Cooling a grow tent for drying

drDavidHasselCough · Mar 10, 2022

Everyone likes to talk about how important it is to keep your temps low for drying but I Don’t say many saying how? I have no problem dialing in my temps for the grow cycle but I have a hard time getting my temps below 67F when drying in there.

Does anybody have any inexpensive ways to cool your tent to hit 60/60 sweet spot? I’d like to avoid buying a $300 air conditioner just to cool a 3x3 tent down 7 degrees. I see a lot of evaporative coolers on The zon like This. Any one use them? Also should note note possible to adj my Home A/c that though

Coldnasty · Mar 10, 2022

You gotta just eat it. Not gonna get that control over temps without an AC. The end difference is worth it

Astral22 · Mar 11, 2022

Any other method of cooling besides using an AC will cause humidity to rise.
If you think you can handle the high humidity, then you can try with an evaporative cooler.
You can also try placing bottles with frozen water near the intake, it will cool the tent but it will also raise humidity.
Keep several bottles in the freezer and change them every few hours, when the bottles in the tent melt. You can also add rock salt to the water so the ice lasts a bit longer.

Source: https://todaysgardener.com/cooling-grow-room-with-ice/#Cooling_Your_Grow_Tent_With_Ice

Cboat38 · Mar 11, 2022

Depends where your located I’m in Michigan so my in-line fan is pulling cold air from outside, shit I was able to do a two half week dry just because

drDavidHasselCough · Mar 11, 2022

Thanks @Coldnasty I think your right and for my situation I really need something I can just plug in and I’d rather be able to control humidity and temp separately. I was actually able to find some inexpensive A/c unit like this 5,000 btu A/c .

Can I just put this thing on a stool or something out side my tent? I should note I’ll have a controlled humidifier in the tent to combat dryness

thanks all!

Coldnasty · Mar 11, 2022

drDavidHasselCough said:
Thanks @Coldnasty I think your right and for my situation I really need something I can just plug in and I’d rather be able to control humidity and temp separately. I was actually able to find some inexpensive A/c unit like this 5,000 btu A/c .

Can I just put this thing on a stool or something out side my tent? I should note I’ll have a controlled humidifier in the tent to combat dryness

thanks all!

That’s exactly what I would do, cool the room the tent is in.

drDavidHasselCough · Mar 11, 2022

Coldnasty said:
That’s exactly what I would do, cool the room the tent is in.

Thanks I see a lot of threads saying not to put a window unit in a room because the exhaust will just heat the room. What about if I set it up like the below drawing. My tent is in a separate room in my basement . The tent intakes through ducting through a register in the wall from the rest of the basement. You think I’d be okay

if I just plopped the a/c in front of the Intake so it’s not technically exhausting in the same room as the tent?

Rurumo · Mar 11, 2022

You'll do well if it's under 70 deg, especially if you can keep the RH in a sweet spot. Over 70 seems to dry them out much quicker.

drDavidHasselCough · Mar 11, 2022

Rurumo said:
You'll do well if it's under 70 deg, especially if you can keep the RH in a sweet spot. Over 70 seems to dry them out much quicker.

Thanks yeah previous harvests have turned out pretty good with just hanging whole plant 55-60% and 68-70f but I’m hoping I can improve smell/ terps this round by dropping temps more

Rurumo · Mar 11, 2022

drDavidHasselCough said:
Thanks yeah previous harvests have turned out pretty good with just hanging whole plant 55-60% and 68-70f but I’m hoping I can improve smell/ terps this round by dropping temps more

Other things you can try are hanging the entire plant (cut at the base) and dry trimming, if you aren't already doing those things. Anything to slow the dry down.

drDavidHasselCough · Mar 11, 2022

Rurumo said:
Other things you can try are hanging the entire plant (cut at the base) and dry trimming, if you aren't already doing those things. Anything to slow the dry down.

Yup that’s how I’ve been doing it past few grows. I’m just trying to take it the next level or at least see how colder temps in drying stage affect my final product

Lordhooha · Mar 12, 2022

drDavidHasselCough said:
Thanks @Coldnasty I think your right and for my situation I really need something I can just plug in and I’d rather be able to control humidity and temp separately. I was actually able to find some inexpensive A/c unit like this 5,000 btu A/c .

Can I just put this thing on a stool or something out side my tent? I should note I’ll have a controlled humidifier in the tent to combat dryness

thanks all!

window units need to be mounted to drain what not outside. also im pretty sure the other side of the coil needs to be out there as well for the unit to compress and shit properly. dual hose ac units are a prime example..theyre doing the same as in the window just with hoses.

drDavidHasselCough · Mar 12, 2022

Lordhooha said:
window units need to be mounted to drain what not outside. also im pretty sure the other side of the coil needs to be out there as well for the unit to compress and shit properly. dual hose ac units are a prime example..theyre doing the same as in the window just with hoses.

Exactly what I’ve been worried about. If you look at my drawing above do you think it will work- cold air portion of A/c blowing into vent - the rest dripping into trap exhaust into separate room?

muan · Sep 6, 2022

Has anyone ever tried to use a mini fridge with a temp controller to regulate the tent temp?

drDavidHasselCough · Sep 6, 2022

muan said:
Has anyone ever tried to use a mini fridge with a temp controller to regulate the tent temp?

I have not tried that. Worth a try it’s def not the most $ efficient way to cool the tent and you will probably need to add humidifier to account for the mini fridge drying the air. Since this post I’ve had another harvest and purchased a 2x2 to dedicate for drying. I have been adding 30lbs of ice to a cooler and have small fan blowing on the ice in the cooler. It gets me to 60 degrees for a a day or so and then I need to dump water and add more. I also have humidity controller to turn exhaust at +60%RH. Hope this helps I still haven’t found a solid way to get 60F/60RH

muan · Sep 6, 2022

I found a mini fridge for 25 on offer up .going to cut a hole on top add a hose and pipe it into the tent. Have the fridge plugged into a inkbird temp controller so it shuts off when the temp in twnt reaches 60. I think the humidity will be ok since plants will be drying out.

drDavidHasselCough · Sep 6, 2022

muan said:
I found a mini fridge for 25 on offer up .going to cut a hole on top add a hose and pipe it into the tent. Have the fridge plugged into a inkbird temp controller so it shuts off when the temp in twnt reaches 60. I think the humidity will be ok since plants will be drying out.

That sounds like a great idea. Let me know how it goes. You may still need to find a way to keep humidity up or plants will dry too quick. Fridges produce cold, dry air.

muan · Sep 6, 2022

Maybe a container of water in the fridge will help

Fallguy111 · Sep 6, 2022

Check out a portable keg cooler. Using that logic I'd fill the fridge with as much 1/4" coiled aluminum pipe as can fit, run pipe throughout tent, fill pipe with fluid and connect to a circulation pump. If you cut a big hole in a fridge I see it burning out because the compressor won't turn off also the fridge unit itself should be viewed as a heater and kept away.

ismann · Sep 6, 2022

If you are using a window a/c unit, then the coils need to be outside of the house.

Cooling a grow tent for drying

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