Cooltube vs air cooled hood!!

Right so been using cooltubes since I have been growing. Temps are great 72-78. Brought a air cooled hood and can't say I was impressed. Temps were at 84 with a 400 hps! I noticed a lot of air leaking from the hood even tho it's the "new and improved" hood with a foam rim! Have seen people duct tape the seals up and was wondering will this work and be as effective as my cooltube? The distribution of the light from the hood was noticeable better what makes me want to use the hood but not with them temps. What are your thoughts and opinions?

As from what you have noticed. Cool tubes keep temps down, air cooled hoods spread light better. Me personally, given my tent is 1.6'x3'x5' I opted for a cool tube.

Would be good to have best of both worlds tho, I might try and seal up the gaps with aluminium duct tape and see what temps I run at. I have my cooltube back in atm and tbh it does the job but the light distribution is pretty crap compared to the hood. It has a reflecter but only comes around a inch out from the tube unless I can expand it some how. Decisions decisions.

Hey mate, ive never used a air coolded hood but i have two types of cooltubes.

First one has reflector inside the tube and this keeps light very cool with a rather concentrated light footprint on a small area. The second one has a much larger reflector on the outside about two inches above the tube. This tube runs noticably higher temps but has a much better light distribution compared to the tube with much smaller inbuilt reflector. These are running 600w hps.

If your hood isn't keeping temps down there could be another issue.

It could be the position of the mogul inside. If its in the direct path of the air then it can block the air flow.


I used to use a BLOCKBUSTER 6" with a 440cfm fan running with a 600w. My glass was cold to the touch.




J

jondamon said:

If your hood isn't keeping temps down there could be another issue.

It could be the position of the mogul inside. If its in the direct path of the air then it can block the air flow.


I used to use a BLOCKBUSTER 6" with a 440cfm fan running with a 600w. My glass was cold to the touch.




J

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thanks for that info.. im gonna get a blockbuster 6 with a hydrofarm phantom ballast..

fir3dragon said:

thanks for that info.. im gonna get a blockbuster 6 with a hydrofarm phantom ballast..

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If you check the link in my signature it shows the hood and proximity to plants etc.

I used my blockbuster with its own independent fan (440cfm) with its own cold air intake. No grow room air passed through my hood system.

Its a great way to run any air cooled light , but it means you need a second fan with filter attached to it scrubbing the air and exhausting it out.



J

marcy said:

I noticed a lot of air leaking from the hood even tho it's the "new and improved" hood with a foam rim!

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What brand of hood is it? Your either pushing way to much air through the system or you have a blockage or bottle neck somewhere that allows excess pressure to build up and pass the foam seal. These seals are not meant for pressure inside the hood. If your exhaust system is doing its job the glass should be sucked up against the foam. For some reason yours is not?

As for heat I have not noticed a difference in temps between the 2 styles, I run both, I also have light difussers on each that drop the temp right under the bulb by 6-10 degrees. They have stopped spotting by bouncing the uv's back into the hood for re-distribution.

Good Luck

Not sure of the brand have to check later. I use a 5" inline fan with filter goin to the hood then out the other side out of tent, it just leaks air from every where there's a gap tbh. Thanks for all the info. Il find out the make later on and take a pic and point out where air is coming from

jondamon said:

If you check the link in my signature it shows the hood and proximity to plants etc.

I used my blockbuster with its own independent fan (440cfm) with its own cold air intake. No grow room air passed through my hood system.

Its a great way to run any air cooled light , but it means you need a second fan with filter attached to it scrubbing the air and exhausting it out.



J

Click to expand...

I'll have a look and If a second fan means more buds its gonna pay for itself win win for me lol