# Sound dampening



## BenDover (Jan 13, 2008)

What do you DIY'ers use for sound dampening in your stealth boxes? I was thinking of lining my box with some of that house exterior insulation sheets. 

Do you suppose that would quiet down the sound from my fans?


----------



## snuggles (Jan 13, 2008)

I've never done a stealth grow but I have seen people buy noise machines, I have seen people put a fan near the stealth grow so if anyone hears anything they assume it's the fan.


----------



## benamucc (Jan 13, 2008)

try www.partsexpress.com  they have several different options for sound damping.  i've used the egg crate style foam in a non grow related application with 3M spray adhesive.  it did a great job. hope that helps


----------



## Pot Belly (Jan 13, 2008)

benamucc said:
			
		

> try www.partsexpress.com they have several different options for sound damping. i've used the egg crate style foam in a non grow related application with 3M spray adhesive. it did a great job. hope that helps


 
Just be careful with that stuff.  It's like gasoline in a fire.  Remember that nightclub fire in the northeast that killed all those people a few years back?  I think the band that was playing Great White.  Pyrotechnics caught that foam on fire and that was all she wrote.

What fan is making noise?  The exhaust?  Does it run all the time?  What kind of fan is it?  Is the fan in the growbox or outside of it?  What light are you using?  Is your ballast out of the growspace?


----------



## BenDover (Jan 14, 2008)

PotBelly -  I have my grow box that is set up as a cabinet in my work shop. I'll have to put some pics in my gallery, and I'll link them back here in a few. 

The noise that I hear is my exhaust fan (which is on 24/7), and when my interior fan is on the same time as my lights. The lights and interior fan are on 18/6 starting at 10:30 p.m. and off at 4:30 p.m. They are both inside the box. 

I just received my 400w HPS today, so I plan on installing that and do away with the 5 42w CFLs that I have in there. The size of the box is about 20 sqft (+ or -).


----------



## Pot Belly (Jan 14, 2008)

What type of exhaust and interior fans do you have?  12V computer fans on 9 volts are very quiet and work well for interior circulation.  

You may not be able to exhaust the air you need with 400W of heat through ducting using a computer fan though.  

Your exhaust may be overkill on the air volume.  Hence more noise than you need.

If 400 watts is what your planning for your lighting, you will need to cut your growspace down by half.  That will put you at 5,000 lumens per sq ft.


----------



## benamucc (Jan 14, 2008)

The foam that I use is flame retardant, and my application is inside of a central vac, wooden cabinet, with 2x 20gal vac's.  They make Dynamat for auto applications, or use an emergency blanket to reflect the heat off the foam.  There must also be a way to make a muffler.  Have you thought of that at all??

Edit:

You might also think of what insulates the fan from the box.  A couple of rubber washers might help stop the fan from resonating the box.  Especially if it's a big box...low resonation freq i would guess.


----------



## Fretless (Jan 14, 2008)

I'm thinking about putting the inline fan in the attic, which is where I'm venting to anyway.


----------



## BagSeed (Jul 1, 2008)

I know this is kinda an old topic but if anyone is still wondering about sound dampening you can get butyl based car sound dampener from www.raamaudio.com which also has a reflective foil backing... You could still get some mylar to cover it tho but this should stop a lot of noise and they also sell closed cell foam to put on the outside of the deadener to stop higher frequency noises (eg. fans and electrical noise). If you use the mat and the foam your box will be pretty much sound proof...


----------



## gmo (Jul 1, 2008)

Raamat is good stuff but is really meant for heavier duty things (keeping sound in cars and roadnoise out of cars).  For about 1/3 the price of raamat you can get some stuff called peel and seal at your local hardware store.  This stuff will work perfect for whatyou are looking for.  It is also metalically backed so light will reflect.


----------



## BagSeed (Jul 2, 2008)

Yeah that PnS stuff is alright but it doesn't stick NEAR as well as raammat or work as well. It is asphalt based and Raam is butyl rubber based... Huge difference in deadening and sticking ability... With the temp of the lights shining right on it the asphalt gets gooey and can fall off... You def wouldn't want that stuff laying on your plants either and possibly damaging them or something... If temps aren't too bad in your closet or room then some PnS with some ensolite (the Raammat closed cell foam) will work fine too.... Just a warning though, if you put this on something it better be a surface you don't have to get it off of because you won't get the Raammat off and the PnS will leave nasty black asphalt everywhere...


----------



## Tater (Jul 7, 2008)

Or you could purchase some SBS or torchflex or armourbond flash from your local roofing supplier (if you have a roofing ticket) and heat weld it to your cabinet with a propane torch.   

Well thats what I would do but I'm a roofer.


----------



## puffnstuff (Jul 8, 2008)

I had a little AM radio set to a talk radio station with lots of static on top of my stealth box, hooked it up to the timer, it came on with the lights and fans.
puff


----------



## Tater (Jul 8, 2008)

hahaha thats so awesome, stealth through obfuscation I love it.


----------



## TentFarmer (Mar 31, 2009)

Has anyone here ever used, built, or dissected an inline muffler?

I've seen them advertised but don't want to drop the dime.  Anyone?

TF


----------

