Help - Cable dude sniffed out my grow!

H

hoosier daddy

New Member
Unaware that my wife had changed cable carriers, BAM, an installer shows up bright and early this week at my door. After the install, when my wife was speaking to the installer; I heard him make a comment that our attic smelled “peculiar.” My wife, being a non-smoker and totally clueless, didn’t catch on (luckily) to what the cable dude was hinting he smelt in the attic.
But I DID.
At just before noon that same day, I started tearing EVERYTHING down and by 8pm not a single thing remained at my residence. Now before you think I “may have” over reacted, let me give you a quick background.
About 13yrs ago I use to grow indoor for about 5yrs with no problems. Then the old saying, “loose lips, sinks ships” came to bite me in the ass. My own “step”-sister turned me into the man. She had never seen my grow, but her husband had. A couple dumpster dives by the law man, “unusual” shipments to my house, plus the tip and knock, knock it’s the man (10 cops plus) with a search warrant. Fortunately, my brother-in-law gave me heads up on what my STEP-sister had done weeks before, so nothing to find, but a roach (0.025gm) which they did in fact charge me with. Stupid. Stupid on my part. Didn’t think to look in the ashtray, but the law did. Oh and I was also charged with resisting, because they kept threatening my wife with taking our kid if she didn’t come clean about the grow and I went, well, WILD.
Fast forward, kids out of the house at college, I am not news on our local newspaper anymore and mostly new neighbor’s so I started again.
This time I did NOT even tell my wife what I was up, even though she covered from me last time. Me and only me knew what was up, period.
About a month or two ago, my wife asked me if our dog or cat had taken a dump in the basement, because it smelt like shit. I “had” 1. G13 & 1. Critic Kush in a 4’x4’ grow tent with no real filters down there. At that point I added two 6” inline carbon scrubbers and continued to filter into the basement. Well a couple weeks ago, my daughter came home for the weekend and made a comment about the basement’s smell. Running out of options, I took both carbon scrubbers up in the attic and vented there.
Well and now comes the damn cable dude.
If I can’t fix this odor problem, I’m left to buy from the streets. YIKES.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Tent was used. No special intake setup into the tent and I "used" one scrubber for the vent that vented the light and the other scrubber vented the tent itself. Fans & scrubbers were all located in the attic. No way the installer saw the setup, but he damn sure smelt it.
 
Carbon filters are life savers. I'm sorry about your situation. I wish the stupid drug war would end in the first place and we wouldn't need to hide. What exactly are you asking for help with? If there's no evidence of actual cannabis you have nothing to worry about. If the cops do show up don't say a word other than you want your lawyer and that's who they can talk to. Nothing you say or do will help you if they show up. All you can do is make sure there's no evidence for them to charge you with.
 
Interesting.. Carbon filters do wear out so that could be a issue. If that's not the culprit I'm guessing there is a leak in your filtration system. I'm not sure how your setup but I'll try to help.

Your filter should be in your tent with a short piece of ducting between the filter and your inline fan. The fan should be pulling air from the filter and pushing air through the rest of the system. There should be zero air leaks between your fan and filter. Also make sure your inline fan is sealed. I removed the mounting legs from my fan and way left with four holes that were suckling stinky air out of my tent.
 
I'm looking for different ideas and/or techniques for the smell. Off the shelve products are not working, for me anyways. Have no desire to cover up the odor with air fresheners. (like puttin perfume on a skunk) Last night I thought about maybe using a large box about the same size as a furnace filter. Cut a opening at the bottom of the box as an intake. Stack multiple furnace filters from bottom to top and use active carbon for each layer and having the air exit at the top of the box into the attic.
 
was the basement damp? humidity can choke a filter and f up it's effectiveness.
running only one filter should be enough if it's a decent filter, i'm wondering if you got some cheap filter that doesn't have enough carbon to do the job.
 
You definitely did the right thing to clear out the grow. Exactly what I would have done too.
A good carbon filter will remove all odor. After that, it just remains to get everything sealed up, which is fully possible.
Sucks that you have to hide it from the wife.
 
Guess I am always try to over think things and never thought of the obvious, leaks in the duct or old carbon in my fairly new scrubber filters. The basement has never been damp in the 16yrs I have lived there, so no damage to the scrubbers were caused by moisture. I just "ass"umed the two scrubbers could not keep up with my 2 big girls in their tent. I would even put on a jacket when I work/played in the tent, because my wife once accused me of rolling around outside in the shit with the dog, just after being in the tent. Ha Ha
Are carbon scrubbers my only real answer? What are some reliable names to consider? Would prefer a scrubber that I can refill too. Not goin lie, bought the cheapest one I could find on ebay. Also could have been a leak in my duct, It was a long, tight run to the attic and not easy either, 3 x 25ft for each run, so a total of 6 @ 25'.
So some good news, no knocky, knocky at my door so far.
 
We would love a detailed explanation of how your filtering system is set up. Start with the first filter for your tent. Where is it located? Inside your tent?... if not we will start from there. If it is in you tent would like to know the order of all your equipment and direction of the air flow. I run a tent in my bedroom where I sleep with the door open and I can't smell anything. My fiance hates the smell of cannabis and I've kept her happy, except when I open the tent. But that smell goes away rather quickly

Your system should look something like this
20160508_172502.jpg
 
I think it's funny she keeps thinking its some animals shit lol. I wish my dogs shit smelt like a grow room lol. You must have had some dank buds growing. But yeah definitely get a good carbon filter. Cant skimp on the precautionary things.
 
Ok, quick rundown on my past setup.A 4’x3’x7’ with 4 dual cinching duct ports. I had a 6” duct connected directly to the hood for the lighting and the air was pulled directly through the hood and exited from the top duct port. I had a duct booster fan in the basement and another in the attic that was attached directly to the 1st scrubber. The other air duct was setup the exact same way, but the air was pulled directly from the top of the tent. I might add that neither duct from within the tent had any kind of a pre-filter, like I see on some setups, the setup only had a filter scrubbers at the end of both runs. Both scrubber fit a 6” setup, the 4 booster fans were purchased from Lowes. The second 2 booster fans were added when I took the filter scrubber out from the basement and moved them to the attic. I can’t give any details about the name brands, power of the fans, nothing, cause they all went bye-bye with their friends. I had 2, 6” x 3’ aluminum ducts connected to the lower duct ports for air into the tent.
And yes, my poor gullible wife, after 24yrs she still blames our pets for the "smell." Our poor pets too. Ha Ha
 
i mostly pay attention to the carbon bed's thickness, should be close to 2", and the weight of the carbon used in a filter. i didn't find that the phat filter i bought worked any better or lasted longer than the one i got off e bay for less than half the price. but i made sure to shop for one with a good thick bed with solid weight of carbon in it.
did you have more than 100' of ducting running from your tent with six inline fans pulling air? i've never done more than 20' with a fan on each end. that's a crazy long way to vent from a tent.
 
Wow, your story is just crazy to me, I have so many questions lol. Why is your step sister such a bitch, how does your wife not know you smoke, how does she not go downstairs and see your tent?!?! I'm amazed regardless so well done on your journeys, although I'm sorry for your difficulties...fucking .25 g roach wtf....I'd of sued because they got a warrant for that lol. So I know your worried about any1 ever seeing smelling it, I've read alot of reviews and plan or trying them in my duplex with a scrubber going obvi, but it's called Ona gel, it's a pretty powerful odor eater that if placed with your plants would suck taste and smell right out of them. So says the sight anyways. Worth a shot imo I know I'll be getting one. Gl man :blunt:


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