My tent is in the closet / box room, with the adjoining wall is an ensuite bathroom. The ducting of my tent passes all the way through the ensuite bathroom, and from there goes to the outside. During the last grow, family members were complaining about the noise coming from the ensuite when they are trying to sleep in that adjacent bedroom. It sounds like an air whirring noise / humming and is quite loud honestly so I can’t really blame them. It’s not that noticeable until speed 5 on my AC Infinity Cloudline, but from 7 onwards it’s very noticeable, especially when the summer months are getting closer and I need to set it up to speed 9. So, I was thinking of getting the AC Infinity Silencer. The ducting is coming out from the top of my tent, and I don’t have enough space in the tent to chain the carbon filter, exhaust fan, and silencer all together in there. So I was thinking of going this route:
Carbon filter->exhaust fan->2 ft ducting->silencer->10 feet ducting to outside.
Any opinions if this will work? The 2 ft ducting to the silencer worries me.
Closing the ensuite door isn’t an option because of pets.
I’d say they reduce the fan noise by approx 40% or so. I have them on all three fans in my grow room, which is right next to my living room. Before I got the mufflers I had to keep the TV volume in my living room louder than I wanted to hear it over the fan noise. With the mufflers in place, I can definitely still here the fan noise, but it’s reduced enough so I don’t have trouble hearing my TV at a normal volume.
I was very surprised at how much the air flow increased, and how much quieter it was. When I replaced the 4 inch regular flex duct, with the insulated 6 inch, (building style), flex duct. While staying with the 4 inch fans.
Oversized ducts are the best way to stop the noise made from the moving air, and of course wrapping the duct with insulation adds more damping.
The fan noise can be abated by mounting it so that no vibration is transferred from it to anything else, as @Tophat is getting to. If there is a high pitch noise produced by the fan, you can wrap it with insulation, providing it is outside of the tent. I have also used the little dimpled foam sound panels taped around the fan also.
You could replace the flex tubing with smooth metal 4 inch. Silencers prolly work great too tho. Be warned of a reduction in your fans total cfm. Every inch, bend and filter/silencer will reduce over all amount of air removed.
Wow guys, thanks for all the replies. I really appreciate it. So, to answer everyone:
That would be awesome, I’d be happy with that reduction. Would bring it down to a very tolerable level. Thanks for confirming from first-hand experience
I could see how that would make sense, but quite a difficult option for me to pull off now. I did a soffit to hide the ducting I already have (didn’t want any issues with the landlord seeing that black ducting all across the ensuite ceiling xD). I have the black insulated AC Infinity ducting.
On 4 straps with buckles, 2 for the carbon filter, 2 for the exhaust fan. I left space between the exhaust fan and the crossbar at the top to avoid vibrations.
Thanks, lots of good information here, much of which I can’t really use though since I don’t really have access to the ducting so easily anymore Nope, no issues or noises from the fan, just the air that’s passing through the ductwork.
Thanks also for the hints Doc. Yeah, I considered the CFM, I think I should be ok, I have a 6 inch exhaust (402 CFM) for a 2x4x7 tent. If my math is right, even with the carbon filter, silencer, and bends I should be on the safe side
I think the silencer is made to go on the end openings of the duct to reduce the noise of air rushing out. It may not work well in the middle of the duct run. You may want to do more research before buying the silencer. But you should know, that I have been wrong at times, especially recently.
Yeah, which is why I was worried about the 2 ft piece of ducting leading up to it. Thanks anyway for all your replies Think I’m just gonna ditch the whole silencer idea altogether and just make a flap in the door for the pets to pass through. Hopefully the landlord won’t mind. Did some measuring in the closet in the morning and that silencer is quite big at 18" with the limited space I have to work with. It was going to get complicated and lots more bends to the ducting to get it to fit right.
I can relate to that. I always sleep with a fan on, even in winter, the white noise it makes helps me sleep. The air whooshing sound through the ducting is a bit too loud for me then though.
Thanks again to everyone that jumped in to help You’re all awesome here!
Nope, no issues or noises from the fan, just the air that’s passing through the ductwork.