Cheap Smell Masking Device from things I had around the house

I recently started my first indoor grow. The first priority for me in my attempt to grow my own weed is to not get caught, since it's illegal to grow cannabis where I live. I use an air scrubber carbon air filter that is pretty good at cleaning the air, but not perfect. Sometimes you get a whiff of the smell of the pot growing even when the fan and filter are running. That is especially true when I am working on my plants and my room is open, so after my plants got to be about 3 weeks old, I realized I had to do something about eliminating the smell and along with it, any chances my neighbors might be down wind of it and get suspicious.

I was somewhat panicked... OK, I was freaking out!! My plants were doing great and I wanted to keep my grow going, but I knew if I didn't fix the smell problem, it was over, so I asked for help from the folks watching my grow journal on RIU. Danielsgb, a friend and fellow grower responded with some pictures he had found from another grower who is not identified, but is also owed a thank you from me. Whomever you are. Thank you. You can see the pics of the device he used here. https://www.rollitup.org/attachments/grow-journals/1506486d1300724787-smoke-n-strums-first-indoor-odor-bucket-001.jpg

I had to do something fast, because the smell was bad and I wanted to salvage the grow. I didn't have a can fan, and I couldn't get one quickly enough, so I tried to think of what I could do. I had an old outdated computer in my garage and I knew it had fans in it, so I took it apart and salvaged the fans. The following is my adaption of the idea Danielsgb gave me. I had to buy an aquarium air pump and air stone. The rest I already had.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here it is. This what I needed to put it all together. You can use pine sol or whatever you have that works. Pine sol works great and it is cheap.



To wire the fans you need a 12 volt inverter that puts out about .3 amps. Close is good enough. When you hook the wires up, red goes to the wire with the slashes on it. Don't worry, if you hook it up to the wrong wire. It won't hurt anything, it just won't work. Just change it back and be sure to test it before you put it all together. The rest is pretty self explanatory I think. If you have any questions, ask. I hope this helps someone keep their grow on...sns



One fan blows into the bucket, one blows out. This thing works great. I put two capfuls of pine sol into about 6 inches of water in the bottom of the bucket. Pine sol foams a little, so don't fill it up too high. A little pine sol goes a long way. Use your own judgement. Good luck.

Bump for comments, or other do it yourself smell or odor eliminating ideas. Anyone use something besides pine-sol with good results? Has this helped anyone? Comments considered and appreciated. sns

I adapted that from someone, but can't remember who. I used a 6" duct booster to a 6" to 4" reducer to push air onto the Soil Moist. It sucks up the water and pine sol, then dries out for a re-fill depending on the RH%.
They do work as a helper with the smell issues.
Daniels

Here's a post on how to determine which power supply to run several fans from a Guru on wiring.
Daniels

IAm5toned said:

of course it is, as long as the one power source is big enough for the fans.

here's how you find out-

on the fan, somewhere, on the fan, there will be a stamp, label, or embossed lettering that says the voltage, and the power consumption. looks like this-

12vdc 12w or 12vdc 500ma

what you need is the wattage, or milliamps of the fans.

add them all up (the wattage, or mA) , then multiply by 120%....

example-
3 fans, 500mA (6w)
500ma
x 3
1500ma
x 120%
1800mA

or-
6w
x 3
18w
x 120%
21.6 w

or-
.18 amps
x 3
.54
x 120%
.648 amps
your power supply, needs to be big enough for 1800mA, or, .648 amps @ 12vdc, or 21.6w @ 12vdc


just change the mA, or wattage, or amps, to match the power requirements of the fans you have.

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I once made an excellent odor controller when I lived in the city. I basically made a drainfield system under my tomato garden, this was in southern California so tomatoes with the proper nutes will grow year round. This was in the 80's and odor controll was a necessity. I used 4 in perferated pipe with drain rock on top, 30 ft of it, buried 20 in below garden. I had so many people who loved to come visit my garden and comment on how lovely the garden smelled. The exhaust from the indoor grow room was blowing through this constantly with no maintence whatsoever. As a clandestine breeder, no one, I mean no one but my wife knew. My police friends would also come and we always ended up in the garden. I had 1 to 2 pound tomatoes growing from a strain I got from France, grew them the Italian way, single stem untill 5 ft tall supported by overhead wires. My very close friends were enlisted to do taste tests of different varieties that I told came from my college friends at Humboldt Univ. in N. Cal.. Never charged anything but required detailed score cards to be filled out. All complied. Very fun times for me.

Danielsgb said:

Here's a post on how to determine which power supply to run several fans from a Guru on wiring.
Daniels

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Thanks for posting that Daniels. I couldn't find it when I wanted to post this.

ie never tried to mask my garden's scent, but maybe a cheap fix could be to just line the filter on an air purifier with febreeze dryer sheets. Same thing can be done to vents and fans. Or place large bowls of potpourri around perimeter of grow space. If grow room is close to kitchen, boiling water and cinnamon make the whole house smell great

puffenuff said:

ie never tried to mask my garden's scent, but maybe a cheap fix could be to just line the filter on an air purifier with febreeze dryer sheets. Same thing can be done to vents and fans. Or place large bowls of potpourri around perimeter of grow space. If grow room is close to kitchen, boiling water and cinnamon make the whole house smell great

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Whole cloves in simmering water work great too!!! Just don't let it simmer until all the water has evaporated, you may burn the pot!

Im going to be starting a grow here in the next few months, so Im soaking up as much info as I can in order to do it right the first time. Odor is my biggest concern! Your plants were only 3 weeks old, and you had a carbon filter, and you could still smell them? Were the plants still vegging, or did you mean 3 weeks of flowering?

hiddenidentity said:

Im going to be starting a grow here in the next few months, so Im soaking up as much info as I can in order to do it right the first time. Odor is my biggest concern! Your plants were only 3 weeks old, and you had a carbon filter, and you could still smell them? Were the plants still vegging, or did you mean 3 weeks of flowering?

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They were still vegging. Mine started to stink badly early on in veg stage. I have since learned a little more about using the carbon filter to make it more affective. For one, it needs to run 24/7, not just when the room gets too hot. I originally had my fan on a thermostatic switch, so that the fan only ran when it was too hot in my grow tent. The problem with that was that the plants still smell when it's cold, and there are times when I need the tent to be open so I can work on the plants(feeding, watering, whatever). Now I run the fan with a speed controller on it and I run it all the time at less than full speed to control the noise. I would not try a grow without this odor masking device in my particular situation. For me it is absolutely necessary.

I bought a centrifugal fan and filter from htg supply. It is a 4 inch fan with a 4"x12" air scrubber carbon filter. It was about $150 on ebay. I also bought the speed controller from them. It works ok, but if I had to do it again, I would buy a larger, and higher quality filter. I have been told that the Phresh brand filters are very good. You get what you pay for. The htg fan(170cfm) seems like a quality fan, but the filter is cheaply made, IMO. If you want to do it right, get a good fan and filter and build one of these odor masking devices. I built this in 2 hours from scratch and it cost me less than 20 bucks. If you need help with it, I'll help you.

Good Luck, sns

cancerfighter said:

I once made an excellent odor controller when I lived in the city. I basically made a drainfield system under my tomato garden, this was in southern California so tomatoes with the proper nutes will grow year round. This was in the 80's and odor controll was a necessity. I used 4 in perferated pipe with drain rock on top, 30 ft of it, buried 20 in below garden. I had so many people who loved to come visit my garden and comment on how lovely the garden smelled. The exhaust from the indoor grow room was blowing through this constantly with no maintence whatsoever. As a clandestine breeder, no one, I mean no one but my wife knew. My police friends would also come and we always ended up in the garden. I had 1 to 2 pound tomatoes growing from a strain I got from France, grew them the Italian way, single stem untill 5 ft tall supported by overhead wires. My very close friends were enlisted to do taste tests of different varieties that I told came from my college friends at Humboldt Univ. in N. Cal.. Never charged anything but required detailed score cards to be filled out. All complied. Very fun times for me.

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Wow, that's a pretty complicated but affective system you built. Great idea. Did it smell like weed in your outdoor garden? I can't imagine a scenario when cops woud be at my house unless I was being arrested. I knew a policeman in Houston years ago that I used to get high with, but I don't have any friends in law enforcement anymore. Lol. sns

can both fans be run of the same adapter or do they both need a separate power supply?

One will work just has to have the Amp. you need. Answer is above.
Daniels

What Daniels said. Both of mine r on the same adapter. Sns

You know I was looking at this as my carbon fiter and fans huge and loud and my plants are still small but starting to stink.

To save all the hassle and its basicly the same thing you have don.
Get a tray,Ive used a tray from my propegator,put smal flannel/cloth in,put stinky shower gel in and water,then place in front of your fan and job done,heat off light will evaporate it and at same time the fan will blow the smell

Warning!!!!! But first! I like the fact it is a DIY! i am very into diy stuff but I spend 10 dollars every month or two on the glade plugins with the fan. they also make bathroom sprayers that spray products like ozium every once in a while that work very well! I dont know how I feel about pine sol filling the air in my room! that strong lemon scent gets to me after cleaning for an hour! glade plugins and ozium were meant to be sprayed in rooms! If you find something better to use than pine sol and it ends up costing less than 10 dollars a month I will would like this much more and even plus rep at that point! Looking forward to updates!
just did a little research! PLEASE CHECK THE LINK! Pine Sol is toxic for your pets! Doing a Google search I found a cat forum and a few other sites about it being fatal to cats and dogs! I also found a site about people becoming addicted to the scent of pine sol, starting at only smelling it once a week or so! If it can cause addiction or you cant clean you cats litter box with it I don't want to breathe it! I'm not saying there is damning evidence against it All I'm saying is BE SAFE MAN!
http://messageboard.inhalant.org/post?id=3251589
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-91837.html
http://www.enviro-solution.com/pdf/Hazard warning on home cleaners.pdf

good info.. thanks... fyi, no animals except myself are exposed to the pinesol smell. sns

When I change out my nutrients (Lucas Forumla + Dark Energy) I always keep a packet of popcorn in the microwave should I need a backup to mask the chemical smell. It is a great idea too during flowering or harvest time also in case of unexpected company shows up. The popcorn odor sticks around for hours and comes in handy when you get the muchies

This is a good Idea, and may use this if my plants get any worse. My GF buys me the plug in things from Bath n Body works and I keep one of these in the room that my grow closet is in, and it seems to mask everything so far, and it smels good too!

EmeraldPawn said:

When I change out my nutrients (Lucas Forumla + Dark Energy) I always keep a packet of popcorn in the microwave should I need a backup to mask the chemical smell. It is a great idea too during flowering or harvest time also in case of unexpected company shows up. The popcorn odor sticks around for hours and comes in handy when you get the muchies

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That is an awesome Idea! When people pop popcorn at work, the entire ward smells like it. I will be throwing a bag in the micro as soon as I hit post!

Thank you for the tip!

those scentsy candles work great. my mom has a blueberry cheesecake wax melting thing, i walked past the windows the other day all i could smell is blueberry, opened the door they were smokn a j, couldnt smell anything but that damn blueberry. im thinking a block of that in a little dish on top of a HID light should be plenty of heat to melt the wax...