Odor control problem need advise please

[Hydroponic1]

Currently I have a 3 feet x 6 feet x8 feet grow room 4 plants (unconfirmed strain/ bag seed) in NFT hydro using SCROG method 1 250 watt HPS light air cooled from intake vent a 4 inch eco plus fan and a 4 inch carbonair CF filter which is pulling enough vacum to suck the door shut as it closes, this is how I am drawing air in through the intake to cool my light the hose cooling my light has a one way valve that closes if the fan shuts down Initally I was only running the fan when the light was on but now run it non stop, week 2 of flower. The vent from my filter is in the same room as my grow room and no odor is detectable.

My problem is that you can smell a slight odor in the adjacent room the grow room is in the basement and the adjacent room is the half level foyar at the front door where you either go up the stairs to the living area or down to the basement.

I dont understand how there can be any odor leaking out since the room is sealed as best as I can get (2 recepticles foam sealed) and the fan is pulling a vacuum through the CF. Any thoughts I plan on putting a small ONA in the foyar today in hopes that helps but it is frustrationg that i spent the money for the fan and CF and i am having a problem, I spent a lot of time planning and building this thing for stealth.

 

[Greenhouse250]

How about some more details as to what your room is made of. Drywall, wood panelling, insulation etc. Maybe you might need a bigger carbon air filter.Possibly caulk all the seams and cracks could help.

 

[Hydroponic1]

Sorry I forgot ot put that info in, the room is drywall and insulated with concrete floor all seams were finished and sanded then painted with flat white Ive caulked around the floor and door put weatherstriping on the door and based on the calculations the fan and filter should be bigger than what i need for the room size. I only smell it in the one area and cant figure out how its leaking there. All the areas where intake and vents are there is no odor. Its got me stumped. They have not even gone to flowering good and i am having this issue. i had this problem with the last grows but I upgraded the fan and added a CF instead of my homemade one and it really hasnt had any effect on the odor in the foyar. Maybe its just me being paranoid but I swear the odor is there, we have other house plants in the foyar and the rest of the house but you cant mistake that smell no matter how faint it is LOL.

 

[420 Warrior]

You should get some glade plug-in's to combat faint smells.

Some strains have stronger smells than others so you might want to look for less odor strains like White Widow instead of something like skunk #1

I know you already have these going so you can only mask the odors or get an expensive carbon filter in that room at this point.

It's hard to seal the odor's out without exhausting the smell out with carbon filter/fan system.

It's like trying to keep roaches out of your house, if they want in, they're coming in through places you had no idea were accessible...same thing for odors ::

Hope this helps and maybe someone will have a better, more cost effective solution for this odor problem.

 

[Greenhouse250]

Sounds like you were very thorough. Just wondering if anyone else has smelled the leak? Maybe its just you? lol

I'm going to assume that your charcoal in your filter is new? yeah that can't be it you said no smell out of your exhaust.

You might just have to work on masking the smell like you said, with gel, glade plug-ins or the spray on a timer type.

I know my cf is only good for two grows, so keep an eye on (or nose) that.

 

[Hydroponic1]

Thanks for the input everyone and yes the CF is brand new as this is the first grow with it. My wife has smelled it as well so I know im not going crazy, at least not over this lol. Im gonna replace the Plug in with something for the holiday and go from there. Its just frustrating that i put all this work into it and still have the same issue from before. Oh well as is life take it one day at a time and dont sweat the stuff you cant fix.

 

[420 Warrior]

Thanks for the input everyone and yes the CF is brand new as this is the first grow with it. My wife has smelled it as well so I know im not going crazy, at least not over this lol. Im gonna replace the Plug in with something for the holiday and go from there. Its just frustrating that i put all this work into it and still have the same issue from before. Oh well as is life take it one day at a time and dont sweat the stuff you cant fix.

Oh yea, I think that holiday cinnamon smell would work great for canna smell to the human nose but...not to complicate things but a dog? hmm?

I wouldn't worry too much about that though because the chances are slim at best that a K-9 would even be around unless a cop got tipped off so...

And, I'm not sure it you live in a mmj state or not but if you do, your golden anyway so...

I would defiantly look into something like white widow or some other low odor canna seeds, so you, for sure will not have this problem again, just a thought

 

[Hydroponic1]

Thanks . Wish i knew a safe way to order the seeds I would love to grow White Widow but dont know where to get the seeds. Guess i am paranoid about the whole mail thing. I dont use what i grow i just love to grow and it provides a safe supply for the loved one i am growing for. I dont know the strain but i know how its grown and that it is completely safe with no chemicals added.. Thanks again for the help and advise.

 

[Hydroponic1]

Well I wanted to update the thread after 5 months of batteling the problem i broke down and bought another Carbon Filter My local hydro shop helped me out by discounting it and holy crap problem solved.... Within an hour the odor was gone and 72 hours later no odor. I know this has been posted before on odor problems but i wanted to update that I found a solution to my problem. Just goes to show you can get a defective carbon filter, hope this helps someone out along the way. Thanks again to everyone for their help.

 

[Greenhouse250]

Hey man, 5 months wow has been a long time.. funny that you post this cause on my 4th grow i had the same problem. The kicker was i had just replaced the carbon for my revamped room. So my set up was different, had my filter less then two feet away from my fan. Well not till my 5th grow had to hook up my cooltube to keep the temps down.. Bingo! smell is gone now. So what happened was the air was going thru the filter to quick to be filtered. Such a simple fix had to laugh at myself for that one! lol