard box.
4- Some packaging tape.
If you are going to use this or any other carbon filter you need a powerful enough fan to move enough air to make it work. I use a 6in. centrifugal inline fan rated at about 450 CFM. I have the fan inside a 2x4x5 tent connected to a DIY cool tube. The carbon filter is outside the tent, sitting on top of it above a 6in vent hole.
Since i use a 6 in fan, i decided to use a slightly larger filter. I made a 8in. X 8in. box. (depth undecided at this point). I cut a 6 in. round hole in the bottom. My fan goes directly into this 6in hole from inside the tent. I cut the 2ftx3ft furnace filter into 8x8 squares (like the one in the pic above).
I put one square in the bottom of the box (covering the 6 in round hole for the fan). Then i poured a layer of carbon into the box and spread it around ontop the filter. Then i put another square in and put more carbon on it. I completely covered the surface of each layer with carbon. I did this for about 10 layers, and used about 2/3 of the carbon i had bought.
My original plan called for a piece of window screen to be placed in between each layer to keep the carbon from falling all the way to the bottom of the filter. But the carbon i got is coarse enough it does not fall though the furnace filter material i got, so i didn't need the screen. If you use a coarser filter material and/or finer carbon you should get some screen.
Basically thats it. You can make it as big or small as you want. The deeper it is (more layers) the better odor filtering you will get. But more layers will require more CFM's. My 450 CFM fan blows PLENTY of air through this filter. I could probably put several more layers into the filter and still be moving enough air to cool my tent.
This filter does NOT take out ALL the smell. But it helps very much. I also use Ona Pro Gel.
So i hope i described this in a way you can understand. I'll gladly answer any questions you have about it. And feel free to criticize my design or recommend improvements.
I put this up just to show a friend of mine what I did, but I've been looking at other ones on here, and I think that mine is more effective and easier to make than many of them. So i'm just going to throw this back out there. Happy growing everyone!
