Clothes Dryer for Grow Box???

All right, I have been lurking for awhile now and have yet to finish a succesful grow from start to finish due to security issues but it keeps calling!!! Our Clothes dryer just took a dump.....the belt broke. So.....I figured that might just be the perfect place to set-up a small 2-4 site DWC set up. I was hoping that someone may have utilized a old Dryer in the past and can offer some advice??? I have pretty much all the things I need I think:

250W MH/HPS
Rubber Maid Tote w/6 sites-only going to use 4 at the most, probably 3
Commercial Air Pump and Stones-Bubbles are covered!!!!
STG Cube
Feminized BlackBerry(Nirvana)
Net Pots
Hydroton
Nutes
Meters-PH and PPM, Temp Humidity

I think that about covers it. I know i need to cover ventilation but I was hoping to utilize the spaces in the back of the dryer and just add some fans. I just put 3 beans in the STG cubes this morning so I have a little time. I am looking for any suggestions as far as the actual set-up of the Dryer. Anyone used one in the past??? Any and all suggestions/comments are more than welcome. I love this site and the people.....lots of great info. Thanks everyone!!!

No help??? Did i post in the wrong section? Or maybe I am just a little impatient!!!

You may have better luck in the DWC section... Most of the stuff here is cabinets, computers, etc.

dryers are metal. it will be very noisy, and may radiate a lot of heat.

Then again, PC cases are most often metal, and for the most part are fine with heat. With a drier you would need a lot of work getting it good to go if you wanted it to be stealth.

Thanks for the replies....thats what I was worried about(Heat)-Maybe I will give it a test run to see what the temps get up to.

You could use the existing drier exhaust as a way to vent heat, no? Perhaps put add in an inline fan?

Thats actually what got me to thinking about using the Dryer, I could use a Y and the inline fan and just shoot the exhaust outside. The noise and all that shouldnt be a issue. The main thing is to not have my basement lite up like a frickin runway!!! The dryer shell should have that covered.....

Indeed it should, along with the lid, it's generally airtight so I imagine you wouldn't have too much trouble with light as it has that lovely rubberized lining.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, be sure to get some sort of charcoal filter/scrubber. The only way the smell will have to go is out that exhaust and it'll make wherever you vent it reek of cannabis.

I have some time for that but i was thinking i would just make one..plenty of ideas in the DIY section, basically just a charcoal filter immediately after the inline fan. That should scrub the air brfore it actually reaches the outside

Thanx again for the input Panda

With a grow-box for a clothes dryer, how are you going to dry your clothes? Personally, I'd just get the broken drive belt fixed. That's still probably cheaper than getting a new dryer, even if you include the cost of building a separate grow box!

Anyway, a clothes dryer is specifically designed NOT to leak heat; I don't see why that would be a problem at all. A 250 watt HPS is still going to put out a LOT less heat than a 4500(!) watt clothes dryer!

Since the front of the dryer is specifically designed not to leak hot air, I'd imagine its probably both airtight AND light-tight already. So those are both significant plusses. If it weren't already, I don't think making the metallic dryer shell light tight would be particularly difficult.

I do think there are still a few issues to consider:

First, the internal drum is round, and probably not optimal as a growing space. You'd probably have to take that out and entirely remodel the internal space of the dryer to make it suitable for growing. This is possible to do, just not trivial. If it were me, I'd probably gut all the internal parts of the dryer, leaving just the external air vent (for external venting) and *maybe* the electrical connection (for power intake) in place. Then I'd build what amounts to a custom box inside the dryer shell. If you were super-duper electronically savvy, you could rewire the external dryer controls to control your lights, fans, and other gizmos, though this probably isn't practical for most people.

Note that most electric dryers DO NOT use a standard three-prong 110V electrical plug; they use either a three prong or a four prong 220V connection. While there are 220V HID ballasts available (and I think some can run on either 110V or 220V depending on how they are configured), 220V may not be suitable for your other gadgets like timers, water pumps, fans, etc. That's something to consider too.

On ventilation, while you definitely could vent outside, there are two issues there.

Of course odor; if you're venting outside (usually at ground level) charcoal filtration would be absolutely necessary otherwise anyone walking by is going to be smelling a big noseful of cannabis spewing right out of your home!

The next issue is just that if you're constantly venting hot (and possibly slightly humid) air out of your dryer vent, someone might wonder why your dryer is always on. Of course that's going to depend on when you do the venting, how much, and where it gets vented to. Realistically, you're probably not going to need to run as much ventilation for your grow as you would to normally vent a dryer cycle, so the lower level of venting may not be as noticeable.

Thanx Jorgo, We already have another Dryer so this one is just taking up space. You were right on when you mentioned that the Dryer would need to be gutted, thats the plan. I appreciate the input.

i would think this will be a huge pain in the ass bro, ok so youd have to gut out the drier, the build a custom box inside, now say you need to move the drier... thats no easy task plus where are you going to store a spare drier? i would think building a cabinet would be much more efficient, and easier on you. but to each there own good luck bro

Hehe I love this thread. We need a list of cool ideas for grow boxes. Whenever I go out I literally look around at different furniture seeing if it would work. A dryer would work but it would require a bit of metalwork. If your good with cutting, welding, etc; your good to go. If not, I'd stick to cabinets, big screen plasma tvs, fridges, pooltable/ air hockey, board up the bottom. Some suggestions but I wish I could contribute more to the dryer idea but I don't have a lot of knowledge on metalwork.

Keep us updated if you do attempt any of the above or continue to work on this dryer idea. But yea, you would need to gut the whole inside of the dryer, than cut or find a way for intake.