Fresca Sol users (yo Widowmaker)

[Seed Buyer]

Hey strangers I am new to this site but am crazy over the MPB concept. I saw a few past post (namely Widowmakers) where members were trying out the fresca sol units. What is your take? I invested a few grand into a 2HP Chill King chiller and some ice boxes but they did not work for me so I am thinking about trying the chiller on some fresca sols. Thanks..

 

[noone88]

What were your problems with the iceboxes? Humidity? not enough cooling? You still needed an AC or you needed a bigger AC unit?

 

[Widowmaker]

Hey strangers I am new to this site but am crazy over the MPB concept. I saw a few past post (namely Widowmakers) where members were trying out the fresca sol units. What is your take? I invested a few grand into a 2HP Chill King chiller and some ice boxes but they did not work for me so I am thinking about trying the chiller on some fresca sols. Thanks..

Seed Buyer,
Have you looked at

:icon_spin:

 

[Seed Buyer]

widowmaker...I tried to pm you a few questions but since I am new and do not have 50 post I was denied

noone88....I live in the deep south where heat and humidity are king. I ussaly have to room a 4.0-5.0 ton split ac for each of my rooms so the idea of a more efficient way to cool the grow is my goal. I dedicated a small 10' x 10' bedroom to test the chill king & ice boxes. I set up (2) 4' x 8' tables and (4) 1000 HPS lights. I had (6) 8" ice boxes to hopefully cool the lights and bring cool air into the room. The problem was the humidity. Without the ac the to cool and control humidity, the dehumidifier on its own could not get the room lower than 75% humidity so I had to can the chill king & ice boxes and throw in a window ac unit to salvage the grow. Like the concept, but it is gonna take serious dehumidifying capabilities to get those ice boxes to work in my neck of the woods. Ice boxes were developed in Texas where it is hot and dry so I am sure they kick ass there.

 

[Widowmaker]

Water cooled lights are not going to solve your problem. Even in So Cal (semi arid desert) you need to dry the air if you have a bunch of plants indoors growing like crazy.

You need some one who knows how to calculate your need and that is not me.

Go to
http://www.drieaz.com/_DEC/DEC_DistributorSearch.aspx

find someone who can determine how many of these
(DrizAir® 1200 The Classic Refrigerant Dehumidifier $1,359 Suggested List) you need and you may need a few of them per room.

Good luck with your drying out.
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[Loudblunts]

yes, i agree with Widowmaker.... ya need to get some powerful ass dehumidifier in there...the DrizAir are no fkn joke

chillking and iceboxes work... along with other watercooling cooling methods.

dont can the whole grow just cuz of humidity.... when infact, you might have to deal with humidity in the grow anyway, right?

also, 2hp is kinda pushing it for 4k all the time and other equipment, no?

 

[Loudblunts]

also, you can try to decrease the temp of water and/or increase airflow

helping with the condensation and such

 

[Loudblunts]

also just thought about something, if you cant control your humidity and the iceboxes dont work for you, why not plumb your chiller to an air handler?

 

[FileError404]

Great idea LB, chillking makes one that also dehumidifies:

 

[Seed Buyer]

I have since bought a few Sante Fe dehumidifiers for other houses, at the time I was trying the Ice Boxes the plants were entering the 2nd week of 12/12 so I did not have time to order a commercial dehumidifier and continue on with the ice box experiment. I had to scrap the ice boxes, run to Lowes and get an 18K BTU window unit and pulled a great crop. As far as running a water cooled handler I feel like I am just throwing money at the problem rather than solving it. The 2HP chiller is plenty for only 4K of lighting, at the end of the day I will need more dehumidifying, supplemental ac or active intake and exhaust fans. I just wanted to hear the pros and cons of the fresca sols.

 

[Widowmaker]

I just wanted to hear the pros and cons of the fresca sols.

Running Liquid Lumens not Sols, but both reduce infrared (heat) & ultra violet light. I’ve measured as much as ~13% loss of light in the LL fixture. That is not a perfect measurement, but it doesn’t seem to be the water that does the attenuation. Measured the light running normally and drained the water out of the system and the light level (brightness) didn’t change much. So I’m thinking it is the two glass tubes that does the damage. The LL fixture is bigger than the Sols. Sols have 4 rods that hold the ends on and that seems like it has to cast a little shadow.
The loss of light can be made up by moving the lights in closer. I’ve had the plants less than 5” away from a 1000w light with no signs of damage. It’s important to have a water flow sensor, in case something goes wrong. The big mistake is to turn on the lights and let them get hot and then turn on cold water to them. This can crack the glass then water hits the bulb and out goes the light. Fresca Sol said that their lights don’t need the water flowing to function. Like I said the problem is the cold hitting the hot that’s a problem. I’m sold on water cooled lights. Have you seen Coxie’s grow?

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[Seed Buyer]

Yeah.. I have been following Coxie's grow. Pretty killer but he has a pool to work with which is awesome. I am going to try the Fresca Sol's horizontally first. Spent some time on the phone w/ the tech from Fresca Sol and he said I can run a 600 HPS over a 4'x4' table rather than the 1000 watters I usually use for a table that size. So instead of (4) 1000 watters over (2) 4'x8' tables I am going to try (4) Fresca Sols w/ 600 HPS lights. Not ready to tackle the mpb w/ water cooled. Baby steps I guess.

 

[Widowmaker]

Yeah.. I have been following Coxie's grow. Pretty killer but he has a pool to work with which is awesome. I am going to try the Fresca Sol's horizontally first. Spent some time on the phone w/ the tech from Fresca Sol and he said I can run a 600 HPS over a 4'x4' table rather than the 1000 watters I usually use for a table that size. So instead of (4) 1000 watters over (2) 4'x8' tables I am going to try (4) Fresca Sols w/ 600 HPS lights. Not ready to tackle the mpb w/ water cooled. Baby steps I guess.

You understand that you will get less light with the water cooled fixture. On a table you can not make up for it by moving the light closer. Moving the light closer works on vertical not horizontal. On your table you will only get closer to some of your plants.

They will tell you to use a light mover too. Its all about bright light on the plant. Your going to lose light going through the fixture and use lower wattage lights. Sound like a recipe for disappointment. You will still be growing plants and thats the important thing.
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[socalsinner]

Mpb

I have since bought a few Sante Fe dehumidifiers for other houses, at the time I was trying the Ice Boxes the plants were entering the 2nd week of 12/12 so I did not have time to order a commercial dehumidifier and continue on with the ice box experiment. I had to scrap the ice boxes, run to Lowes and get an 18K BTU window unit and pulled a great crop. As far as running a water cooled handler I feel like I am just throwing money at the problem rather than solving it. The 2HP chiller is plenty for only 4K of lighting, at the end of the day I will need more dehumidifying, supplemental ac or active intake and exhaust fans. I just wanted to hear the pros and cons of the fresca sols.

Glad its working out for you .

 

[Seed Buyer]

Thanks Widowmaker...I will scratch the Frecsa Sol horizontal plans. I want to try vertical, but I am not ready to commit to a MPB system yet. CAP has a new flood and drain bucket system that utilizes 5 gal pots rather than 2.5 gal pots so I was considering trying that with a vertical lighting arrangement and growing a few trees.

 

[Widowmaker]

Krusty Buckets is an option, and you don't have to run air to the buckets. If you saw Badfish's warehouse grow he killed with vertical lights and Krusty's without bubblers.
Krusty believed in high humidity but he had sulfer burns, that has to stop in the final weeks and lower the humidity anyway to keep the rot away. Seems you may as well keep the humidity 40-50% if you can. Also have read that if you keep your temps below 78* with lots of air flow over the leaves/buds high humidity can be managed. Just had bud rot don't want to go there again. Going to buy a badd ass dehuey you never know whens its going to rain. In the desert it can go from 10% R/H to 99% in hours if a storm rolls in.

There are some water cooled dehumidifiers out there and you can put coils in your reservoir to keep them cool. So your chiller won't go to waste.

I'm sold on water cooled lights, but on a table the distances are a problem compared to vertical. With vertical lights you can have 4 plants real close to your light and hit them from top to bottom. But thats even a waste if you don't have some kind of bucket system to take advantage of all that light.

Frescal SOl has a fixture that holds 2 400w lamps, if you want to do the table grow. It gives you a wider spread on the light Without going to 1000w.

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[Seed Buyer]

Thanks Widow....so I have a 12'x12'x8' room I was going to dedicate to starting vertical. I have an extra 12K mini split ac, sante fe classic dehumidifer, chill king 2HP chiller and more 1000 watt ballast than you can shake a stick at. How would you set up the room? I do not want to do MPB yet.

 

[Widowmaker]

40"x 3 rows is 120" or 10'square. 9 planets with 1' path around the room.Get U a drawing this weekend
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[Seed Buyer]

Did a search for Badfish and his Krusty warehouse but found nothing on this site. Is he on another forum? Looking forward to your drawings....sending karma points your way!

 

[Widowmaker]

Guess its been taken down. Click on my Widowmakers Gallery on this post and see some of the pics of his grow.
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