Carbon filter on portable ac

Blue brother

Blue brother

Well-Known Member
I know I know, this really isn't advised, but I know some of you will have tried it before so I've gotta ask.

I want a portable ac for my drying tent, I know I can put the portable in its own tent and use that as an intake for my drying tent, but that's gonna take up space I really don't have.

I also can't have a split or a window unit as anything showing at a window or on the outside of the house is a big no no.

I've got a few 12inch carbon filters, and I thought that maybe one of these connected to the 4inch exhaust on the portable ac might not restrict the air flow very much at all, I know these things break when the exhaust is restricted so my aim would be to provide the biggest filter with the highest flow rate possible so hopefully it won't make much of a difference to the flow leaving the ac.

If anyone has done this I'd love their opinion, it would mean I can keep the ac in the drying tent and not have to use another tent just for the ac, if I do have to use another tent for the ac I'll probably get one of those 3d printer tents rather than an actual grow tent as these seem to fit the dimensions better
 
I use an activated carbon charcoal sheet on my intake of my Dehumidifier so not to process the odors, but my portable AC unit I run a 4" duct to the outside without issue, as the wind or breeze dissipates the smells. My main AC has an intake near my tent and I run a activated carbon sheet on it as well, and have noticed no real smells, though I also run a carbon filter on my Tent exhaust as well. IMHO if your sowing down the exhaust, you may see the unit shut down every once in awhile, don't really know.
 
Not knowing anything about your living arrangements, it hard to advise. I dry in a room across from my grow room. I use a portable ac unit, close off my hvac vent with plastic and the ac vents to the window. This is all on the 2nd floor of my house. I also use towels at the bottom of the door with a weight to keep pressure on the towels. I won't lie, I still get a small odor of weed but nothing like opening your tent to do maintenance in the middle to end of flower.
It's also a good time if you need to say we are going on vacation for a week or so. That way no unexpected visitors.
 
Incase you do try the carbon filter method it would have to be on a low draw setting and remove the dust cover on tour filter to cut down on resistance.
 
420 Garden said:
Not knowing anything about your living arrangements, it hard to advise. I dry in a room across from my grow room. I use a portable ac unit, close off my hvac vent with plastic and the ac vents to the window. This is all on the 2nd floor of my house. I also use towels at the bottom of the door with a weight to keep pressure on the towels. I won't lie, I still get a small odor of weed but nothing like opening your tent to do maintenance in the middle to end of flower.
It's also a good time if you need to say we are going on vacation for a week or so. That way no unexpected visitors.
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I absolutely cannot vent the ac out the window although I could vent it back into my grow room where any smells would be taken care of by the grow room hvac
 
You just want to try to keep it as close to 60 degrees and 60 % r/h as what you can. I usually can hit 63 and R/H is not hard to hit.
 
420 Garden said:
You just want to try to keep it as close to 60 degrees and 60 % r/h as what you can. I usually can hit 63 and R/H is not hard to hit.
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Thanks for the advice bud but I've got drying sussed to bits haha, I've got a converted wine cooler I dry smaller harvests in, but I'm sick of being at the mercy of the ambient temperature when it comes to my large rooms harvests
 
420 Garden said:
Sweet! Not tried a cooler. Got a garage fridge will that do the same or is a wine cooler different?
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We generally use thermoelectric wine coolers cos their method of cooling results in more gentle humidity swings vs that of a compressor based fridge. I built mine a few years ago but there's someone else who has really ran with the concept and his thread is really popular on here, I'll find a link to his build thread, my build thread started as a discussion about drying in a fridge and ended in me building mine. His is a lot less heated to say the least.
 
GreenGenez421 said:
This may be overkill but you don't want to reduce or restrict the AC units exhaust. You'll burn out the unit much faster. Plumbed to a carbon, you'll certainly need a booster to even out any resistance or positive pressure.

AC Infinity Duct Fan https://a.co/d/fsiPgLF

You could go with a basic raxial with speed controller for cheaper.
AC Infinity Duct Fan https://a.co/d/0NgCuec
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I wouldn't mind using a fan at all, my question would be, how would I get the flow rate right, without knowing the true flow of the ac exhaust so I could match it, would negative pressure cause problems in the same way restriction would do you think?
 
Blue brother said:
We generally use thermoelectric wine coolers cos their method of cooling results in more gentle humidity swings vs that of a compressor based fridge. I built mine a few years ago but there's someone else who has really ran with the concept and his thread is really popular on here, I'll find a link to his build thread, my build thread started as a discussion about drying in a fridge and ended in me building mine. His is a lot less heated to say the least.
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Ive made one of those.....

20230903_172252.jpg

I'm using it as I speak. Works well. Needs a peltier dehuey installed into it, though.
 
Hollatchaboy said:
Ive made one of those.....

View attachment 5449886

I'm using it as I speak. Works well. Needs a peltier dehuey installed into it, though.
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Yeah mate they're great, when my next harvest comes down I'm gonna use a regular compressor fridge and have the power controlled by the INKBIRD. So as the humidity rises the fridge turns on, cools down, gets rid of humidity, switches off, warms up, humidity rises, triggers INKBIRD, fridge turns on, cools down, gets rid of humidity and so on, I'm thinking if I can keep the fridge on my enclosed un-insulated balcony it will never get above 10'c
 
Portable ACs are already at a somewhat major disadvantage, due to the inefficient ventilation design. Probably 25% less efficient compared to window bangers where the coil sits outside. They still work, just not as good as the window units, even with the same size compressors and specs..

So yeah, restricting the portable type of units even more than they already are would def be asking for trouble, and should probably expect nasty error codes popping up on the control panel sooner than later.

If you were to "duct mod" it with properly sized and dialed in booster fan\filter though, that should not only solve the problem of any restrictions or having too weak of a stock fan.. but, might even give you better cooling performance than just running it normally as directed, even with the restrictive canister filter hooked up impeding the flow. If you can overcome the filter, you can push or pull even more CFMs through the unit, and should run a bit more effeciently by removing heat faster than before. Closer to a regular window ACs performance.

Most portable freestanding AC units could benefit from an additional booster fan IMO, even if the ducting is only a short run to the window.
 
Drop That Sound said:
Portable ACs are already at a somewhat major disadvantage, due to the inefficient ventilation design. Probably 25% less efficient compared to window bangers where the coil sits outside. They still work, just not as good as the window units, even with the same size compressors and specs..

So yeah, restricting the portable type of units even more than they already are would def be asking for trouble, and should probably expect nasty error codes popping up on the control panel sooner than later.

If you were to "duct mod" it with properly sized and dialed in booster fan\filter though, that should not only solve the problem of any restrictions or having too weak of a stock fan.. but, might even give you better cooling performance than just running it normally as directed, even with the restrictive canister filter hooked up impeding the flow. If you can overcome the filter, you can push or pull even more CFMs through the unit, and should run a bit more effeciently by removing heat faster than before. Closer to a regular window ACs performance.

Most portable freestanding AC units could benefit from an additional booster fan IMO, even if the ducting is only a short run to the window.
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So you don't believe there will be any problems stemming from maybe pulling slightly more flow through the ac than the system was designed for?

I love your answer btw Thankyou!
 
Blue brother said:
So you don't believe there will be any problems stemming from maybe pulling slightly more flow through the ac than the system was designed for?

I love your answer btw Thankyou!
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You could always get one of these....
Screenshot_20241014_202157_Chrome.jpg

They're a lil pricey, but we'll worth it imo.
 
Tbh I think it's crazy that there aren't allready 4 hose portables where the 2 air masses are kept totally separate, seems growers have been screaming for these for years. I don't see any design or manufacturing issues that would arise from having the 2 parts of the system independent of one another
 
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