How to Hide the Smell of Cannabis

How to Mask the Smell of Cannabis  

After a long hard day, you are ready to come home and unwind. You decide you want to blaze up—but the smell marijuana leaves may pose a problem depending on your current situation and location. Good news is when it comes to being covert in your smoking endeavors, there are ways to nip the smell in the bud. 

According to research, the most effective methods involve both dispersing the actual smoke and neutralizing the odor via reducing particulates in the air that carry the smell. These studies have been extremely useful in helping us to determine the best possible methods to eliminate the smell of marijuana, so you can enjoy your high without being paranoid if everyone and their brother can smell you lighting up. 

Do Sploofs Actually Work? 

In short, yes, they do. Sploofing, aka disguising odors via homemade contraptions like empty cardboard tubes stuffed with dryer sheets can reduce but not eliminate the smell. One study looked at how smoke dispersed in an apartment setting when various sploof devices were tested to conclude which version is actually the most effective. 

Tests were conducted in the kitchen, bathroom, and next to the front door— they would then check the air quality at 60 second, three-minute, five-minute, and seven-minute intervals following a smoking session. Glass pipes, joints, bongs, and vaporizers were also tested to determine which delivery method produced the least amount of smell. 

A homemade sploof with a toilet paper roll and dryer sheets.

What You Need:

• A cardboard tube, a toilet paper roll is perfect
• Dryer sheets or filter material (fish tank filters work well)
• Rubber bands or string
• Activated carbon, this can be found at pet stores

How to Make a Sploof

1. Cover the exiting end with a couple of dryer sheets, and secure them with the elastic bands or string.
2. Stuff the tube with three or four of the dryer sheets. Don’t pack them too tightly. You can use other filter material here but, again, make sure air can flow through.
3. If you’re opting for the activated carbon option, this is the time to add it. Stuff it between the other materials used to create your filter. 
4. Done! Smoke with peace and security knowing the marijuana order is not going to alert others.

Here is an easy tutorial on How to Make a Sploof from our friends at Herb Co: https://herb.co/marijuana/news/sploof

Meet Your Friend, Activated Charcoal 

When it came down to it, the sploof devices that used activated charcoal (aka activated carbon), were proven to be twice as effective when it came to reducing smoke levels. Scientifically this makes a lot of sense. Activated charcoal is commonly used for industrial purposes for its ability to neutralize odors because of its power to bind to odor carrying molecules. That’s not to say if you have ever used traditional sploofs using just dryer sheets that everyone smelled it and secretly knew your business. Not at all. In fact, the studies also found that using any type of sploof or masking agent like candles or air freshener was somewhat effective and it was better than not using anything to try to hide the smell at all. 

 

How Effective is Vaporizing?

This method is hands down the most effective. Vaporizing eliminates almost all odor in any location inside the test apartment used in the experiment—coming in at just 1 micron of particulate when it was tested, even while the smoker was in the same room smoking. 

 

Top Recommendations:

Clear the Air and Stay Away from the Door

If you don’t happen to have a vaporizer, activated charcoal, or even dryer sheets to make a sploof, you can knock out the smell of marijuana by boiling a cup of vinegar over the stove, or running some through your dishwasher. While the actual aroma of vinegar isn’t particularly refreshing or pleasant, it does dissipate in about an hour, and it is does an extremely good job of neutralizing the smell of marijuana smoke. Plus, vinegar is easy to find and afford when you’re in a pinch. 

Perfume, incense, and candles mask the smell to an extent, but they are best used in combination with other methods. Reducing the smell from carpet and fabrics seem to be a hit or miss. Some people find a lot of success using baking soda, carpet cleaner, or Febreze, but the results here were mixed.  

However, where you smoke does matter. Researchers discovered they were able to prevent noticeable odors from spilling outside the apartment if they smoked at least one room away from the front door. 

Final Hit

As far as methods go, we recommend vaporizing, then charcoal sploofs, followed by traditional dryer sheet sploofs. Getting good ventilation like making sure doors, windows, or fans are open and on—in combination with using odor eliminators like air fresheners and candles should be used to keep your smoke sessions smell and worry free. 

Here is a great video to walk you through making your own activated charcoal sploof! Thanks to RuffHouse Studios and their Weed Hacks series for the video!

https://youtu.be/iuQWkFvohIM

Breckenridge Organic Therapy carries a variety of cannabis products that are naturally sourced and high quality. Feel free to stop by or contact us with any questions you may have and we will be happy to help!