DIY Vent Filters
Hey folks! I wanted to share with you a little DIY vent filter that I made. It’s still in its experimental phase but so far it’s been helpful. I live in the basement of my son’s home and my daughter in law uses a few fragranced products. While I wish they didn’t use any, they have made a ton of accommodations for me and I have no where else to live that is safe for me. The fragrances come thru the vents and I have tried a ton of things to filter the air and this is the most helpful by far. This one is my test model and my son said he will help me build one that can be attached more securely and is more a more durable material.
I essentially found a cardboard box the same size as my vent. I bought some small sheets of aluminum screen, activated carbon pellets and aluminum tape.
I cut a hole in the bottom of the box leaving a lip where the screen can sit. I cut the screen to size and put it in the bottom of the box in order to hold the carbon pallets in. I used two layers of screen for more strength. I strengthened the box flaps with extra cardboard and used the tape to also reinforce the box itself. Aluminum tape is great and relatively fragrance free. I then put an inch and a half of carbon pellets inside.
As you can see in the picture, I have used a lot of tape to adhere it to the ceiling. Ideally, I think having two or 3 inches of carbon in it would be best, but that will require a frame that mounts to the ceiling, which my son is going to help me with.
Aluminum tape is pretty strong and it’s not very damaging to other surfaces as other tape is. I do check it a couple times a day and make sure that the tape is still holding and besides adjusting it here and there over the past two weeks it’s held up pretty well.
Right now, my only option for changing out the carbon is to pull it off the ceiling, but I think I can just re-tape it back up and it should work out well.
I will say that this is not 100% effective, especially if the fragrance is strong, but it reduces it enough that I really can only smell anything when I’m standing super close to it when the vent has air coming thru it. I have another carbon filter in the room that has about 5 lbs of carbon in it, that takes care of the rest for the most part.
Again, there are still times where some fragrance comes through, but I suspect that’s when she has just used something. This has made it possible for me to be in that space unmasked. I always have my bedroom, which is my safe space but I can’t just exist in here all the time. This has also made it possible so that I can be in my bedroom with my door open for better air circulation, as it can get pretty stagnant in my room, regardless of the amount of fans or the 25 pounds of carbon air filter I have in there.
I think these could very easily be modified to be put over floor vents, where the screen part could sit right over the floor vents and then you’d pour the carbon on top of that. I don’t know about vents on the wall, but I’m sure it’s possible to make something with some creative experimentation. I initially bought those carbon filter sheets, but only found those to be effective for a few days and it would become too expensive to replace them all the time. My thought is needing to replace the carbon on this every two weeks. I mean, maybe the cost will be the same, but this box seems to be way more effective.
The key thing though is that you need to use carbon pellets. The more crushed kind is just gonna blow carbon dust everywhere.
Let me know if you have any questions or any thoughts on how to modify this. Ideally, I would like to have it so that you could just slide a tray out, dump out the carbon pellets, put new carpet pellets in and then slide it over the vent again. I will update as this experiment continues.