Tom Bombodil
New Member
When I started to run ducting for ventilation, I was quite enamored with the idea of this product. I'd seen countless pix of grow rooms with flexible ducts running helter skelter through ragged holes in walls. I wanted something more like a bulkhead fitting so the ducts pass seamlessly through walls and ceilings, with easy fittings on the grow room side and hard ducts running the distance out of sight. These things seemed perfect, so I ordered 2 boxes of 2.
Although this product is solid, its really good for only one thing-the terminal ends of duct running into and out of a grow tent. The collar will allow a 6" flex duct to be fitted into it, but that's it-you can't fit any kind of hard duct over or into it, even if you try to use a duct coupler. The other end, the side without the collar, will not receive any duct whatsoever. Since you can't pass a duct through the hole, and you can't attach anything to one end, the only functionality is attaching a flexible duct to one side of the flange.
I discovered regular duct collars and elbows, like the ones you buy at the home improvement store, have a small rib that allows it to fit snugly in a properly sized hole, in this case the 6" standard duct size. Using those and duct couplers (with crimped ends on both sides), one is able to run ducts, rigid or flexible, wherever you need them. Add nice looking air registers anywhere ducts face finished living areas, and you can accomplish whatever permanent ducting scheme you may have in mind. Save yourself the trouble and the money and leave this product to the tent growers.
Hydrfarm generally seems to make good products that do what they are supposed to do. To their credit, I think I read this product marketed for tent growers. But, if I may suggest an improvement, why not size the holes exactly as the standard household duct sizes that we use, so that one might connect rigid ducting to the collared end as well as flex duct, and/or use duct couplers to connect to the non-collaredend? I'm able to work flex duct onto standard fittings found at the home improvement store, so it seems like it should be possible to size this flange fitting similarly.
Although this product is solid, its really good for only one thing-the terminal ends of duct running into and out of a grow tent. The collar will allow a 6" flex duct to be fitted into it, but that's it-you can't fit any kind of hard duct over or into it, even if you try to use a duct coupler. The other end, the side without the collar, will not receive any duct whatsoever. Since you can't pass a duct through the hole, and you can't attach anything to one end, the only functionality is attaching a flexible duct to one side of the flange.
I discovered regular duct collars and elbows, like the ones you buy at the home improvement store, have a small rib that allows it to fit snugly in a properly sized hole, in this case the 6" standard duct size. Using those and duct couplers (with crimped ends on both sides), one is able to run ducts, rigid or flexible, wherever you need them. Add nice looking air registers anywhere ducts face finished living areas, and you can accomplish whatever permanent ducting scheme you may have in mind. Save yourself the trouble and the money and leave this product to the tent growers.
Hydrfarm generally seems to make good products that do what they are supposed to do. To their credit, I think I read this product marketed for tent growers. But, if I may suggest an improvement, why not size the holes exactly as the standard household duct sizes that we use, so that one might connect rigid ducting to the collared end as well as flex duct, and/or use duct couplers to connect to the non-collaredend? I'm able to work flex duct onto standard fittings found at the home improvement store, so it seems like it should be possible to size this flange fitting similarly.