Fume hoods are an essential part of any cannabis lab or facility. Reliable, professional ventilation is required during the extraction process to remove any harmful fumes. With our benchtop or floor-mounted hoods, you can guarantee a safe environment for workers in the cannabis industry.
Why Are Fume Hoods Necessary in the Cannabis Industry?
Cannabis production consists of many steps, from growing the plant itself to research and development to creating a product for recreational or medical use. During these steps, adequate ventilation and filtration is necessary to keep workers safe from harmful chemicals or fumes.
At iQ Labs, we specialize in fume hoods suited for the extraction process in a laboratory setting. Whether you’re producing medical marijuana or crafting recreational products, our hoods can be an effective addition to your lab or facility.
Grow Hood vs. Fume Hoods: What’s the Difference?
Keep in mind that although fume hoods and grow hoods may sound similar, they are two distinct products. Grow hoods reflect light back onto plants, helping them grow. Fume hoods remove harmful gases from the air through ventilation and/or filtration. At iQ Labs, we only manufacture fume hoods.
What Kind of Fume Hoods Work Best for the Cannabis Industry?
There are two areas in the cannabis industry in which fume hoods are most often needed: research and manufacturing.
With research, you will most likely need a specialized safety enclosure, like a biosafety cabinet, to protect workers during testing and development. Our hoods at iQ Labs are best suited for manufacturing marijuana products and extracting cannabis in mass quantities.
There are two categories of fume hoods used in manufacturing cannabis: ducted and portable. At iQ Labs, we create high-quality ducted fume hoods for the cannabis industry.
Ducted Fume Hoods
Ducted fume hoods use the process of ventilation to extract harmful fumes from the laboratory and exhaust them outside of the building.
On top of the ducted hood is a duct collar, similar to the duct that’s connected to your heat and AC in your house. The duct is connected to a blower exhaust motor on the roof. The motor sucks air through the duct, including harmful gases, and ejects them from the building.
These are a great option for all kinds of fumes. Because they fully remove the harmful gases from the building, they can handle almost anything.
Types of Ducted Fume Hoods
We offer two different models of ducted hoods:
- Benchtop fume hood: This smaller hood sits on a workbench.
- Floor mounted fume hood: Also known as a walk-in fume hood or a floor-standing fume hood, this model can handle larger lab equipment.
You can also choose between a constant air volume (CAV) hood or a variable air volume (VAV) hood. CAV hoods constantly draw the same amount of air out of the room and out of the building, no matter what. VAV hoods are a greener option that use smart technology to change how much air they remove from the building, depending on the position of the sash.
Portable Fume Hoods
Portable fume hoods are ductless hoods that utilize filtration instead of just ventilation to remove harmful fumes from the air. The air they filter is released back into the facility instead of exhausting it from the building like a ducted fume hood. Since they aren’t connected to an HVAC duct, portable hoods can be easily moved around the lab.
In the cannabis industry, portable fume hoods are mainly used for research and testing. They’re a good option if you have specific fumes you need to remove from the lab, since you can purchase the specific cannabis filter designed to remove those gases. If you need to remove multiple types of fumes, you’ll need a ducted model instead.
Biosafety cabinets are a specialized type of hood that filters the air before releasing some of it back into the room and moving the rest from the top of the hood back down onto the work surface, providing added protection both to the user and the procedure. This helps keep very fine particles of hazardous materials in the hood while they’re being tested.
What Other Laboratory Equipment Is Needed for Cannabis Manufacturers?
If you’re in the process of setting up your lab for cannabis manufacturing, we can help! iQ Labs offers laboratory casework. We manufacture the metal cabinets on which to build work surfaces as well as casework for general storage. We offer epoxy top work surfaces that are highly resistant to chemicals as well as phenolic work surfaces.
Setting up a cannabis operation requires a large space as well as a variety of products that must meet certain regulatory standards. iQ Labs provides high-quality fume hoods and laboratory casework, and we consult with our cannabis clients to help them find other necessary products from our partners in the industry, allowing us to be a turn-key solution provider.
Fume hoods are just one essential product to starting your cannabis manufacturing company. iQ Labs can ensure that your facility has proper ventilation and consult with other vendors you may be working with to help you create a safe, productive lab environment.
Why Work with iQ Labs?
At iQ Labs, we set ourselves apart from the competition by offering custom-sized fume hoods with short lead times. We can customize your fume hood in terms of depth, width, height, and other laboratory considerations while still delivering your final product in a timely manner. Instead of waiting 15 to 20 weeks for a standard fume hood, we can deliver a custom fume hood for your lab in as little as four weeks. Contact us today to get started.
