$23 Activated Carbon Scrubber!!!

[DrGreenFinger]

After reading about many DIY projects I came up with this inexpensive spin on a great design. I would classify it as a medium duty scrubber. It eliminated the odor from my room, but it was not very smelly to begin with. I am growing mostly Grapefruit Haze, and it has more of a fruity aroma. I have one Sour Diesel plant that I know will be stinky, soon. I say medium duty because after eliminating the MJ odor, I decided to really test it out. I had a friend spray some body spray in the air inside the grow room. I was in the next room, where the grow room vents to. I could smell the body spray, but just lightly. Maybe a higher quality (I got the cheap one) carbon would have been better. Ideas?

Items needed (pictures below):

6/4 inch duct cap
6/4 inch duct starter collar (or other adaptor)
aluminum screen or welded steel mesh
activated carbon prefilter
duct tape


Procedure:

I began by constructing my screen tube. If you use screen it must be sturdy, so I folded the piece of screen I cut in half. I will probably use the mesh next time, but screen was all I could find. I cut a strip app. 36x24 inches, folded it in half the long way, and wrapped it into a 6 inch tube, 18 inches long. I used a little duct tape on the ends to hold it temporarily. I slid the duct cap into one end of the screen tube, and the collar into the other end, and duct taped them securely into place. Next, I took the sheet of carbon filter and wrapped it around the outer shell of the screen tube. I secured it in place with the velcro strips which came with the filter. And, Voila!

Suggestions on improvement will be greatly appreciated.

 

[DrGreenFinger]

Sorry, items at Lowes:

filter - $10
screening - $5
duct cap - $4
duct collar - $4
total - $23

 

[DR. VonDankenstine]

very nice...

 

[R1b4z01d]

You can also a few layers of cotton and add carbon powder.

 

[piFFstAr407]

definitly going to have to give this a try.. those inline fan/carbon filter combos are crazy expensive.. big ups

 

[DrGreenFinger]

You can also a few layers of cotton and add carbon powder.

true. i was trying to re-design the ones i have seen that use carbon rocks and pantyhose, in attempts to lower the cost. foothill filters sells a 4 x 12 for $43, and the DIY projects i have seen cost that much, so i was attempting to beat that. this design was actually created by someone else previously. btw you are talking about the activated carbon rocks, right?

 

[MonkeeMan]

how well does it work?

 

[DrGreenFinger]

how well does it work?

"I would classify it as a medium duty scrubber. It eliminated the odor from my room, but it was not very smelly to begin with. I am growing mostly Grapefruit Haze, and it has more of a fruity aroma. I have one Sour Diesel plant that I know will be stinky, soon. I say medium duty because after eliminating the MJ odor, I decided to really test it out. I had a friend spray some body spray in the air inside the grow room. I was in the next room, where the grow room vents to. I could smell the body spray, but just lightly."

Got rid of the SD, only have Grpfrt Hz and G13. No smell.

 

[Hawk]

I made one very similar to that using the exact same carbon filter material. My 3 plants were vegging and smelled a little but not too much. The filter seemed to work fine for a bit but after a week or so it lost all effectiveness. I attribute the failure to at least these factors:

--There's just not enough carbon there (main problem)
--I was sucking through it with a 6" fan and the air may have been passing through the filter material too quickly
--My plants got smellier (still vegging though) and overwhelmed the filter's abilities

IMO, the filter I made was a light duty stop-gap measure at best and a waste of resources at worst. Escaping MJ smell should not be trifled with.

While I hastily constructed a new filter of a completely different design using granulated carbon, I made do by placing dryer sheets on the outside of the carbon blanket filter. The suction (barely) held them in place. They would work for maybe half a day before needing new dryer sheets.

$0.02

 

[DrGreenFinger]

I made one very similar to that using the exact same carbon filter material. My 3 plants were vegging and smelled a little but not too much. The filter seemed to work fine for a bit but after a week or so it lost all effectiveness. I attribute the failure to at least these factors:

--There's just not enough carbon there (main problem)
--I was sucking through it with a 6" fan and the air may have been passing through the filter material too quickly
--My plants got smellier (still vegging though) and overwhelmed the filter's abilities

IMO, the filter I made was a light duty stop-gap measure at best and a waste of resources at worst. Escaping MJ smell should not be trifled with.

While I hastily constructed a new filter of a completely different design using granulated carbon, I made do by placing dryer sheets on the outside of the carbon blanket filter. The suction (barely) held them in place. They would work for maybe half a day before needing new dryer sheets.

$0.02

right. i attribute my success with this lightweight to the fact that grapefruit haze is not loud or smelly. the aroma is fruity. i have a couple of G13 plants, and the smell like some spice or something. so, i don't have a smell problem. if i turn the fan off for awhile the whole house smells like fruit on a warm day (fermenting fruit?). i have a sour diesel vegging, and this stuff gets funky, so i will probably opt for an odor sock from NGW. i will do-it-myself before i shell out over a buck plus another 50 cents for shipping.

 

[genfranco]

not to get off subject.... and i do like these filters... they seem nice... i would maybe customize the idea a bit.... maybe a couple of layers of those filters with the carbon dust in between.... thats pretty much what i did on my setup.... all of the vents have those filters cut to the duct size and stuck inside with foil tape... but i have to say that i would recommend the following much more... its a liquid caled ONA. and you can make these little buckets with a fan on the top that disperse the smell really good I have it attached in the inside acting as a second exhaust... it works great.....

you can see on the other exhaust i put coming from the flowering chamber has those carbon filters in the inside ....

 

[DrGreenFinger]

not to get off subject.... and i do like these filters... they seem nice... i would maybe customize the idea a bit.... maybe a couple of layers of those filters with the carbon dust in between.... thats pretty much what i did on my setup.... all of the vents have those filters cut to the duct size and stuck inside with foil tape... but i have to say that i would recommend the following much more... its a liquid caled ONA. and you can make these little buckets with a fan on the top that disperse the smell really good I have it attached in the inside acting as a second exhaust... it works great.....

you can see on the other exhaust i put coming from the flowering chamber has those carbon filters in the inside ....

I have tried the ONA bucket SO many ways, and none lasted more than a couple (literally 2 or 3) days. If I ever try it again, I will use straight ONA, no cut with water (9 cups water to 1 cup ONA...HA!...BS).

 

[DR. VonDankenstine]

I have tried the ONA bucket SO many ways, and none lasted more than a couple (literally 2 or 3) days. If I ever try it again, I will use straight ONA, no cut with water (9 cups water to 1 cup ONA...HA!...BS).

What was the bucket size you used? I have used the ONA STORM with a 7 gallon bucket---it lasts 8 to 10 weeks for me( I run it 24/7 all through flowering) I have a canfan 12" with matching scrubber as well on 24/7. the final exhaust is through a canfan 6"HO and matching carbon filter. I also run two ion generator from hydrofarm. I know this is overkill but I sleep great at night and my pad always smells like fresh laundry.

 

[DrGreenFinger]

What was the bucket size you used? I have used the ONA STORM with a 7 gallon bucket---it lasts 8 to 10 weeks for me( I run it 24/7 all through flowering) I have a canfan 12" with matching scrubber as well on 24/7. the final exhaust is through a canfan 6"HO and matching carbon filter. I also run two ion generator from hydrofarm. I know this is overkill but I sleep great at night and my pad always smells like fresh laundry.

i feel ya. the bucket is 5 gal. listed in thumbnail photo above. i had tried extra strength febreeze before the ONA. nothing worked long. i'm trippin' because i really want a more advanced and heavy duty scrubber, but i cant justify it because my cheapo is pulling its weight. (now what the hell was the kermit joke? )

 

[JordanTheGreat]

you could wrap the entire screen cylinder with a panty hose, fill it with fish tank carbon...and lose the prefilter for more airflow, all in all this is a good design...good shit

 

[ben350n]

super awesome diy filter, thx for the infoyou could throw put a screen on the end of the filter that meets the duct and fill the hollow filter with vapor phase activated carbon(better than fish tank carbon, which is liquid phase) for super boosted filtration. 7 pounds would probably fill the one you made. like jordan said, you could probably even lose the pre filter w/ carbon

 

[DrGreenFinger]

super awesome diy filter, thx for the infoyou could throw put a screen on the end of the filter that meets the duct and fill the hollow filter with vapor phase activated carbon(better than fish tank carbon, which is liquid phase) for super boosted filtration. 7 pounds would probably fill the one you made. like jordan said, you could probably even lose the pre filter w/ carbon

yeah. i ended up putting the prefilter inside with pantyhose on the outside. works great for grapefruit haze. purple kush forced me to fill the inside with activated carbon. i wish i knew where to find that vapor phase activated carbon.

 

[NewStressTraining]

nice move i love the fan power
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[serialkiller]

I'm planning on building one, I was going to use the pre filter on the outside like that and then fill the inside with cotton, that you buy as pillow stuffing, and mix that with activated carbon rocks/pellets.

 

[T905]

what does a carbon filter do?