How to Control Smells in The Grow Room

Have you ever been standing somewhere with no one around, and you catch a hint of marijuana smell in the breeze? Even if you couldn’t spot the source, you wouldn’t doubt what your nose told you.

One of the most appealing parts of cannabis is its pungent, unique smell. Unfortunately, that same delightful smell is instantly recognizable and can cause lots of trouble.

A grow room with flowering marijuana plants is a factory for that delicious tell-tale smell, and to protect your girls, you’ll have to make that smell a non-issue.

Today we’ll quickly get you up to speed the options available to neutralize smells made by your plants, and we’ll explain which methods are most effective.

There really aren’t a lot of options when it comes to stopping smells in the grow room. Either you find a way to “scrub” the smells out of the air, or you find a way to cover up the smell.

For a small grow with just 1 or 2 plants, you can usually get away with covering up the smell.

For a larger grow, you will likely need to scrub the air to make sure you’re not leaking any smells that might catch the attention of nosy neighbors.

Carbon Filters / Carbon Scrubbers

By far the best way to remove odours is with a carbon filter. They literally ‘scrub’ plant smells out of the air before it’s extracted.

For this reason, carbon filters should be part of every ventilation system.
Your extractor fan pulls air through your carbon filter. As this happens, air passes a bed of activated carbon. The VOCs that cause plant smells get trapped inside the pores of the activated carbon — they are adsorbed.

The trick is to make sure you get the right carbon filter.

Below are 3 very useful carbon filters, I hope to help you.

ECO Farm Carbon Filter 4"

Features:

ECO Farm Carbon Filter cap is manufactured with high quality and durable aluminum for maximum strength and superior lasting effects. Extended service life. Up to 1.5 years in life expectancy.

Aluminum construction: Easy install with a simple plug-and-play feature that will keep you free from any unnecessary mess or hassle.

ECO Farm filter will not only soak up and eliminate some of the most undesirable to keep your space smelling clean and fresh, but also eliminate additional harmful and potentially ill-fating chemicals from the air you breathe.

CoolGrows 4 inch Air Carbon Filter

Features:

The carbon filter design has high durability and washing ability. Depending on the duration and enthusiasm of use, each filter can be used for up to 3 years. Our carbon is machine-packed during the manufacturing process to ensure that the escape of unfiltered air is minimized
Designed to eliminate odors and chemicals from growing tents and hydroponic rooms.
Using high-quality Australian charcoal, it has higher adsorption and longer service life.
Includes heavy-duty aluminum flange, galvanized steel mesh and cloth pre-filter.
Realize the maximum air flow through the intake and exhaust configuration.

VIVOSUN Air Carbon Filter for Grow Tent

Features:

It has a powerful blower with a fan speed of 2300 RPM and an airflow of 190 CFM. Effectively pass air through your target location for optimal ventilation
High-quality carbon filter: 1050+ RC 48 Australian native charcoal bed. Size: 4" x 14"
Effective odor control: The carbon filter eliminates some of the most annoying odors, pungent odors and particles in indoor planting tents and hydroponic planting rooms.
STURDY DUCTING+ 2 Stainless steel clamp: Strong and flexible steel wire supports the heavy-duty three-layer pipe wall. The PET core is sandwiched in a fire-resistant aluminum layer and can withstand temperatures from -22 to 266 degrees Fahrenheit.

In addition to carbon filters, there are the following methods to effectively control odors.

Negative Pressure
Negative pressure is the best pressure for a growroom. This means there is more air leaving the growroom than there is being drawn in. The benefits of negative pressure are that temperature and humidity are easier to control and growroom odor is reduced.

To maintain negative pressure you should use a less powerful intake fan so that you are drawing in 20 percent less air than you are extracting, otherwise your tent can become too full of smelly, unfiltered air which can then start seeping out of zippers and seams before it passes through your carbon filter.

Controlling Heat and Humidity in Flowering
Your cannabis plants are at their smelliest during flowering. Firstly, because this is when the buds are ripening, and all the oils and terpenes are at their highest levels. Secondly, the increase in heat and possible humidity during flower will emphasize this even more. Your humidity level should be kept low during flowering anyway in order to avoid rot, fungus, and mold, but this is another reason to keep it low as smells intensify under humid conditions. Air circulation fans will also help prevent hot, humid spots around your plants.

Here’s what you should look out for:

Carbon Bed
The deeper the carbon bed, the more activated carbon there is. Filters with deeper beds tend to last longer.
Spigot Size
To ensure your fan and filter can be connected, match your spigot size to the diameter of your fan. If they don’t match, you can use a reducer. BUT the chances are if your carbon filter spigot is too small, it’s not suitable for the air flow of your fan.
Air Flow
Air needs to be in contact with the carbon in your filter long enough to remove odours. To make sure this happens, the air flow rate of your carbon filter and fan need to match.
Don’t forget to maintain your filters. It’s important that you:

Replace pre-filter / carbon filter sleeves
Pre-filters and filter sleeves stop dust getting into your carbon filter — dust that would otherwise reduce the life of your carbon. To keep dust out, you’ll need to replace them every 3–6 months.
Replace carbon filters when needed
This will normally be every 9 months — 2 years, depending on which filter you buy.
Do not humidify with unfiltered water
Unfiltered water contains minerals. When used in a humidifier, these minerals can clog up carbon filters and reduce their life. To prevent this, always use RO water with your humidifiers.

Conclusion

It is important to remember that as pleasant as growing cannabis is, not everyone shares the same opinion.

Using any of the above-listed solutions, either by themselves or combined, does not cost a lot when considering the benefit they provide to the whole process of indoor cannabis growing and the peace of mind that comes when the room is scent-proofed.

Also, most of these methods are intended for large scale indoor grows. If you’re growing a single plant or only a handful, then the odor won’t be worse than smoking a joint in your living room, and these methods of odor control may be overkill for you.

These solutions, while keeping the odor levels low, also focus on maintaining optimum growth conditions for the plants which are an obvious benefit in the long-term.

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