Grow Timeline (5 updates)
Using koolatron thermoelectric wine cooler as the dry/curing chamber to maintain temperature. The small dehumidifier is to be disassembled into its core components (TEC, heat sink, and fan) and installed inside the cooler. This will draw water from the flowers that will drip out to the drip pan of the cooler. This also heats the chamber slightly causing the cooler to kick on and help with the drying process. The dehumidifier will be controlled by a ac infinity controller 69 I had laying around.
Took apart the wiring on the dehumidifier and drilled a 1/2 inch hole through the back of unit. Fed wires and sensor through and sealed with rubber grommets. Wired system back together and plugged dehumidifier into a controller.
is a dehumidifier necessary to drive with the Thermo electric wine cooler? I’m looking into using this method to dry
The dehumidifier is pretty much just another small TEC put inside the box. It does two things of benefit in this system. One it helps draw water from the buds inside the cooler onto the tecs heats sink which will then run off into the drip pan. Second when running it increases the temperature inside the cooler slightly causes the TECs on the wine cooler to kick in which lowers the temperature while also drawing more moisture from the buds. I've seen people say a heater and fan inside could achieve the same function but most of the community in the forum for this have stuck with this method.
ok I gotcha. I was thinking maybe building a dry room and installing a few of those cooling modules and a dehumidifier but am low on funds for the project.
If your going through the trouble of making a entire room for drying wouldn't you be better off just controlling the environment of the entire room vs building a few of these? I went with this option because I didn't want to set up ac or use a whole room/tent for dry/curing. If your getting enough per cycle that one or two of these units wouldn't cover it I would start looking at a cost/benefit list of these vs a mini split or portable ac unit.
By a room I meant like a small closet lol. I don’t have a shit to on space. it might only be like a 2x4x4 or something just to have dedicated space for drying. ac is not an option as I am in a underground basement. until I can afford a mini split either I have to shut down my flowering room or try these wine coolers. I can get entire wine coolers here for next to nothing. The cooling modules are cheap.
Mhmm if you can dedicate that space it shouldnt be too hard to keep a 60/60 environment. Look into ac infinitys terraform 7 maybe. It does heating, cooling, and dehumidifis I think for around 500-600 USD. That a controller and a small humidifier if you needed the humidity where you live and you'd have the controlled space.
the reviews on that equipment are trash dude lol I own and run a hvac business hopefully I’ll come up on a deal sometime soon lol
I haven't looked into any reviews in it bc at the price point it seemed too good to be true and sounds like it is. But hey if you run hvac you know the good stuff and like you said a deal will come up I'm sure.
Yeah man. Honestly my biggest issue is my wife not letting me have the entire basement lmfao.
I ran into the same issue. was told I could build a grow room in the basement but only 6*10. put up the wall but never nailed it in. slowly but surely I moved it. now I'm 6*16....I'm sure she knows, she's not dumb, but she's a keeper and played along 🤣
Shout out to the wives letting us do our things even if begrudgingly 🤣
I think they end up liking it. My wife went from stressing to advocacy.
So far the chamber is doing its job I've been having to help drain the drip tray a few time already. Wet trimmed and placed direct in the chamber. Going off the recommended process from the rollitup forum I'm starting high RH trigger at 73% and will lower it daily to achieve 60%rh over the two week drying time.
Nice work. The nugs look great. I use Cannatrol, too. I've had a pretty good experience with it, but I've found that for my situation, it's best when I chop the whole plant, remove all green leaves, and dry it for 10-14 days before placing it in there. It's a bit dry in my area and keeping it on the plant really extends the drying time.
good looking buds! I bet that thing is going to kick ass at curing. nice work!
Thanks Smokie! I'm super stoked with the results. Excited to get these cured and try a sample. I smoke some hash from the immature ladies outside and the terps were phenomenal so I can only imagine how the fully ripened flowers will taste.
I was looking at the hash and it looks pretty good. you will have to roll up some hash holes with the weed and the hash you got. I bet it tastes amazing. I’m all about the terps.
Drying is going well been slowly bringing the rh down in the chamber. The buds are still looking great slightly smaller and I have been using paper towels to help dry up the water in the drip pan.
I wonder if you could make your pan angled and drill a hole in the bottom to drain out the water through a hose and to the outside of the unit. projects like this make me want to buy a 3d printer so make custom parts for the grow lol
Luckily the drip pan is on the outside of the unit already. As I expand my space I'm planning to replace the drip pan with a drain hose so I never need to worry about the pan over filling.
Looking at the graph the dry went perfect. The first few days I was managing the drip pan but soon after was no longer needed. Now I can leave set for 60% rh and let it ride out for another week before putting in curing bags. Just sampling the dry product and it taste amazing even u cured from keeping the temps steady we kept the terps strong! In a joint the flower burns smooth not harsh with a white slight peppery ash. Hoping with further curing it will only improve.
Anyone looking for a dry/curing solution I would recommend this too. If you find a way to manage the water from the drip pan it can be as simple as chop place in chamber set rh trigger to 74 and step down one percent twice a day for the first four days and then one percent once a day for 6 days for a perfect ten day slow dry.
Chris Mr. Grow it recommends it there about 1600, after I get caught up I'm going to drop the money for one
Yeah alot of the weed tubers recommend them but 1600 was way to much for me. I made this solution for just under 300usd and it worked perfectly
I dropped 250 on the herbsnow dehydrator I thought I toasted a qp it was super crispy after 96 hours but curing around 2 weeks was some of the densist herb
I'm impressed with mine
Same parts? What's your preferred settings on when drying?
I’m interested in seeing how this works out. I might have to use your method and build one myself if it works well
I'll make sure to report on this grow journal how it performs, assembling it was easy as long as your comfortable stripping and joining some wires. This idea was from a forum journal in rollitup where there was alot of information and testimonials. For around 300$ in parts seemed more logical then building a climate controlled room or wasting Time drying in my tent.
I'll make sure to report on this grow journal how it performs, assembling it was easy as long as your comfortable stripping and joining some wires. This idea was from a forum journal in rollitup where there was alot of information and testimonials. For around 300$ in parts seemed more logical then building a climate controlled room or wasting Time drying in my tent.
I'll make sure to report on this grow journal how it performs, assembling it was easy as long as your comfortable stripping and joining some wires. This idea was from a forum journal in rollitup where there was alot of information and testimonials. For around 300$ in parts seemed more logical then building a climate controlled room or wasting Time drying in my tent.