TCH
Well-Known Member
The hose is a nice touch for sure. My one drawback would be if the power switch can stay on 100% of the time. If it's a push button, it may default to off if it loses power.
Thermoelectric wine cooler drying and curing - DIY
- Thread starter Hook Daddy
- Start date
bluemoon 65
Member
gooshpoo
Well-Known Member
Hey guys so i am on my first run with my ghettotrol and im curious how u guys are ending the process.
Are u guys just leaving the bud in there until its dry and then put it into bags or jars to cure?
or are u leaving it in the ghettotrol set to a certain humidity after dry and just let it sit in the unit.
My unit is feeding mine and my friend grow so leaving the herb inside long term isnt something i want to do.
So what i did was set a cycle of humidifier on for 10 of for 2, wet trimmed and filled. ran this way for 3 days and watch the humidity in the ac controller app step its way down. once i was in the 56-58 rh range i set a target humidity to 56 this was on the 4th day, first thing on day 5 i check the moister inside the buds it was at 9 to 10.5 on the meter. this is the same dryness that i get when i tested my medical dispensary bud so i went with that.
at this point im taking everything into grove bags and put back in the ghettotrol for storage .
Is this correct? the weed still has that green hay kinda smell i figure it just needs curing. its only been 5 days sense chop.
Are u guys just leaving the bud in there until its dry and then put it into bags or jars to cure?
or are u leaving it in the ghettotrol set to a certain humidity after dry and just let it sit in the unit.
My unit is feeding mine and my friend grow so leaving the herb inside long term isnt something i want to do.
So what i did was set a cycle of humidifier on for 10 of for 2, wet trimmed and filled. ran this way for 3 days and watch the humidity in the ac controller app step its way down. once i was in the 56-58 rh range i set a target humidity to 56 this was on the 4th day, first thing on day 5 i check the moister inside the buds it was at 9 to 10.5 on the meter. this is the same dryness that i get when i tested my medical dispensary bud so i went with that.
at this point im taking everything into grove bags and put back in the ghettotrol for storage .
Is this correct? the weed still has that green hay kinda smell i figure it just needs curing. its only been 5 days sense chop.
Hook Daddy
Well-Known Member
5 days is fairly quick, I usually go a couple weeks to dry, but it’s fine to go quicker when in a rush. Once the bud is dry you can store however you usually do, in grove bags or jars is my go to. I will leave bud in the cooler until I need to dry more, sometimes only a couple weeks, sometimes a couple months. I think longer is actually better, I have some Dosidos in there now that’s been in for over two months and is fantastic both smell and taste.
Anthogonzalez2
Member
Hello All!
Really impressed with Hook Daddy's DIY idea and allowing us all to show how we are trying to create the same thing. A dedicated drying container that isn't unobtainable by monetary means for most of us. Many thanks to eveyone who has contributed as I've lurked it's helped me immensely to get it running.
I built my "Koolatrol" with the same dehumidifier and koolatron 20 bottle case as Hook and others. I ended up using a AC infinity smart outlet instead and getting good results.
I'm at harvest week on my grow (within 10 days) and wanted to ask a few questions. What are people's beginning temperature and humidity when putting freshly cut buds into it. what frequency are you dropping these RT & RH? is the target still 60/60? What your total dry time?
Really impressed with Hook Daddy's DIY idea and allowing us all to show how we are trying to create the same thing. A dedicated drying container that isn't unobtainable by monetary means for most of us. Many thanks to eveyone who has contributed as I've lurked it's helped me immensely to get it running.
I built my "Koolatrol" with the same dehumidifier and koolatron 20 bottle case as Hook and others. I ended up using a AC infinity smart outlet instead and getting good results.
I'm at harvest week on my grow (within 10 days) and wanted to ask a few questions. What are people's beginning temperature and humidity when putting freshly cut buds into it. what frequency are you dropping these RT & RH? is the target still 60/60? What your total dry time?
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Hook Daddy
Well-Known Member
Your build is looking good, can’t wait to see the results. There are a couple ways you can go about drying using the cooler, the main difference is to hang dry a day or two first or not. At first I hung the larger branches for a couple days the did a quick trim of big fan leaves and stems, then into the cooler. Since some of the humidity was already out of the buds you can set the cooler at your desired temp, most of us run between 55-64f, 60 being common, then set rh at 68 or so, dropping .5-1% rh a day until about 58%. The key is you can start with your rh lower and dry faster.
If you don’t hang dry first you should do a more thorough trim getting rid of all stem and fan leaves, then into the cooler. I start with temp at 58f or so, and rh at 76% and go from there, dropping rh about .5-1% a day or faster if possible at first. Once you run it a couple times it’s very easy. Just check the dehumidifier a couple times a day to make sure it doesn’t freeze up, if it does no big deal, shut it off for 10-20 minutes then resume. Even if you don’t catch it freezing it will fix itself, just quicker if you turn it off for a few minutes. Once you hit your target rh you’re done, you can leave it in the cooler or transfer to grove bags or jars. I have found leaving it in the cooler several weeks is optimal for flavor, not sure why but it cures very well in the cooler, so if I don’t have a harvest ready to go in I just leave the buds in there.
Anthogonzalez2
Member
Fantastic thank you for explaining it all and the tips for the dehumidifier.
I'm not currently in a position to have it dry in the tent so just to be clear these are the instructions for direct from harvest to the koolatron.
1. I'm able to remove some of the fan leaves after harvest and load koolatron...is there a tip to not pack super tight to avoid mold?
2. Start the temp at 60 - start RH at 68 and drop .5 or 1% per day until it reaches a RH of 60%?
3. what is your target RH before you transfer to Grove bags?
Hook Daddy
Well-Known Member
Directly into the koolatron from harvest:
1. Remove as much of the stem and leaves as you can, just do a decent wet trim but all nugs, no stem. Don’t pile it high or super tight, but it can be fairly well packed in a single layer.
2. Start at 60f and about 76% rh, drop .5-1% a day, you may be able to jump a couple percent lower depending on the moisture in the buds, each run is slightly different but it is easy to figure out once you’ve seen it work, start here.
3. Transfer to bags after you reach 62%-58% dips and the rise part of the dip is longer than the drying phase, it will make sense once you see it running.
Anthogonzalez2
Member
you are the goat
I'll do exactly these steps and report back once I have bud that is dried and ready for testing and have the AC infinity metrics I can share
On behalf of everyone, we appreciate how responsive you've been to all the inquiries. I know this an experiment and I'm hoping to replicate some of your success along the way.
Daylee
Well-Known Member
read all of it and cant stop thinking about making one haha.
a few questions
1 how do you know if the cooler is a thermoelectric one?
if it says it doesnt have a compressor, does that make it an thermoelectric one?
2 would this be ok, or are the square models better suited?
3 how much grams would you be able to dry in that 48l model?
and lastly would this dehu work? or do i need to add something to covert the power?
the cables go to a circuit board first
man im excited to try this
a few questions
1 how do you know if the cooler is a thermoelectric one?
if it says it doesnt have a compressor, does that make it an thermoelectric one?
2 would this be ok, or are the square models better suited?
3 how much grams would you be able to dry in that 48l model?
and lastly would this dehu work? or do i need to add something to covert the power?
the cables go to a circuit board first
man im excited to try this
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Anthogonzalez2
Member
Based on the photo it looks like it's a thermoelectric. I would check the model number and google it and it should state what it is just to be sure.
I mean if you already have it might as well try it out I got the 20 bottle koolatron for space purposes. Bigger does not always mean better because thermoelectric manufacturers usually split a bigger device into two separate chambers usually with a divider. This makes it a bit trickier since both sections are usually smaller and will require a separate dehumidifier for each zone.
yeah that Dehu works perfectly its the one I got - so basically you're taking the power output only and feeding that to the back of the koolatron to have it plugged into a controller with temperature monitoring for accurate activation. I would look over Hooks photos and earlier in this thread to check out how to decontruct the dehu.
Daylee
Well-Known Member
So just cut the wires(positive and negative) and reconnect with plug, no need for the circuit board?
Did not buy it yet, but looking for a cheap used one to play with as the model you guys use is not availeble here
Thanks for the reply, cant wait to have a working one!
Anthogonzalez2
Member
yup no need for the circuit board - basically you are hot wiring it like this https://www.rollitup.org/attachments/12e221df-84ee-44c4-b468-4d6ee87ee3ed-jpeg.5273720/
The reason you need a controller is once you hotwire it its basically a "on and off" function only, the set parameters with your temperature probe is what actuates it on and off based on the temps you set it at.
I would check ebay Koolatron sells via their ebay store.
amneziaHaze
Well-Known Member
If you want to use 220v keep it if you want to use 12v remove it
Daylee
Well-Known Member
is one better than the other if im connecting to the inkbird?
or is one more easy to do?
not a pro with all electrical work
ill look for the winecooler first and go from there
Dontletthemfoolya
Member
How did you fit all 5 shelves and the dehumidifier?
TCH
Well-Known Member
Cut a section out of the bottom shelf to go around the dehumidifier. There are pics somewhere In The thread.
Dontletthemfoolya
Member
Shocked in roughly a year nobody has come along and made a controller with an esp32 or some other ardunio board. Sure would be cheaper than the inkbird and able to do so much more. Would be able to ramp RH down slowly, send alerts, turn the dehu off for 15mins if the RH went up after say an hour instead of down, so many things.
I found this thread after watching a YT video about how the cannatrol works. Which I found extremely interesting that controlling the temperature isn't really the most important part of how it works. All his talk of dew point instead of RH and then saying Water Vapor Pressure and dew point were interchangeable got me thinking VPD is close to WVP in that they are both calculated from temperature and humidity. So the "range" of 53-54°F dew point at 68° really just means the cannatrol is trying to keep the box at a WVP of 1375-1425 pa. So really all controlling temperature is doing is staying low enough to keep mold and bacteria from growing until the moisture level, or water activity as he mentioned is low enough.
So I wonder if one had a space that was the right temp if one could dry in a box, tote, or small tent and just control the humidity with a small pc fan and/or small dehumidifier and get the same results? I know large amounts of airflow is bad for drying as it results in hay, been there done that. But from everyone here running these coolers with RH in the 70s and mid 60s it's clear that the worry of mold is overblown long as temps are below what say 65-70°? So starting with high RH and ramping down over a week would get the same result no?
Had to make a new account just for this thread. Sure seems like I had one as I remember when overgrow went down, yes I'm that old, I'm pretty sure I came here. Oh well that was many many years ago so no telling what email I used back then.
I found this thread after watching a YT video about how the cannatrol works. Which I found extremely interesting that controlling the temperature isn't really the most important part of how it works. All his talk of dew point instead of RH and then saying Water Vapor Pressure and dew point were interchangeable got me thinking VPD is close to WVP in that they are both calculated from temperature and humidity. So the "range" of 53-54°F dew point at 68° really just means the cannatrol is trying to keep the box at a WVP of 1375-1425 pa. So really all controlling temperature is doing is staying low enough to keep mold and bacteria from growing until the moisture level, or water activity as he mentioned is low enough.
So I wonder if one had a space that was the right temp if one could dry in a box, tote, or small tent and just control the humidity with a small pc fan and/or small dehumidifier and get the same results? I know large amounts of airflow is bad for drying as it results in hay, been there done that. But from everyone here running these coolers with RH in the 70s and mid 60s it's clear that the worry of mold is overblown long as temps are below what say 65-70°? So starting with high RH and ramping down over a week would get the same result no?
Had to make a new account just for this thread. Sure seems like I had one as I remember when overgrow went down, yes I'm that old, I'm pretty sure I came here. Oh well that was many many years ago so no telling what email I used back then.
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