Thermoelectric wine cooler drying and curing - DIY

Hollatchaboy said:

You got some good lookin bud there!

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Thank you thank you. This stuff is pretty and it smells so good.

TCH said:

Anybody else have an issue with their drain? I have had to prop up the front of the fridge so it drains to the tray instead of collecting on the bottom. I just got 4 Blueberry Cupcake plants trimmed and loaded into it last night. It's pulling so much moisture out of there. It's amazing!!

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How much dry weight do you reckon that will be? I'm trying to figure out what size cooler I want.

TCH said:

Anybody else have an issue with their drain? I have had to prop up the front of the fridge so it drains to the tray instead of collecting on the bottom. I just got 4 Blueberry Cupcake plants trimmed and loaded into it last night. It's pulling so much moisture out of there. It's amazing!!

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I was going to post about this too. I had to prop the front up too because the first 2 days of using it I open the door and water poured from the front of the door.

About to load a few more shelves with this Purple Skittlez from Ethos

TCH said:

Anybody else have an issue with their drain? I have had to prop up the front of the fridge so it drains to the tray instead of collecting on the bottom. I just got 4 Blueberry Cupcake plants trimmed and loaded into it last night. It's pulling so much moisture out of there. It's amazing!!

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Somewhere in the thread I mentioned making sure it is at least level on top so the drip tray drains right, you are correct if not it will follow gravity and pool at the front of the door instead. The feet are threaded, spinning them will raise or lower to make leveling fairly easy. If not a shim or two will do the job.

Hook Daddy said:

Somewhere in the thread I mentioned making sure it is at least level on top so the drip tray drains right, you are correct if not it will follow gravity and pool at the front of the door instead. The feet are threaded, spinning them will raise or lower to make leveling fairly easy. If not a shim or two will do the job.

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Yeah, I had to shim it. Maxed out the feet. It's dumb that they make one of the front feet on the hinge for the door and it's not adjustable. But, when I got home tonight, I checked and it was dry inside and the tray was just about full. It's not near as big of an issue if you hang dry the plant for a couple days before putting it in the Koolatron.

Lou66 said:

How much dry weight do you reckon that will be? I'm trying to figure out what size cooler I want.

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I have no idea. If I recall correctly, 12-16 zips is about what will fit in there per the others that have built them. That will depend on the density of the colas/nugs.

As far as size, the Koolatron 24 bottle we are using is among the larger options as far as the thermoelectric versions are concerned.

Hi all, been following this thread and am on day 2 of my first dry. These are my thoughts from scouring the web and watching/reading anything cannatrol to reverse engineer the best I can:

since we cannot see a dehumidifier in the cannatrol, I’m thinking they have 2 peltier coolers with One hot side and one cold side on the inside of the cooler. By using the two you can control temp and dehumidify like we are doing. Let me know if you agree.

I noticed in the design of the dehumidifier, the hot side fan pulls air over the cold side. So if you are completely removing the plastic casing, you are disrupting the way it is designed to function and most likely why I’m seeing some reports of the cold side freezing up. I cut the bottom of the casing and left it to function as needed. I am going to 3d print a piece to fit over the output to blow exhaust towards the back of the cooler so it’s not directly blowing in the buds.

Is one of the goals to not have the dehumidifier running constantly? If so, would it make sense to hook the ink bird up to a smart plug and set the schedule to be on for an hour then off for an hour or something similar. I would still have the inkbird do it’s thing when on an ON schedule

this has been a great thread and by far the most helpful. That uk420 thread never loads for me for some reason

Sydios said:

Is one of the goals to not have the dehumidifier running constantly? If so, would it make sense to hook the ink bird up to a smart plug and set the schedule to be on for an hour then off for an hour or something similar. I would still have the inkbird do it’s thing when on an ON schedule

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The dehumidifier does not run constantly if you start higher and step down gradually. You can also dry the buds outside of the cooler for a day or two to help this along. If you were to set up a timer to keep the inkbird off for a period of time, then the humidity would climb so high (early in the stage of drying) that the little dehumidifier would never catch up and end up running constantly when the timer kicked on. Knocking the percentage down a point or 2 every 24-48 hours the first week really helps keep things from running constantly and/or freezing up.

Gotcha, thanks. So it’s really just about controlling the speed of drying and not the impact of the dehumidifier running that is dictating the decision making. Everyone has different methods and live in different climates so I try to get to the thought processes and not the actions taken so I can tailor to my needs. Thanks again for all the helpful info

And I’m still a newbie grower and going this route after multiple failed dry/cures after amazing grows so I don’t have all the fundamental knowledge you all have

TCH said:

The dehumidifier does not run constantly if you start higher and step down gradually. You can also dry the buds outside of the cooler for a day or two to help this along. If you were to set up a timer to keep the inkbird off for a period of time, then the humidity would climb so high (early in the stage of drying) that the little dehumidifier would never catch up and end up running constantly when the timer kicked on. Knocking the percentage down a point or 2 every 24-48 hours the first week really helps keep things from running constantly and/or freezing up.

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If you dont dry it and fill the fridge full you can get freezing but 10min off is all ittakes for the block of ice to slide off your dehumidifier and it works like normal again

Hollatchaboy said:

I mean, I don't believe it's airtight. Air has to be moving in and out, but the question is, at what rate.

My room is sitting at 68% right now. I've had my bud in the cooler for about a month or so, and it's still going above 61%, pretty quick. The bud is smokable, but definitely still moist. I'm hoping I can just keep it in the cooler, until my next run is ready, which is still at least a couple months away.

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The dehumidifer doesnt get rid of the water.it sucks it out and stores it at the bottom but that puddle wants to go back soo whole fridge has equal rh.soo you will allways have a rise until you remove all of it but as soon as you open the door outside rh goes inside.... I wonder

This post intrigued me so I’m giving it a go. Got my setup all finished up last night. Going to load it up in a couple weeks! What you think?

Dbridgeman1984 said:

This post intrigued me so I’m giving it a go. Got my setup all finished up last night. Going to load it up in a couple weeks! What you think?

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Lookin good. If you haven't already, I would test your little hygrometers and find out how accurate they are. Here is how I did it.

TCH said:

Lookin good. If you haven't already, I would test your little hygrometers and find out how accurate they are. Here is how I did it.

Calibrating and adjusting hygrometers - steps and questions

I am currently testing my hygrometers in a Tupperware bowl with the salt slurry. I understand how to calibrate my Bluetooth and wifi units, but my question is: Do the cheap ones that come in the 12 packs have any adjustment if you crack open the case? Or once they have settled out, can I just...

www.rollitup.org

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Thanks for the link! I’ll definitely need to calibrate it and my bird controller. I wanted to see how far they were off from each other.

I'm looking to price out a build for this. Can anyone help me come up with a stock list with links and prices? Thanks for sharing all this great info gang! I'm looking to make one that can do 1-2 lbs

Nizza said:

I'm looking to price out a build for this. Can anyone help me come up with a stock list with links and prices? Thanks for sharing all this great info gang

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Check local listing, but the cooler should be $200ish, dehumidifier $40ish, inkbird $30-50ish depending on if it's wifi or not.

There are links and part specifics in this thread. Gotta do a little digging

Find a used working wine fridge on marketplace for 100 or cheaper. Get the cheapest dehumidifier 20-30 bucks (since you’re taking the guts out of it) and a ink bird around 50$

The wine cooler needs to be thermoelectric right? The compressor will dry the buds too fast?
I basically just rip apart a dehu and put it in there and rig it up to an inkbird controller?

Nizza said:

The wine cooler needs to be thermoelectric right?

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Correct