Grow Tent Humidifiers

[golfnrl]

I've been considering adding an AC Infinity humidifier to my grow set up. I have two tents in a lung room (spare BR) that is climate controlled. Whatever the lung room is at temps and RH wise the tents are about 6-8 degrees warmer when the lights are on, lights off the tent temps are the same as the lung room temps. The RH is within a couple of points of what's reading in the lung room. Simple enough, right? The two humidifiers I have for the lung room keep things in range. The issue is water and the residue the hard water in my area leaves on everything in the room. I really need to use distilled water but it's expensive. I'm looking at the AC Infinity T-series humidifiers thinking it might be less expensive to use distilled water for the tent as opposed to a larger area like the lung room.

Does anybody have any experience with AC Infinity humidifiers that you'd be willing to share? Pics of your setup?

 

[shadycon]

Last yr I bought a T7 for my indoor/outdoor [8x12] grow room. Considering this is not your typical growing area, it works for me. Ground water @ 7+/- ph. no problems.

 

[Smallgrow]

I just got the T3 in the fall and used it now for two runs. I’ve moved to flower on the second run so its job is done.

It’s a nice piece of gear as you would expect from ACI. I don’t have a new enough ACI controller to connect it but even stand alone it’s got lots of features and controls, you can read up on that.
I went through about 4-5 units from the hardware and box stores when I started growing and finally settled on a Honeywell unit but it eventually gave up after about 3 yrs. Since I’m and ACI guy their humidifier was an obvious choice. I will eventually upgrade to a new controller that’s compatible.

My tent has no lung room so all my HVAC is inside my 3x4x6’ tent and it draws and exhausts straight to outside. This has it’s advantages and disadvantages, but the T3 certainly has no problem keeping it at 80% during early veg , it was raining in there at one point, lol.

I try to have it not spray directly on a plant and find the oscillating fan spreads the mist pretty well. It also has a pipe set up so you could have it outside the tent and pipe the mist inside if you didn’t have space, which is a neat feature but I don’t use it

At the max humidification I need generally you’ll get about a day, day and a half between refills . Of course you could got to a bigger version for more capacity.

I found a couple random pics that you can see it doing its thing.
The last pic has my dehumidifier in its spot, some times I put the humidifier on top of that unit during veg. In this case my light was too low and I didn’t want the mist blasting on my light, even though it’s water resistant.

 

[highdesertscott]

I just purchased the T3 humidifier and the T3 Heater. I connected them to the 69 pro and it has been a game changer for me. I now see consistent temp and humidity in my 4 x 4 using data export. I ran RO water only through it to try to keep the buildup lower, they suggest weekly cleaning and that is a pia for me. I only used the humidifier through seeding to early veg and then it was no longer required - 4 - 5 gallon pots create more than enough humidity now. I am currently eyeing their Terraform 7 AC and the AI controller, but waiting on more feedback and maybe generation 2.

 

[PRIMO]

If I feel they need some juice in the air I dump a quart or two of h2o inna tray under "not touching the fiber pots" and let it evaporate. Not to scientific but it works for me. Inna 4x4

 

[golfnrl]

Thanks. That's a cool set up.

 

[golfnrl]

Thanks. That's good info. I'm kinda where you were with my search for the right humidifier. That hose fits with my situation. The humidifier will have to sit outside the tent.

 

[golfnrl]

Sounds like my climate is similar to yours. I was wondering how difficult it would be to hook up to the 69 pro. Sounds easy enough.

 

[golfnrl]

I hear ya. I do that occasionally but it doesn't seem to work for me when the RH gets as low as it right now. My new gas heater isn't helping either.

 

[Bluey]

I use a generic off the shelf humidifier in my lung room. My lung room is in a basement and well sealed and stays pretty cool throughout the year to veg plants in or run autos. Flowering photos in there is out of the question without AC. I also use it as my dry room and cure room as it's an ideal environment for that.

Distilled water & RO water is expensive so I collect rainwater and use that for fertigation and in my humidifier. It's easy to collect off your roof by just diverting into a tank and rerouting the overflow back into waste. Just keep light and animals out of the tank and your home & hosed. EC=0

 

[Coco78666]

I have a T3 for my setup and I love it. If you can afford the T7, get it. During veg i was refilling reservoir daily in T3. T7 you probably can get 2-3days in-between fills. Always clean reservoir weekly! And wally world has distilled for a $1.37/gal. So $10 a week roughly.

 

[Allenpro]

I have not used theirt humidifier yet but I have had great luch with their fans.. All in All I think AC Infinity has top shelf equipment and customer support, a little more expensive but way better than and of the ones that start with a V

 

[golfnrl]

I've already pulled the trigger on the T3. I was hoping it would go longer than a day between refills.

 

[golfnrl]

I was hesitant to use their equipment at first, but I'm glad I tried them out. I rally like their stuff and you're right, their CS is the best.

 

[dirtymike]

AC Infinity T5 last a couple days between refills. Water needs to be atomized for it to raise the RH for any length of time. Water in a plate just evaporates, not enough oxygen molecules.

 

[dirtymike]

If you use distilled water you can get 2 weeks without cleaning the slim out. Filtered water works just as well.

 

[Bluey]

I've gotten 4 grows out of our humidifier using rainwater and she's still clean as. Wrap the tank in a light impenetrable material to stop algal growth. Rainwater is on par with distilled water for many applications.

 

[golfnrl]

The rainwater appeals to me but I opted for an electric distiller. The distiller tank holds one gallon and it takes about 5 hours to distill. I'll need about 65 gallons to break even from buying distilled water by the gallon. I've had it a couple of days have distilled about 10 gallons. The T3 humidifiers are supposed to arrive in a day or two weather permitting. The calcium and other stuff left over from the distillation is disgusting to look at. Makes me wonder why the water doesn't kill us. Man it's gross.

 

[Bluey]

You will need to descale the mineral build up on the heating elements and possibly the thermostat or temp probes and valves of the distiller. The harder the water the more descaling required and the less life you will get out of the unit.

Rainwater has many advantages. I use it in my coffee machine that has two independent boilers and after 5 years use almost zero scale build up in them. They will last a long long time.

 

[golfnrl]

The T3 humidifiers arrived. They were easy to set up. I have a 2x4 tent with a 4" exhaust. With the exhaust set to the lowest level I can maintain 78 F and 55% RH. In the 4x4 tent w/ 6" exhaust the temp sets steady at 78 F and the RH is 48%. This is the set up with the humidifiers outside the tent. I tried them for a day inside the tent and that worked for the humidity but I don't like losing the space, so now they sit outside the tent and vent inside via a hose. So far so good. Water usage is manageable, one refill a day.