Sciencemadness Discussion Board

New Fume Hood

zoombafu - 6-1-2012 at 19:10

So I just a new (used) fume hood. It has electric outlets, water outlet, and gas outlet. And the best part is that I got it for.... drum roll please...... $75!



It is a bit old, but the fan is good, and it serve my purposes. Plus for the price how can you beat it.


[Edited on 7-1-2012 by zoombafu]

Bot0nist - 6-1-2012 at 19:29

Excellent find zoombafu ! I'm jealous. I have a crappy home made one I use now for tame reactions, and I just go outside for some. I would really love a nice hood, and I hope to build a good one as soon as i can afford to. I don't know to much about hoods but that looks like a nice one. Especially for 75 bucks. Are you just venting to outside, or are you employing some sort of scrubber/filter?

entropy51 - 6-1-2012 at 21:24

Indeed an excellent find! I paid more than $75 for the sash on my home-made hood. I wouldn't care to admit what I paid for the blower. Was the blower included with your hood?

I reommend testing it with something like ammonia before using it for anything really toxic, especially if the blower is in the hood so that the exhaust duct is under positive pressure.

zoombafu - 7-1-2012 at 10:34

Well right now I just have the blower venting outside. In the future though I plan on adding an activated carbon filter, and possibly some sort of gas scrubbing setup.

The blower seems to work ok (its a bit old so i'll probably replace it for a quieter, stronger, and more efficient blower), I tested it when I was cleaning the inside with HCL (there were some rust spots on the stainless steel), and I didn't get dizzy from the fumes or anything like that.

In the future I also want to be able to use it as a sterile glove box .I like doing stuff with bacteria, fungus, and all that type of stuff where anything can easily contaminate a culture. But I have an ozone generator that I can use to flush the enclosure out, so hopefully I can use it for sterile work.

Hexavalent - 7-1-2012 at 14:04

Has anyone ever considered the possibility of running inert gas lines into the hood and perhaps setting up a schlenk line?

Bot0nist - 7-1-2012 at 16:00

Quote: Originally posted by zoombafu  
I tested it when I was cleaning the inside with HCL (there were some rust spots on the stainless steel), and I didn't get dizzy from the fumes or anything like that.


I hear a good way to test efficiency is with a small sugar fueled smoke pot. Maybe KNO<sub>3</sub> or KClO<sub>3</sub> as the oxidizer in a slow-burning proportion. It is very visible smoke, but not that harmful if there are leaks or if the fan cant keep up.

[Edited on 8-1-2012 by Bot0nist]

zoombafu - 7-1-2012 at 19:04

Quote: Originally posted by Bot0nist  

I hear a good way to test efficiency is with a small sugar fueled smoke pot. Maybe KNO<sub>3</sub> or KClO<sub>3</sub> as the oxidizer in a slow-burning proportion. It is very visible smoke, but not that harmful if there are leaks or if the fan cant keep up.

[Edited on 8-1-2012 by Bot0nist]


Another good way is to light a cigarette. Its not harmful (well it is in the long run, but a wiff of smoke won't kill you), and you can easily see the smoke. A good test that I have heard for testing a fume hoods efficiency is lighting a cigarette outside of the hood, and a good hood should draw the smoke in even when you are standing a few feet away.

Hexavalent - 8-1-2012 at 12:13

I bought a load of those little smoke matches you can buy at hardware shops for testing flumes . . .the smoke is very visible and just in the right quantity for testing a fume hood.

[Edited on 8-1-2012 by Hexavalent]

Mildronate - 8-1-2012 at 18:11

For me this is to small fume hood. I had smoken few times in university fume hood (in winter :D ). Have you ever seen how water aspirator smoking cigaret :D ?