Climate controlled grow fridge

Merlowe111

Merlowe111

Well-Known Member
Things are going well so far. Growth is picking up. Roots are starting to take off.
Ph is 5.5
Ppm 230 G.H flora series
Air temp is 78
Water temp is 70
Humidity 40-50%
Co2 800ppm
Water is reverse osmosis
Light distance 28"
going to pick the best looking one and put in a 6" net pot in it's own bucket. Can't fit 3 in here. 2 plants at most.

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T

ted1080

Member
I was directed by another member to this post. I am building a grow fridge in my shed. I am currently looking into making it temperature controlled as the shed is not heated in the winter. I can heat the shed long enough to be able to open the refrigerator doors and do maintenance so my question is not about that part. If I put a space heater and something as small as a fridge why fry my plants? Looking to preferably just heat the grow box fridge and not the whole shed
 
1

1212ham

Well-Known Member
Merlowe111 said:
Things are going well so far. Growth is picking up. Roots are starting to take off.
Ph is 5.5
Ppm 230 G.H flora series
Air temp is 78
Water temp is 70
Humidity 40-50%
Co2 800ppm
Water is reverse osmosis
Light distance 28"
going to pick the best looking one and put in a 6" net pot in it's own bucket. Can't fit 3 in here. 2 plants at most.
Click to expand...
Nice build, I'm subbed. Just a couple observations...
One plant can easily fill a fridge.
5.5 ph might be a little low, 5.8-6.2 is a common range for hydro.
Aim for low to mid 80's air temp with LED.
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Bespokegrowroomsolutions

Bespokegrowroomsolutions

Member
Been there, currently testing them out, climate controlled to 28’c running a rdwc system, set for seed/cutting veg and flower, a continuous system with a 9 week turnaround
 

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Merlowe111

Merlowe111

Well-Known Member
ted1080 said:
I was directed by another member to this post. I am building a grow fridge in my shed. I am currently looking into making it temperature controlled as the shed is not heated in the winter. I can heat the shed long enough to be able to open the refrigerator doors and do maintenance so my question is not about that part. If I put a space heater and something as small as a fridge why fry my plants? Looking to preferably just heat the grow box fridge and not the whole shed
Click to expand...
The thermostat I have installed has 2 relays. One for cold, and one for heat. After you wire it up,you set your desired temp range. If it is below the set range the heat relay turns on and a small space heater in the fridge will turn on until the temp comes back up. If te temps raise too high the fridge itself turns on and cools it down. It's works well if you give it a 5 degree differential so the two arent constantly fighting each other. Being that the fridge is so well insulated I dont need a heater, the passive heat from the light warms it up just enough.
 
Bespokegrowroomsolutions

Bespokegrowroomsolutions

Member
Merlowe111 said:
View attachment 4455869View attachment 4455870
Click to expand...
Have you got a smaller dwc your loosing a lot of your grow space with those 25ltr buckets ? This is a 16ltr tub with 1 plant manifolded for 21 colas,I top it up every 3 days, I run my ph at 5.5 from seed as the ph usually raises during veg for me, when I’m into full flower I put my ph @6.5 let the plant bring it down to around 5.5 and top up every 3 day with my mix at 6.0, it’s seem to level out nicely
 

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Merlowe111

Merlowe111

Well-Known Member
Bespokegrowroomsolutions said:
Have you got a smaller dwc your loosing a lot of your grow space with those 25ltr buckets ? This is a 16ltr tub with 1 plant manifolded for 21 colas,I top it up every 3 days, I run my ph at 5.5 from seed as the ph usually raises during veg for me, when I’m into full flower I put my ph @6.5 let the plant bring it down to around 5.5 and top up every 3 day with my mix at 6.0, it’s seem to level out nicely
Click to expand...
I could get something smaller, It just seemed to be the most common thing I've seen used on dwc and had a ton of tutorials. I planned in just having one plant in a 6inch netpot just to test how things go. I really like what you've done with your plant, I was wanting to try some Training methods myself but figured I should try to figure out the basics of hydroponic growing first.
 
Bespokegrowroomsolutions

Bespokegrowroomsolutions

Member
I find with my system it’s self regulating due to the smaller tanks, the nutes are mixed in 25ltr drums and ph set depending on stage of the plant, the small pots mean I don’t have to change the water to often and is easily flushed due to size, I don’t even check my ph in my tank unless I see a problem I just top up with the pre mixed drum I have ready, by not dividing the room like you have a do all my veg work on one side so the plants are more or less touching my first scrog net when I move them to flower, I’m in the uk though so I’ve completely removed all freezer parts as the weather here is far more manageable and just use fans to keep my desired temp, I did have the same reptile thermostats that your using but because we’re on 240v over here they lit up but wouldn’t power my fans, I found a cheap thermostat with idle speed setting so I’ve been using that in the empty compressor space underneath and leave it set @ 28’c and don’t really have to go back to it, I’m still testing these units myself so still a learning curve for me
 
Merlowe111

Merlowe111

Well-Known Member
Bespokegrowroomsolutions said:
I find with my system it’s self regulating due to the smaller tanks, the nutes are mixed in 25ltr drums and ph set depending on stage of the plant, the small pots mean I don’t have to change the water to often and is easily flushed due to size, I don’t even check my ph in my tank unless I see a problem I just top up with the pre mixed drum I have ready, by not dividing the room like you have a do all my veg work on one side so the plants are more or less touching my first scrog net when I move them to flower, I’m in the uk though so I’ve completely removed all freezer parts as the weather here is far more manageable and just use fans to keep my desired temp, I did have the same reptile thermostats that your using but because we’re on 240v over here they lit up but wouldn’t power my fans, I found a cheap thermostat with idle speed setting so I’ve been using that in the empty compressor space underneath and leave it set @ 28’c and don’t really have to go back to it, I’m still testing these units myself so still a learning curve for me
Click to expand...
It's a great looking setup! Id like to get the hydroponics more balanced like yours,im still working out the kinks lol.I thought about running each side of the fridge separately at first, but I have space for another fridge so if this project works out I'll build a second fridge to house a mother and/or cuttings. Maybe work my way to perpetual grow. I wish I could get away with not needing the cooling feature but temps in my shed went above and beyond 40c yesterday. Florida doesnt like to play along with the rest of mother nature.
 
Bespokegrowroomsolutions

Bespokegrowroomsolutions

Member
Merlowe111 said:
It's a great looking setup! Id like to get the hydroponics more balanced like yours,im still working out the kinks lol.I thought about running each side of the fridge separately at first, but I have space for another fridge so if this project works out I'll build a second fridge to house a mother and/or cuttings. Maybe work my way to perpetual grow. I wish I could get away with not needing the cooling feature but temps in my shed went above and beyond 40c yesterday. Florida doesnt like to play along with the rest of mother nature.
Click to expand...
Summer may be an issue here but time will tell , I also run my lights at night but saying that my 2 100w run 24hrs but they don’t throw out a huge amount of heat if I’m honest, if I get to hot in the summer I’ll just make a small ac unit out of a mini fridge and run my inlet air through that
 
Merlowe111

Merlowe111

Well-Known Member
Bespokegrowroomsolutions said:
if I get to hot in the summer I’ll just make a small ac unit out of a mini fridge and run my inlet air through that
Click to expand...
I tried something like that originally and had problems with temps just slowly climbing higher and higher. Turns out the fridge,when sealed from outside air exchanges,cant pull down the constant heat output of the lights.
 
Boatguy

Boatguy

Well-Known Member
Boatguy said:
The main problem is that a fridge doesnt have the cooling to counter the heat from the lights, fans etc.
Its just not built to do that kind of a job.
The best one i have seen used the freezer section for a air cooled light so heat buildup in the main section was kept to a minimum. The intake and exhaust operated like any normal tent grow. It was very stealth visually.
Click to expand...
Hate to tell you i told you so. But....
Air cool/ isolate that light and you might have a chance
 
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