Switching to Cool Tube and Air-Cooled Hood questions.

I have always used open winged reflectors being I've mostly lived in cooler climates and have had my grow rooms in basements. I need to run another flower room on the main level and temps will of course be higher being there is a 10 degree difference between my main and basement most months, so for this smaller flower room(7x5x6 high) I'm going with three 6" cool tubes for three 400 watt bulbs being I have a bunch of digital 400s I am not using and three air-cooled hoods are just too big for this room. My main questions are:

Being I will have a separate intake and exhaust with a carbon filter for the room itself would I also need to carbon filter the light exhaust or are cooltubes pretty much smell proof? Same question goes for air-cooled hoods with glass? I've never used air-cooled hoods so I'm clueless about if they are air-tight or not. Believe it or not, I cannot find a single thread asking this question.

With cooltubes/hoods if I do not need a carbon filter would it make more sense to push or pull?

I can't believe I have to ask a question about grow room design.

Nobody here uses cool tubes or air-cooled reflectors and/or knows the answer to this question? I thought I was the only one using open winged reflectors. lol

I can't answer your question man, but i had to comment because my dad went to rancho cucamonga. haha. Go cougars!

Get a really high CFM 6inch inline fan and have it push out,not pull out.

If your venting the cool tube outside your house,spend the extra money on another carbon filter
if it's venting to another room in your house you may not need it,but I'd get one anyways

HolySmoke420 said:

I can't answer your question man, but i had to comment because my dad went to rancho cucamonga. haha. Go cougars!

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My first like I gave to a comment that didn't help me.

OK NightOwlBono, you are saying the cooltube enclosures are not odor proof? I definitely need zero odor all the times being I have neighbors that stop over unexpectedly often.

Every cool tube I have seen is not 100% airtight,therefore some smell can get out.

Not to mention if your just sucking air directly out the side of your tent chances are some smell is going to get out of your tent and go in your intake....see where I'm going

You said this is your flower room,so I would buy the filter.
if it was your clone,veg room it wouldn't be a big deal

I have only used a/c hoods, never cool tubes. I have had several friends that ordered cool tubes of ebay, and of course since it was off ebay it was cheap, and ran much much hotter than I ever thought a cool tube would, much hotter than an A/C hood, so I've just stuck to A/C hoods so far.

A/C hoods are not air tight for the most part. Some of the more recently designed hoods by Sunlight Supply use a full gasket all the way around with a much better sealing system, and I bet those would be close. I wouldn't bother with used-equipment, since the changes have been recent. CalWest Hydro in Riverside started making their own hoods with these innovations for f'ing cheap, go check out Mark and the crew, they are the best!

If I were close to neighbors, I'd have a carbon filter recirculating the air in my room at the very least. See what you can get away with, spend an evening or two in the backyard with a beer, and find out if you can smell anything. That is, if you have the luxury of time. Jeebus.

NightOwlBono said:

Every cool tube I have seen is not 100% airtight,therefore some smell can get out.

Not to mention if your just sucking air directly out the side of your tent chances are some smell is going to get out of your tent and go in your intake....see where I'm going

You said this is your flower room,so I would buy the filter.
if it was your clone,veg room it wouldn't be a big deal

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OK, good to know. I'm anal and even filter my veg room as some strains can get stinky but it's more for piece of mind. I just thought cool's were air-tight and I could use some good insulated and not need a carbon filter but I guess not. I'm amazed nobody has manufactured an air-tight tube or reflector yet.

Jozikins said:

I have only used a/c hoods, never cool tubes. I have had several friends that ordered cool tubes of ebay, and of course since it was off ebay it was cheap and horrible, and ran much much hotter than I ever though a cool tube would, much hotter than an A/C hood, so I've just stuck A/C hoods so far.

A/C hoods are not air tight for the most part. Some of the more recently designed hoods by Sunlight Supply use a full gasket all the way around with a much better sealing system, and I bet those would be close. I wouldn't bother with used equipment though, since it's probably all before the innovations. CalWest Hydro in Riverside started making their own hoods with these innovations for f'ing cheap, go check out Mark and the crew, they are the best!

If I were close to neighbors, I'd have a carbon filter recirculating the air in my room at the very least. See what you can get away with, spend an evening or two in the backyard with a beer, and find out if you can smell anything. That is, if you have the decadent luxury of time. Cheese and Rice.

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Ya I would never buy any grow equipment off ebay, or used anything.

I have a sunlight or hydrofarm radiant 6" it has glass and a thick gasket but I have not tested it and it's too big for this room to try.

I will definitely checkout that shop online, any particular brand name or model that is claimed air-tight?

I don't have a neighbor for a good mile or more, only about 7-8 neighbors in a 2-3 square mile area. It's just everyone around my area tends to stay in touch with each other and at least one neighbor shows up during the day or early evenings at least once a week. Good people who probably wouldn't say a word if they did know but i'm not taking any chances.
This is why I originally thought about pushing air through rather than pulling, you'd think with pushing there would be no suction anywhere on the cool tube/reflector that would allow the smell in if there was a tiny space open or a crack of some sort. I guess I might just buy a 6" filter I can use in another room when that filter dies if I can get away with pushing air through the cool tubes without a hint of odor. I was just hoping would come along who is venting cool tubes separately and does just this with no smell but I guess not. i will have to experiment.

NightOwlBono said:

Every cool tube I have seen is not 100% airtight,therefore some smell can get out.l

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If your hood/tube isn't airtight and you push you risk pressurizing your room/tent and pushing unfiltered air out of any crack or crevice. Pulling is better IMO. seal those cracks. A vacuum on the hood/tube will only help to seal up any leaks. A pressurized hood/tube will only cause any small cracks to grow larger. Smoke test your hood/tube w/ a cig/incense To see if any is sucked into it. Seal any areas that are leaking.

The push/pull debate has been a hot topic lately.

joe macclennan said:

If your hood/tube isn't airtight and you push you risk pressurizing your room/tent and pushing unfiltered air out of any crack or crevice. Pulling is better IMO. seal those cracks. A vacuum on the hood/tube will only help to seal up any leaks. A pressurized hood/tube will only cause any small cracks to grow larger. Smoke test your hood/tube w/ a cig/incense To see if any is sucked into it. Seal any areas that are leaking.

The push/pull debate has been a hot topic lately.

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OK. So correct me if I'm wrong.

If I push fresh air from one side of room through ducting through cooltubes and then out the room the other end through same ducting I risk fresh air escaping from tubes or reflectors and filling room with more positive air therefore possibly effecting my negative pressure from my room exhaust and intake?
If I pull air through the same setup I risk the room odor escaping into the tubes/reflectors and exiting out pulling fan?

This is what I assume the two options and problems with each are. To me if I pushed the air, and just adjusted my room pressure with room's exhaust and intake, any escaping air being pushed from tubes(which I can't see being enough to add to enough positive pressure to room) would not effect my room's negative pressure.
Whereas if I pulled air through ducting and tubes I risk much more of a chance that the rooms odor which is usually filtered through room's exhaust will escape through any tube leaks out light exhaust which would not be filtered.

Sound about right or am I missing something?

I just don't see how smell could leak into ducting/tubes if it's being pushed. I understand if there are tube leaks and I don't seal them completely that fresh air will leak into room but I can't see it being enough to where iot would effect my negative room pressure.


I wish I had my tubes and fan right now because I'm really curious.

The whole point for me is avoiding having to pay for and hang and attach another carbon filter if it's not needed.

yes, you have the idea. If you are running your room w/ a separate exhaust fan putting neg. press. on the room you could certainly offset any fresh air pressurization of your room created by leaky hoods/tubes. You could not introduce co2 enrichment tho obviously.

joe macclennan said:

yes, you have the idea. If you are running your room w/ a separate exhaust fan putting neg. press. on the room you could certainly offset any fresh air pressurization of your room created by leaky hoods/tubes. You could not introduce co2 enrichment tho obviously.

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I think I will be going the pushing route then. I'll take a small amount of positive air over possible odor escape any day. I will return to this thread and let every know how it works out, pics and all.

Peace.

I pull mine outside of the tent and into a carbon filter which is also outside of the tent. It's a little loud but zero smell and the tent stays about 72 degrees. The tube is cool to the touch

I can't think of anything that claims to be airtight. but I know the yield matter II from sunlight supply was the first to be redone. I don't like pushing air through my ac hoods, just not even close to enough pressure. a cool tube is a more straight shot, and I think it'd work better for pushing air. but yeah, I like the idea of just filtering the air, and I bet the girls would like some extra breeze. imo veg is most crucial to getting yield.

my neighborhood is a little closer together than yours physically, but we're pretty far apart. we have real nice neighbors too. one of them we caught growing indoors. I wasn't going to say nothing, but my partner went over and spilled the beans and traded some nugs. they only grow one at a time, and he is a plumber, so he'll help us out with our plumbing issues for a quarter oz anytime.

IME cooltubes leak air through the eye hooks for hanging them. Its just a nut and bolt style hook eye bred through the metal on each end which definitely does leak.

I've also used a SUNLIGHT SUPPLY BLOCKBUSTER 6". Maybe too big for 400w but the gasket on this mother fucker is superb.

I got zero leaks with this hood.

I ran it in a sealed lighting rig. ie the hood had a cold air intake coming from outside my grow, through the hood and out of my room then connected to a fan and exhausted away from the intake.

Link in my signature has pics of the setup.




J

I'm re-thinking everything again as I usually do with new ventures.

Being smell is an issue I will be filtering. Being I know pulling is always better than pushing I will be pulling, especially since I will be filtering now.

NEW THOUGHTS------------

Now that smell and the leak issue is dealt with I'm looking all at cooling, more cooling.

Has anyone had any experience with airboxes and a chiller, mini-split ductless a/c or any other room cooling methods? My upstairs room I will have to exhaust back into home year-round, so I need it super cool in the warmer months. I will be searching on here for cooling ideas as I have never had to really deal with them, but any info anyone can supply is appreciated.

All I know about light chillers is that they are all made out of some part responsible for cooling the air inside of a Dodge Neon, I don't remember if it's for the AC or for the engine itself.

Maybe you could get away with using an Odorsok instead of a carbon can filter...they are very light and cheap....but the fucking suck for use as a main filter. Hell K sell ya mine...it's brand new (24 hours of use) lolB