Originally Posted by Japhy_Ryder

Yo Dr. Funk.


Yeah, the reason why I used these doors so much was because I'm a renter and didn't want to do damage (and the pre-existing doors were not workable -- sliding mirrors and the like).

Noise wasn't an issue for me at my last housing situation, so I didn't bother masking it really. Yes, with out ventilation piping it was rather loud, and the fan I was using was powerful (hurricane, though the exact cfm evades me at the moment). However you can use a muffler/carbon filter and hang it inside your room and have that against the PP instead, with the fan behind it and/or use vent piping as you please.

As far as 'holding up' the fan.. why would the PP be supporting the fan's weight? It's running vertically so you simply need to make sure the fan/vent/filter is sealed against the PP but nothing more.. chains will hold them up. PP isn't fragile either.. once you have it in a large sheet like you see it's pretty durable and will hold up against the "leaning" weight, if that's what you're referring to.

You could use a board instead if you'd like.. though I don't really see the reason for extra work. As I said the weight of the fan is supported by chains rooted in the closet's ceiling.

As far as air circulation, simple physics -- hot air rises, cold air drops.. the hot air expelled from the room stays up there while the fresh colder air moves in from the bottom. I actually ended up connecting vent piping to my intake and running that vent pipe to a nearby window to allow the breeze to better reach the intake. You could alternatively run piping from the exhaust and move the exhaust further away from the closet. Either way, vent piping on the outside of the room or not, the air going into the intake is cooler and a 'different' air than that which is being pumped out.

Part of it depends on the situation outside of the closet. In other words, if the closet is in a small poorly ventilated room, well yeah then the heat from the closet may build up in the room outside and your ventilation won't do much. You need to be able to ventilate the room outside of your ventilated closet.. i.e. open a window or somethin'!


Did I claim my door was shitty? If you say so!

Hope that helps.

Originally Posted by Dr. Funkenstein

Haha, no you did not claim your door was shitty, I was only refering to the problem you confronted prior to installing your new door. I should've been more specific, and I didn't mean to insult you, or your door.

You answered all my questions, and you did a great job. I appreciate the effort and time it took, and now I am able to move forward with this portion of the project. For that, I thank you.

Even though the fan would be suspended from the ceiling, I've never worked with PP before, so I'm unsure from first hand experience, how durrable it can be, which is why I was concerned about the fan's weight possibly adding stress to the hole/opening in the plastic.

About the ventilation and air flow, you are right about that, hot air does rise, so everything should stay up in that region. I do not have the option of running extra ducting outside of the closet space, atleast not full time. But I can maintain good outside ambient air-flow.

I've read somewhere an Ionizer can break down the molecule in the air, that is or creates the heat in the air. Have you ever heard of anything like this? I might purchase a small wall mounted Ionizers to be placed in the space between the PP and the closet door, near the top of the door frame of the closet. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this should also help with any humidity issues coming from the exhaust, keeping mold production down.

Again, sorry if I insulted you. I really do think you did a great job with the PP door and the post. As I said, I was planning on doing the same thing, but seeing that someone else was able to do it first, and give instructions based on first hand experience is kick ass.

Dr. Funkenstein

Originally Posted by Japhy_Ryder

Dr. Funk.. I'm not insulted. Don't worry... I don't take anything too seriously. If I did I would have sued Mr. Burns for sexual harassment/assault long ago. And you really shouldn't take anything I type here too seriously either! We're talking about sheets of plastic taped together with a zipper. Not anything to get ruffled about.

Anyhow.. ionizers yeah they're those fancy shmancy air purifiers. I'm not too sure on whether or not they sufficiently cool the temps of the room, but they'll take pretty good care of smell and indeed help reduce mold etc. Howevere the good ones are very expensive. It sounds like you're trying to create a similar growing environment as I am, and covering stealth, noise, and smell, what I was planning on doing for my upcoming grow was an HEPA filter (cheap, customizable) on the intake for mold control, and a DIY charcoal filter on the exhaust. Depending on the size of the fan, in your case it sounds like it will be large, a DIY muffler would be good to do as well. You have plenty of room for it to all fit inside the closet it sounds like, though you may have to sacrifice one plant space for the intake filter/fan if you decide to use one. Carbon filter would run you $30, HEPA would run you probably about the same or cheaper.. all in all with a muffler you could probably keep it around $50.

Just some food for thought.. good luck on your grow and have fun designing that grow space.

One other thing though.. as far as the wooden board the issue with that is, though it would be more stable and permanent, how would you access your grow space? You'd have to make wooden doors out of the thing, or make it so the board could detach from your ventilation, and it would have to be light proof so removing it every time would be a horrendous task. It can be annoying sometimes working with poly because getting fants/vent piping to fasten to the plastic can be a hassle (messing with tape etc.) while a wooden board can be fixed to something a lot more securely, yet the good thing is that the plastic is malleable and can constantly be changed and worked with depending on the situation.

Check out my "blue prints" for my grow lab in the link under my signature, for an exact idea. It's a work in progress. As you'll see, I've made many alterations, lol.

But, yea, it's a large, dual door closet opening, so I was going to mount the 8-10" wide board, vertically along say, the right hand side of this opening, leaving the majority of the opening accessible. The board will be enough space to make an 8" hole at the top for the exhaust, beneath that hole I couldd even mount my ballast on the otherside of the board, between the closet door and the PP lining off the grow, keeping it out of the grow all together. I would use this board to mount my cheapy Ionizer. Just those wall mountable types that put out Ozium, or whatever it is into the air randomly.

Originally Posted by Dr. Funkenstein

While putting this idea together, I was looking at your pictures, and I was wondering if you thought about mounting a board along the top portion of your door frame, and drill a hole, mount the exhaust, etc. A strip of wood, just wide enough to house the hole the exhaust fan would mount to, making the connection nice and solid. Just allow enough room, so you can reapply your PP doorway a little lower on this board. This way you can utilize both methods.

Originally Posted by Dr. Funkenstein

Hey Japhy, stopping by reviewing some notes and I was wondering if you ever got around to installing a solid wood door to your grow space? EDIT: Just noticed you already had a folding door up there.

Since you were aiming for a stealthy solution, I'm going to assume you run your show with the folding door shut.

If so, how does it affect your ventilation/temps with venting at the top of the doorway, behind the closed door? Also, Do you notice any major hot spots on the outside of the closed folding door near the exhaust exit when shut? Thanks again.

Originally Posted by Japhy_Ryder

That living space became unstable over a year ago and I had to cancel my grow and pack shop rather hastily. But no I never installed a wooden door... didn't really find any need to it as the space was concealed inside a larger room that had a door. Again, at the time had no need to be super stealthy about it -- so the doors were open for the most part on that first space, and as I said the 2nd space was inside a sealed off room.

Having the door shut is not the best idea. If you're planning on installing a wooden door yourself, there's really no need to use this panda plastic door.. cutting ventilation holes in the door itself (assuming you will put the old door back on when you're done) would be easiest.

As far as hot spots.. no hot spots. My lamp was kept about 6 inches away from the plastic and never had any trouble.