Thermoelectric wine cooler drying and curing - DIY

[Tremojem]

TREMOJEM KOOLATRON BUILD CONTINUED...

There were many screenshots of the AC Infinity app, as it was part of the engineering process by which I measured the success of my build. I will share the ones that quickly give the high level summary...lol.

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[miller6610]

Thanks to @Hook Daddy and everyone on here I feel like I can rest easy drying my first harvest! I was stressing as I won't have a good place with temp/humidity control to dry in. I just finished building my koolatron 20 bottle setup with the pro breeze dehumidifier disassembled and put in the back of the fridge on an angle so that the fan is not blocked but it is blowing towards the fridge door. I will be using the AC Infinity 79 pro controller and installed the probe next to the fridges temperature probe in the center on the back wall. What are the best settings everyone is using? Is VPD the best? Or I've seen a lot of people starting with a 75% setpoint with a 1% buffer and lowering the setpoint 1% each day until 60% is reached? Sorry I know this has already been talked about but just hoping someone has done some trial and error

 

[miller6610]

Hey

TREMOJEM KOOLATRON BUILD CONTINUED...

There were many screenshots of the AC Infinity app, as it was part of the engineering process by which I measured the success of my build. I will share the ones that quickly give the high level summary...lol.

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TREMOJEM KOOLATRON BUILD CONTINUED...

There were many screenshots of the AC Infinity app, as it was part of the engineering process by which I measured the success of my build. I will share the ones that quickly give the high level summary...lol.

Without Buffer
View attachment 5474559

With Buffer

TREMOJEM KOOLATRON BUILD CONTINUED...

There were many screenshots of the AC Infinity app, as it was part of the engineering process by which I measured the success of my build. I will share the ones that quickly give the high level summary...lol.

Without Buffer
View attachment 5474559

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View attachment 5474560

Very nice build and explanation of how to set everything up, this definitely helps me out. If you don't mind me asking how did everything turn out? Did using vpd make it easier? The best settings I have seen so far seem to be 55° and start at 75 or 80% humidity and work down to 60% over 10 to 14 days. Your settings are very close to cannatrol so just curious if you have tried both ways and how everything turned out

 

[Tremojem]

Thank you for your kind words. My experience is limited as explained earlier, I have yet to have a complete dry/cure session.

I do plan on one soon, when my current grow is ready to harvest and will share the data.
Regarding this session, I did indeed, use Cannatrol settings and VPD was satisfactory, I also closely monitored temp/rh, and dabled with dew point, but for the most part, I went with VPD.

I deviated from Cannatrol's duration, and instead, doubled the time to dry, and cure is still running at 61% rh. That brings cure to a couple weeks now.

Next session will require the settings you referred to with regard to a very high rh, while slowly reducing the rh over days. That will be a new experience for me, and I will share.

Let me know if I answered all of your questions and feel free to ask more.

In summary...winner for sure. Nice tight buds, great smooth flavor and terps.

 

[miller6610]

Thank you for your kind words. My experience is limited as explained earlier, I have yet to have a complete dry/cure session.

I do plan on one soon, when my current grow is ready to harvest and will share the data.
Regarding this session, I did indeed, use Cannatrol settings and VPD was satisfactory, I also closely monitored temp/rh, and dabled with dew point, but for the most part, I went with VPD.

I deviated from Cannatrol's duration, and instead, doubled the time to dry, and cure is still running at 61% rh. That brings cure to a couple weeks now.

Next session will require the settings you referred to with regard to a very high rh, while slowly reducing the rh over days. That will be a new experience for me, and I will share.

Let me know if I answered all of your questions and feel free to ask more.

In summary...winner for sure. Nice tight buds, great smooth flavor and terps.

Looking forward to seeing how your results are! I should also be harvesting soon and testing in the next few weeks. I was thinking about adding a fan on the bottom like you did for some extra air circulation but wasn't sure if it was necessary or not but now my OCD has me debating it again lol. I went with the power breeze dehumidifier and if you put it in the back of the fridge on an angle it the fan blows towards the door and doesn't affect and doesn't seem to affect the performance, hoping that will move enough air. I really don't have anywhere else during the summer to dry so with my plants finishing at different times I was scrambling to find an affordable solution. This is the most stressful part of the process by far and would definitely suck to screw these girls up right at the end

 

[Tremojem]

I agree. As I improve in growing top shelf cannibas, I too worry, that all of the great success can and will be destroyed by improper drying and curing failures.

It's all a journey.

 

[MasterFreeKill]

The parts for my dry/cure chamber are on the way but I was wondering if anyone washes their buds before they put them in the chamber and if so, what that process is? I have had caterpillars in my garden this year and I know I will need to wash the buds when I process them.

 

[Hook Daddy]

The parts for my dry/cure chamber are on the way but I was wondering if anyone washes their buds before they put them in the chamber and if so, what that process is? I have had caterpillars in my garden this year and I know I will need to wash the buds when I process them.

I washed my buds this last go, I washed them then hung to dry overnight, then proceeded the next morning as normal with no issues.

 

[hostagecs]

i've washed twice now, i will wash from now on, i lotus cure, but like hook daddy i air dry until i think they are ready to throw in the fridge

 

[Tremojem]

If you Google, washing cannibas plants, it will produce a bit of useful information. High level summary includes three buckets of water, one of which has hydrogen peroxide in it. Dip, shake and repeat using the three buckets. Have not done this, so it is not something I can personally speak to.

 

[hostagecs]

i use 3 buckets half cup of baking soda, half cup lemon juice (no added sugar if you get the extract), some 3% hydrogen peroxide. mixture goes into the first bucket, other two buckets have only distilled water in them. you are gunna dunk wash move around trying to get anything free that is on, in or around the buds. I cut my pants into sections of long branches that don't bottom out on the bucket or touch the sides. my first wash was very soft, small swirls, ups and downs. this last wash i was alot more violent but not enough to damage or remove any of the plant matter. there is a bunch of videos on it, some people use 3 buckets some use more or less, but the reason for 3 is one to clean two to rinse off the first bucket. I also shake most off the water off between buckets.

 

[hostagecs]

I washed last night and was too tired to empty plus wanted to see how much got cleaned this wash

 

[Hook Daddy]

i use 3 buckets half cup of baking soda, half cup lemon juice (no added sugar if you get the extract), some 3% hydrogen peroxide. mixture goes into the first bucket, other two buckets have only distilled water in them. you are gunna dunk wash move around trying to get anything free that is on, in or around the buds. I cut my pants into sections of long branches that don't bottom out on the bucket or touch the sides. my first wash was very soft, small swirls, ups and downs. this last wash i was alot more violent but not enough to damage or remove any of the plant matter. there is a bunch of videos on it, some people use 3 buckets some use more or less, but the reason for 3 is one to clean two to rinse off the first bucket. I also shake most off the water off between buckets.

I use three 17G totes, the first with peroxide, others just water. The totes have more room and help with bigger branches, sometimes the buckets make it tough to get bigger branches submerged and fully clean for me.

 

[hostagecs]

I use three 17G totes, the first with peroxide, others just water. The totes have more room and help with bigger branches, sometimes the buckets make it tough to get bigger branches submerged and fully clean for me.

i've been thinking about getting some of the plastic home depot red and black or red and yellow topped bins that i keep my soil in to do this, however im limited on space as is sadly

 

[hostagecs]

also @Hook Daddy I have a timelapse going on this lotus cure cycle, so more bro science for the other thread that kinda scares me to read if im being honest

 

[Tremojem]

also @Hook Daddy I have a timelapse going on this lotus cure cycle, so more bro science for the other thread that kinda scares me to read if im being honest

What other thread??? Lol

 

[Themasterku5h]

Here’s my latest going now. It’s finishing the dry stage and going into curing after about 4 weeks. When harvesting I took the main branches and removed the fan leaves, then hung to dry as normal for 36 hours. Best colas went into the wine fridge, set for 62% rh to trigger the dehumidifier, 9% drop until it turns off, fridge set to 60f. Ran it there until it starts to level out. At first it will bounce back and forth from 53 rh to 62 rh, but take a several hours to go down, then climb in minutes. Once it settles after about two weeks it will get to 53% rh, then take several hours to rise back to 62%. At this point I change the settings to start the dehumidifier at 62% but stop at 56%. After a while longer I change it to cycle between 58 and 62 and just let it go u til I am ready to reload and start again. Hope that makes sense and helps some.

Here’s it loaded now with Laughing Buddha. It’s a clone I have grown a couple seasons, and the smell and taste is far better with this dry than with just hanging and hoping. I can’t say the high is better, but it is superior in every other way.

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This is so awesome I originally found this thread on Reddit of course a video would be awesome but I think you had very clear step by step instructions I can’t wait to make one I really do not get why cannatrol can’t make this for less that a grand I mean the cost of items is like less than a 1/4 of a cannatrol thank you for being the awesome one to provide this info