Odor Control - Which Way to Go?

So I'm gearing up for my first indoor grow. I've got my lumber and drywall and as soon as I knock out a couple more projects around the house I'm clear to build. My grow room will be 5'W x 6'L x 7'H (210 csf) although my actual grow area will be smaller with 6 - 8 plants in a scrog setup. I've been busy accumulating knowledge and have found these boards to be full of wizards and grow-geeks, all very willing to help.

In my situation, odor is the number one concern. It is a basement grow in a house that I own. Everything very secure but I have venting issues. There is no way to vent externally so I will be scrubbing and venting into an adjacent room. In-laws, cleaning lady, and guests are my biggest concern. This needs to be bullet proof and I don't mind spending a little dosh to get it right.

After reading through the tutorials and other stickies here, I was set to go with a 6" inline fan coupled with a carbon scrubber plus an ozonator for redundancy. However, I am wondering if I should just pop for an inline ozone generator. The carbon filter is going to set me back ~$100 to start and then $100 / year for replacements. The 1000 csf ozonator is ~$200 to start. I can get a 6" inline ozone light for $350 which needs replacement bulbs every 2 years at $120. So the inline ozone solution is a bit more to start but less to run year over year. Like I said, cost isn't the determining factor.

My question is, which solution will provide the most reliable, fail proof odor control? Are they similar? Does anyone have experience with the inline ozone controllers? Would someone using a carbon scrubber please comment on their effectiveness? General feedback much appreciated.

Odor is always of concern, you dont want the wrong person sticking their nose where it doesn belong! I too am doing a basement grow in my house. My grow room is about the same size, maybe 250csf however just a tad bit bigger. I have a pleated 12x12x12 filter intake from the basement to the outside going to a 450cfm blower fan, ducted. My light hood is one 1000watt vented 8" on both sides with an inline centrifugal fan 800cfm, exhausting to the rest of the basement(my growroom is a plastic tent style). I currrently have 22 flowering beauties at four weeks, smell barely creeps into the basement, none whatsoever in the upstairs house. Its not bammer either this is quality stuff, ranging from White Widow to Blueberry x Cheese. The only odor control I am using is Ona Gel in small dishes around the room. It has a nice aroma and actually works really good when around the ventelation. My airflow is so efficient and high that the smell barely catches wind. Now if I had odor issues I would stick a 8" charcoal K&N style exhaust filter on my hood. Simple is better sometimes, get your ventelation dialed and make sure your room has a good seal.

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Originally Posted by bigsby

After reading through the tutorials and other stickies here, I was set to go with a 6" inline fan coupled with a carbon scrubber plus an ozonator for redundancy. However, I am wondering if I should just pop for an inline ozone generator. The carbon filter is going to set me back ~$100 to start and then $100 / year for replacements. The 1000 csf ozonator is ~$200 to start. I can get a 6" inline ozone light for $350 which needs replacement bulbs every 2 years at $120. So the inline ozone solution is a bit more to start but less to run year over year. Like I said, cost isn't the determining factor.
My question is, which solution will provide the most reliable, fail proof odor control? Are they similar? Does anyone have experience with the inline ozone controllers? Would someone using a carbon scrubber please comment on their effectiveness? General feedback much appreciated.

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i've never seen a carbon filter that was worth beans that sold for $100.00. hell, a decent 6" fan costs near $250.00-300.00. there's a difference between a carbon filter and a scrubber. usually, a filter is something that is exhausted out of the grow area. a scrubber cleans the air and is exhausted back into the grow area. that's what i like to do. as for an ozone generator, you don't want it exhausting into an area where anyone is going to be breathing. i've never gone the ozone route, but you can't go wrong with carbon filtering.

Thanks for the input. A few questions below:

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Originally Posted by mrbigair600

I have a pleated 12x12x12 filter intake from the basement to the outside going to a 450cfm blower fan, ducted. My light hood is one 1000watt vented 8" on both sides with an inline centrifugal fan 800cfm, exhausting to the rest of the basement(my growroom is a plastic tent style). [SNIPPET] Now if I had odor issues I would stick a 8" charcoal K&N style exhaust filter on my hood. Simple is better sometimes, get your ventelation dialed and make sure your room has a good seal.

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It sounds like most of your exhaust exits the house. That's a pretty big fan you are using. I was planning something considerably smaller. I do not have heat issues. Due to utilities obstructions and a 100 yo poured concrete foundation, I am unable to vent externally. The room will be plenty tight. I'm building from scratch - drywall on wood frame. I'll compound and finish all joints and holes. My original plan was to use a 6" inline fan with a charcoal filter. From your experience, will this do the trick?

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Originally Posted by Bongojaz

i've never seen a carbon filter that was worth beans that sold for $100.00. hell, a decent 6" fan costs near $250.00-300.00. there's a difference between a carbon filter and a scrubber. usually, a filter is something that is exhausted out of the grow area. a scrubber cleans the air and is exhausted back into the grow area. that's what i like to do. as for an ozone generator, you don't want it exhausting into an area where anyone is going to be breathing. i've never gone the ozone route, but you can't go wrong with carbon filtering.

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I was concerned about the ozone into the room due to health concerns. Thanks for confirming. Perhaps I wasn't clear. $100 was the cost of the filter only. Not the fan. My preference is to filter out of the room as I will not have any outside air source. Therefore the passive intake will be the only source of "fresh" ish air. As stated, this is not a cost issue for me. Any recommendations on what constitutes a good filter?

even a good filter, a really good filter, costs a few hundred dollars.

I use an Ona dispenser that releases a spray of ona every so often and it completely kills all odors.I was skeptical till I tried it but it works great and it's easy and inexpensive to buy and maintain.

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Originally Posted by Bongojaz

even a good filter, a really good filter, costs a few hundred dollars.

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Really? I have found a few in the $100 - $200 range. I have a 6" inline and although it is rated at 410 cfm, I will use it with a speed controller. Given my small space and very minimal ducting with only the filter to account for, it will never get over 210 cfm and even that is unlikely.

The Phresh Filters are a bit pricy. See:
Carbon Filters - - Phresh Filter 6"x16": 400 CFM

But most can type filters are in the $75 - $125 See:

Hydroempire

High Tech Garden Supply

I'll pop on one of the can filter-33s or something similar but would like to know if one of the more basic type of carbon filters will do the job such as the one from from HydroEmpire listed above.

Just looking for a little confirmation.

i gotta admit bigs, those are some good prices. i bought mine about 3 years ago on e-bay for around $250, it's a mountainair. i have a six inch vortex on top of it, and use them as a scrubber. i use it sparingly in flower only. it doesn't have many hours on it, and seems to still clean very well. it's also re-fillable. but, i hear it's damn near impossible to get the carbon packed well enough for it to really last.

Wow - those MountainAir filters are pricey. Best I can find is $190 for the 6" variety. I'll spring for one of the higher end units if that is what it takes to get the job done. It's rated for 3 years of use so it should keep me going a good while as I wouldn't use it full time.

I'd love to save a few bucks if I can. Anyone using a cheaper option please chime in!

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Originally Posted by bigsby

Wow - those MountainAir filters are pricey. Best I can find is $190 for the 6" variety. I'll spring for one of the higher end units if that is what it takes to get the job done. It's rated for 3 years of use so it should keep me going a good while as I wouldn't use it full time.

I'd love to save a few bucks if I can. Anyone using a cheaper option please chime in!

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Depends how handy you are, making one to filter a space that size would cost less than $50. Replacing the activated carbon when it loses effectiveness, less than $20. :thumbsup:

If you go with a store bought unit, refillable or with replaceable cartridges is the way to go. You pay more up front, but come out way ahead in the long run. They aren't hard to re-pack.

One thing you do *not* want to use is a fabric-type (Odor Sok), I found that out the hard way. Worked great,..but not for very long. :wtf: Worst $70 I ever spent.

Yeah I've seen the tutorials on rolling your own. I can do it but my time resources suggest that paying for a factory build is the way to go. I'll certainly repack it myself.

Thanks for the input.

It is like the cheapest one HTG has , but I got this (it is the 4" model) and it works great!!!! no odors and the fan is a beast - I dropped it when I was installing it (dumbass, I know) and broke off the bottom plastic part where the electrical cord goes in, but I grabbed a little duct tape and it works fine and fairly quiet too

High Tech Garden Supply

How big is your room?

I have spent a ton of time researching this same issue over the last couple months. I am just finishing my first grow and smell has been a real problem.

If you want bulletproof, this is what I'd do. First make sure your room is sealed up well. I use a grow tent in my closet btw. You might even consider using a grow tent inside your room just to contain any light that would otherwise leak out under the door way. It would make the smell easier to deal with too. Personally that is what I'd do, but I'm sure that will get some objections since a lot of people prefer grow rooms. I would put a nice charcoal filter on the top vent of the grow tent and leave the bottom vents open for your intake air. I'd put an ona block right in front of the outgoing air coming out of the carbon filter. Then I'd put a negative ion generator in the room outside of the tent. And finally I'd get one of the small ozone generators that don't produce much ozone. Just enough to help kill off any remaining odor. Then I'd put another carbon filter wherever you plan on veting out of the room (I wouldn't even put in a vent, I'd put the plants and lights in a tent so then you can just depend on air coming in from under the door to vent) and put another ona block in front of the outgoing air on that. That would be 100% bulletproof. Knowing that there is absolutely no way anybody is going to find your grow room is a good feeling.

Right now my apartment reeks and if somebody came in here that cared I'd be fucked. I just added a carbon filter that sucks balls. My biggest problem is that my plants got too big for my tent. When I took them out of the tent that is when my odor issues started. I have a bigger tent on the way and once I get that setup I will finalize my plan to treat the smell here.

If you had a setup like that you could even have people go into your basement without having to worry about anybody noticing anything. No light and no smell. The only thing that could give it away is the sound, which you can well insulate the room and prevent any sound from getting out. If there is still a little sound that you can hear outside the grow room in the basement then I'd plug some cheap air freshner that makes noise or something like that into the wall in the basement to cover any sound coming from the grow room. I doubt you'll have any problems insulating the room to the point that you can hear any sound outside of it though. That is my dream setup lol. Hope that helps.

Hey Daduck, thanks for swapping goods here. It is very informative to hear how others are working through their issues.

I have the luxury of time. I'm itching to get started but I have a huge project list that I have to work through before I can start the room. Yesterday I put down 550 sf of sod in the rain... So I have had all kinds of time for planning and research. This a good thing. I received some good advice early on to settle on a plan and work with it, rather than getting bogged down with endless configuration changes. However, it took me a while to understand my space needs. During research I concluded that I need a clone / veg / mother chamber. I will also need for space to work around the plants. I will also want some floor space for buckets, accessories, etc. plus shelving for nutes, tools, and miscellaneous items. I doubled the room size to account for these realizations.

I will be doing relatively small grows - 4 to 8 plants and I will do them scrog style to maximize both space and light. I am lucky that I have a nice unfinished space to work with, venting issues aside. I will section off 1/3 of the room with wood frame and drywall. (Note if you are building from scratch, apply liberal bead of silicone to the studs and joists before you hang your drywall. This is one of he most effective means of mitigating noise that you can employ).

My room will be 8'.5"L x 6'W x 6'.5"H for 332 cubic feet. I will be pulling fresh air from an adjacent room and venting into a third room. I am not concerned about the door. The current space is already light tight before I even start. I will seal it no worries and the rest of the room will be sealed tight by drywall. Once the room has a reasonably good seal an appropriately sized fan will create enough negative pressure so that the only air escaping the room is through the vent. My duct setup is very simple. Only a few feet long with no elbows or obstructions to account for besides the filter. I will use ona in the vent room too.

The key factor here is employing a good appropriately sized fan and a very good filter. So if I want to exchange the air every 5 minutes my calculation looks like this:

332 CF / 5 = 66.5 CFM
66.5 x .5 (to account for 5 feet of duct) = 99.7 CFM
99.7 x 1.3 (to account for filter) = 129.6 CFM

I ran this for exchanging air every 4 minutes although with my setup 5 minutes should be sufficient.

332 CF / 4 = 83 CFM
83 x .5 (to account for 5 feet of duct) = 124.5 CFM
124.5 x 1.3 (to account for filter) = 168.9 CFM

If you are looking for help with your calculations checkout Rhizome's Noob Guide. It is an outstanding read if you haven't seen it:

http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-gr...-progress.html See the second post which deals with ventilation.

Yeah I spent quite a bit of time planning before I pulled the trigger too. Right now my operation is far from safe between the smell and my closet pouring out light so I've got to find fixes for that ASAP.
Are you planning on growing for personal use or selling? Mine is just for personal use. I may sell a bit here and there just to friends (I already got more weed than I can smoke) to help get rid of it. I don't want to get caught sitting on a pound or anything like that. I need to double check the amount that is the cutoff for a felony here. I am keeping my grow to only four plants at a time, because five is the magic number for a felony in Kansas. It's ridiculous you can get a felony for growing five plants, but you gotta play by the rules.
Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. My point was that if it's for personal use if you're anything like me I wouldn't do a clone setup. I'm pumped to grow a variety of different strains. My first grow was white widow. Now I just planted my LSD seeds from Barneys. I want to grow Light of Jah, cheese, critical mass and Vanilla Kush too though. I've spent tons of time looking over different seeds/strains for sale and those are all at the top of my list. Most of all though I want to grow the new Pineapple Chunk that Barney's just came out with. It's potent stuff and supposed to produce a huge yield. For my next grow I think I'll do two Pineapple Chunks and two Light of Jahs. I think half the fun is building up a wide variety of different kinds of A+ weed. I want to be a conisseur of pot if you will lol. I just think it will be cool to have ten different jars with different strains in them that you can pick and choose from. Growing and trying out different strains is what motivates me. If I was just growing simply to have something to smoke, I could stop now and be set for a hell of a long time, but that's not my objective. I would get bored real quick growing the same strains over and over again. If you are growing to sell I can totally understand that approach though.
You have a lot to look forward to. I'm just wrapping up my first grow and starting my second, but so far it's been a hell of a lot of fun.

odor is always a big issue unless you don't "ever" have to worry about guest's/neighbors/family or landlords. some strains stink more than others, and there is just countless things to consider. the ozone route takes care of the pot odor, but then gives off an ozone odor. i truly believe that a carbon filter is the way to go. but i think you have to use additional measures to "pretty up" your household just in case. using manufacturers suggested filter numbers vs actual grow area space, works well. if you also add some plug in's or something along those lines, i believe odor problems will be a thing of the past. i've used ona products, they work very well. they're not cheap, but in the end, cost should never be an issue when it comes to security.

yo bigsby i know a very good way to send the odor, down the poop pipe, i know a friend has a very good setup for the last 8 years and odor was his no.1, same reasons as u really, i could find you more info about his venting to the poop pipe. just say the word and ill get some more info 4yah.
hope it helped. :)

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Originally Posted by DaDuck

[SNIPPET] Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. My point was that if it's for personal use if you're anything like me I wouldn't do a clone setup. [SNIPPET] Growing and trying out different strains is what motivates me. If I was just growing simply to have something to smoke, I could stop now and be set for a hell of a long time, but that's not my objective. I would get bored real quick growing the same strains over and over again. If you are growing to sell I can totally understand that approach though.
You have a lot to look forward to. I'm just wrapping up my first grow and starting my second, but so far it's been a hell of a lot of fun.

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Personal use and for a friend with MS who has legitimate needs. I will likely give away excess quantity to my brother and one best friend from home. I don't want it sitting around either. I have no interest in selling, and giving it out is a quick way for people to spread the word that you are growing so I'll give out nothing locally. Like you, I like the idea of having a humidor filled with a variety of buds.

The reason I'm looking at cloning is because the damn seeds are pricey and because I will do scrog grows. Clones branch much earlier and more vigorously than seedlings. Scrog grows lend themselves to many branches - you might look into it as it is great space saver, makes the best use of light, and pumps the yield and quality. Where do you get your seeds? I'm looking for that now. You can't order directly from Barneys, no?

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Originally Posted by Bongojaz

odor is always a big issue unless you don't "ever" have to worry about guest's/neighbors/family or landlords. some strains stink more than others, and there is just countless things to consider. the ozone route takes care of the pot odor, but then gives off an ozone odor. i truly believe that a carbon filter is the way to go. but i think you have to use additional measures to "pretty up" your household just in case. using manufacturers suggested filter numbers vs actual grow area space, works well. if you also add some plug in's or something along those lines, i believe odor problems will be a thing of the past. i've used ona products, they work very well. they're not cheap, but in the end, cost should never be an issue when it comes to security.

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That's the plan - carbon filter + Ona. I've oversized the fan by 100 CFM so I can dial it up or down as needed. Ona in the vent room. I will splurge on odor control. It is critical.

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Originally Posted by XGR33NthumbX

yo bigsby i know a very good way to send the odor, down the poop pipe, i know a friend has a very good setup for the last 8 years and odor was his no.1, same reasons as u really, i could find you more info about his venting to the poop pipe. just say the word and ill get some more info 4yah.
hope it helped. :)

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Yeah what an idea. Brilliant no? Definitely a stoner that came up with that one! I read a great tutorial on it a while back. Unfortunately the stack in my house is nowhere near my grow room. Otherwise I would be all over it! Thanks for thinking of me. I'm pretty sure I can adequately deal with this issue using a traditional carbon filter.

I got my LSD Barneys Farm seeds here Barney's Farm Cannabis Seeds - Online Shop

And I got my first batch of white widow seeds here
Buy Marijuana Seeds and cannabis seeds from Holland - high quality marijuana seeds (cannabis seeds)

I was real happy with both places. It only took a week to get them coming from over seas and they were packaged discreetly. Everyonedoesit.com is where I got the LSD seeds and I really like that place because they sell seeds from everybody and you can buy them in singles or small packages. You can go through and get one or two seeds from a bunch of different strains to try them out. I am pumped to buy some more seeds in a month or two. Like I mentioned in my last post, I want to grow some of the new Pineapple Chunk, Critical Mass, Cheese and Light of Jah. Maybe I'll do one of each for my next grow. That or I'll just pick two and have two plants of each. Light of jah and Pineapple Chunk are probably at the top of my list. Anyway, check that place out (everyonedoesit. You can pretty much get any seeds you want there and it is coming from England. Amsterdam seeds are obviously coming from the Netherlands, which I think looks a little more suspicous than a pakcage from England. And picking out only a couple seeds from the different strains I want to try is perfect for what I'm doing.

Carbon filter is the way I went. Can't smell anything so far. Cost $250 for fan and filter. Hope it helps

might want to set that on top of an upside down 5 gallon bucket or something.