Smell issue?

yes it is enough to worry about. unless your'e growing inside of your house, are not venting outside, and have no reason to worry about smell, yes it is something to worry about. better safe than getting caught.

 

I have 1 plant right now thats starting flowering, and believe me when I tell you this about the smell.

You don't believe it until you smell it yourself. Its pretty potent and by the time its done flowering the entire apartment building will know that someone is growing.

The best advice is to get a carbon filter. Get some 4 inch dryer duct work, run it from the fan into a homemade carbon filter which you can find guides for all over the site. My personal one I made with 3lbs activated carbon, a 5lb cat litter bucket, a 75 cent air filter, 2 PC fans, and a 50CFM bathroom exhaust fan that cost me 12 bucks at home depot.

It gives just enough suction to keep my little cabinet fully deordorized, and most importantly it was cheap. Just do a little research on carbon filter designs, because the smell is the thing that is going to sink you more than anything else.

 

My first grow of 2 bagseed plants with 150w of cfl was so slight that I could pawn it off on the ferrets. Since I upgraded to 250w hps the smell was pretty overpowering. I wasn't using the carbon filter for early veg and one day I came home from work and the common hallway of my apartment had the slight odor of skunk and the apartment reeked. Plugged in the filter and no more smell. You absolutely need either a good homemade or bought filter or you will get busted in an apartment. my $0.02

 

ONA and using the moist crystals is different than a carbon filter. That overwhelms the pot smell with something else, which in some areas will cause suspicion on its own when your entire hallway always smells overpoweringly like fresh linen.

The best route is total odor removal, since its hard to be suspicious of a lack of smell. It takes a little bit more work than just loading a muffin fan onto a bucket full of ONA, but its a bit more safe.

 

It neutralizes it, but it still has a strong odor on its own.

If your in an apartment, chances are the ONA smell will leak into your hallway and even if its not pot, people may notice the constant smell that just showed up and is always there. Its still a matter of odor removal vs odor replacement.

I'm not saying its a bad option, but carbon filters just seem a bit less obtrusive. I guess it depends on how tight a budget you're really on, since the ONA method is pretty dirt cheap.

 

VERY true,there is a place for the ONA but a CF will remove 99% of any odor if done right.