Thermoelectric wine cooler drying and curing - DIY

Hook Daddy said:

When it happens you can open the fridge and see if the fins are frozen, it is very obvious, they are white covered in ice. Looking back in the thread you had issues with the dehumidifier blowing up and back rather than forward like everyone else’s. You might just try a different dehumidifier if you haven’t already. The location of the temp sensor work for everyone else, I’m not sure I would mess with it myself, it’s location should be fine. I also recall you putting a wet sponge in, you do not need one if you are using one, it’s counter productive unless you are in a very dry environment and you are already fully dry and just curing.

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blip6579 said:

Weed is dry at this point and sits about 61% RH. What i think happens is;
1. RH in the fridge goes over 61% triggering the dehum. Fridge is set to 55F.
2. Dehum cranks for a while pushing the RH to about 75% before starting to come down. Even higher sometimes.
3. At this point the fridge notices the temp is too high but seems to freak out with it being a big jump. About 66F.
4. Takes ages to get the temps down since the dehum may have pushed it to 82F, resulting in high temps since the dehum was running way too long.

does anyone elses fridge dehum push the humidity up so high? Should i try a different dehum? Looks the same as everyone else.

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Hook Daddy said:

If you weed is already dry and you are curing something is very wrong. If the past you mentioned your dehumidifier was different and blew opposite everyone else’s. My dehumidifier blows toward the door of the fridge with the cooling fins in the drain trough.

I didn’t realize your fridge was also different, could be a problem as well. I would first look at the dehumidifier, but the temps and rh should not be rising like that, the rh if already dry and curing should maybe rise a 1-2% before dropping, not 15%.

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blip6579 said:

Thanks mate. I’ll take another look at my setup. Hard when I don’t have the exact same gear

it does only rise a couple of RH% in cure but once the dehumidifier kicks in it goes way up. I think my fridge isn’t kicking in straight away. Or the dehumidifier is rubbish. I’ll try import the one everyone else is using.

is there a link to parts?

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Hook Daddy said:

I had read about these for a while before trying, this is not by any means a new idea nor did I come up with the idea. I was tired of over drying and drying too quickly in the winter, then freaking out about mold in the summer. A google search will give lots of other ideas, but I get a lot of questions about it here on RIU and there’s not a dedicated thread, at least until now. I started out with 3 main pieces of equipment, a thermoelectric wine cooler, a small thermoelectric dehumidifier, and a humidity controller. The basics are easy, drill a hole in the fridge, run your dehumidifier power and humidity sensor cables through, seal up the hole, plug it all in and start drying in style. I got everything on Amazon. I was going to try linking items but it doesn’t want to work for me today for some reason, I’ll try again later. It’s a thermoelectric Kooltron 20 bottle. The dehumidifier is a Pohl Schmitt mini dehumidifier. The humidity controller is an Inkbird of course, the IHC-200, I recommend the one with wi-fi.

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diyguy420 said:

Fun to see others doing a diy version. I have my own I did. I used a 28 bottle thermoelectric wine fridge. I own a cannatrol so I’m testing the one I made. It works great. I’m using a ACI 69 pro controller to control mine. Also the cannatrol shelves fit it perfectly. It does it just as well as the cannatrol.

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CWF said:

Going to try this. I need a better solution for dry/cure here in this hot humid place. My build will hopefully have better control of env variables. First step is to hack the Kt WC20 and put in a better (more accurate, faster response) temp control system than the stock "bang-bang" servo, then add RH control. One idea is to get the dehumi out of the space and use some ducting built into a base the WC will sit on. Got the WC on the way from Ebay, a new one, then put my EE training to work.

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CWF said:

Going to try this. I need a better solution for dry/cure here in this hot humid place. My build will hopefully have better control of env variables. First step is to hack the Kt WC20 and put in a better (more accurate, faster response) temp control system than the stock "bang-bang" servo, then add RH control. One idea is to get the dehumi out of the space and use some ducting built into a base the WC will sit on. Got the WC on the way from Ebay, a new one, then put my EE training to work.

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curious2garden said:

LOL My son's an EE and you'd think he'd teach but nope he does research for Google and has zero interest in my cannabis follies, except for smoking what I provide LOL. I'm glad to see you here and look forward to your journey with the Koolatron. The Koolatron was my springboard to buy a Freeze Dryer and use my Koolatron for rehydration and storage. It's probably the best addition to my grow I've ever made.

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Hook Daddy said:

It would be interesting to see if the tighter controls would improve the product enough to justify the extra expense. The ideas all sound good. I am watching to see where you go with this.

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smoke and coke said:

Go with the 20 bottle, it’s worth the price for the extra room. The 12 bottle will be pretty small once you add in the dehumidifier.

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StanleyYelcats said:

To clarify, what is the purpose of stepping down the humidity gradually? Assuming putting the harvest right in the cooler without any hang dry time. Is it mainly to avoid overworking the dehumidifier which may cause freezing? Or is there another purpose of stepping down to not dry too fast / produce too much heat or something?

For context similar to @Lou66 looking to automate with home assistant which I already manage the rest of my grow with. What I envision is setting a target humidity in HA, then having an automation take care of the rest. My thought is rather than manually stepping down, just set to a target of 60% or whatever, and have it automatically turn the dehumidifier off every 2 hours for 10 minutes to prevent freezing.

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