Budget carbon scrubber

I recently came up with two different designs for carbon scrubbers. My local surplus store has a lot of good materials for a diy grower like me. My parts list includes

3 inch pc fans (12v .15a)
3 inch plastic speaker holes
Wire mesh desktop pencil holder
Panty hose
Window screen
Adhesive (caulk or epoxy usually)
Activated carbon.

I employed two designs, unfortunately the first design i assembled before taking pictures so i can really only describe it but it is fairly straightforward. I would like to mention that i dont aim to take credit for these ideas as they are mostly adaptations of things ive seen other people do before.

The first filter style involves making a cylinder with your window screen to fit inside the pencil holder. You will be filling the space between this cylinder and the pencil holder which creates a donut of activated carbon about an inch thick. You want to out the window screen cylinder in aleg of the panty hose and adhere the base to the bottom of the pencil holder. This way you can stretch the hose up and over the outside ot the pencil holder to keep the activated carbon inside.

For this design i usually tape the filter over the end of a pvc pipe and have a fan pull air through the filter.

The second design is more relevant to the pics i uploaded. The speaker hole is something i recently discovered. The pencil holders slide perfectly over the end of the speaker hole which is ribbed and slightly tapered making the pencil holder easy to remove and replace.

I fill a leg of hose with some activated carbon, enough to form a puck abiut 1.5 inches thick in the base of the pencil holder. For this i also drill out the base of the pencil holder for increased airflow and efficiency as the base will be in line with the fan. Tie off the panty hose leaving a tail on the open end that you can strecth over the pencil holder just to help keep it in place.

I cut 3 inch holes in the walls of my grow box and then caulk around the lip of the plastic speaker hold before sliding it in place. Then i screw the fan on from the outside and caulk around it for a good seal. I recommend some tape or and o ring of sorts to go around the outside of the pencil holder where the activated carbon meets the speaker hole as there can sometimes be a gap where air will get sucked through around you cwrbon instead of through it like we want.

Hope these ideas are useful to anyone looking at adding some carbon filters to their grow.

Aside from the 20 bucks for a big jug of activated carbon this is dirt cheap. For one fully assembled filter with the fan and a wall wart power supply you're looking at less than 10 bucks.

Not big enough to be very effective. Carbon scrubbers are one of the things you really shouldn't conserve on. You need to spend money on a good one.

I made one similar cause I'm a cheap ass...ending up sucking and I changed it up.

My materials list for what I found worked better.

1. 4" in line fan (ebay)
2. Cheap "tuner" car intake filter (ebay)
3. Use the same mesh pencil cup (walmart)
4. Some pvc (same dia' of pencil cup opening)
5. Some mesh wire
6. Activated carbon (walmart)
7. Dryer duct (4") (walmart)
8. Hose clamps x4

Assembly

1. Take pvc and hot glue wire mesh to one end and then pencil cup to the same end.
2. Add active carbon to intake filter (so much that you can put the pen cup in the filter). You may have to try a few times till you get it full. It has to be full or air will not pass through the carbon thus not filtering the smell.
3. Once it's full and fits in perfect set it in place with a hose clamp.
4. Then add dry ducting with hose clamp
5. Then connect duct to in line.
6. Plug in.

Optional: take a shoe box and cut holes to match the ducting and put the fan in the box, cover with crumbled Styrofoam and close the box. This keeps the noice down

I wish I had pictures of this, but I now just use a real filter and fan. I had this set up when I was keeping my shit TOPSY CRETS!

HAPPY SMOKING

Airwalker16 said:

Not big enough to be very effective. Carbon scrubbers are one of the things you really shouldn't conserve on. You need to spend money on a good one.

Click to expand...

For me smell isnt really an issue, these help cut back on smell enough, are completely light tight with a little finagling and for my small cab grow they offer enough airflow that the restrictions of pulling air theough a filtwr with a pc fan doesnt really matter.

I run three of these for a box thats 36w36h16d thats located in a shed outside and along with a fourth fan for intake that also has an inch of carbon on it for intake, its enough to keep my temperatures within a few degrees of outside.

But please, contribute to this diy oriented, budget thread, with your own ideas on how to improve my design since you feel it is lacking

simply_slide said:

I made one similar cause I'm a cheap ass...ending up sucking and I changed it up.

My materials list for what I found worked better.

1. 4" in line fan (ebay)
2. Cheap "tuner" car intake filter (ebay)
3. Use the same mesh pencil cup (walmart)
4. Some pvc (same dia' of pencil cup opening)
5. Some mesh wire
6. Activated carbon (walmart)
7. Dryer duct (4") (walmart)
8. Hose clamps x4

Assembly

1. Take pvc and hot glue wire mesh to one end and then pencil cup to the same end.
2. Add active carbon to intake filter (so much that you can put the pen cup in the filter). You may have to try a few times till you get it full. It has to be full or air will not pass through the carbon thus not filtering the smell.
3. Once it's full and fits in perfect set it in place with a hose clamp.
4. Then add dry ducting with hose clamp
5. Then connect duct to in line.
6. Plug in.

Optional: take a shoe box and cut holes to match the ducting and put the fan in the box, cover with crumbled Styrofoam and close the box. This keeps the noice down

I wish I had pictures of this, but I now just use a real filter and fan. I had this set up when I was keeping my shit TOPSY CRETS!

HAPPY SMOKING

Click to expand...

Sounds like it would move air a lot better than my ghetto rigged set up man. I love building stuff, i hadnt really considered inline fans before building my setup, i mostly keep it to pc fans cause theyre easy to keep quiet.

Budsturbation said:

Sounds like it would move air a lot better than my ghetto rigged set up man. I love building stuff, i hadnt really considered inline fans before building my setup, i mostly keep it to pc fans cause theyre easy to keep quiet.

Click to expand...

I like how you are doing what works for you

I agree with Airwalker16. I am cheep myself but in the end he's right. Unless you grow legally and don't care about the smell you should never take the chance and cut corners.