Thermoelectric wine cooler drying and curing - DIY

[Blue brother]

Hi everyone, how do you guys deal with a full fridge and 85+ humidity?
I know 2-4 oz won’t be a problem but what about 12-16 oz?
Do you set the dehumidifier at 69f or do you just drop 1-2% every day?

Thanks in advance

Get the area ur unit is in cold as fuck, you should be able to get down to around 9’c with the dehuey running full blast, the biggest loss of terps happens right at harvest imo, hanging it for a couple days is only gonna lead to a huge loss in myrcene

 

[Nizza]

Get the area ur unit is in cold as fuck, you should be able to get down to around 9’c with the dehuey running full blast, the biggest loss of terps happens right at harvest imo, hanging it for a couple days is only gonna lead to a huge loss in myrcene

So you are using the fridge to dry with no hang drying? I am so worried about mold , but what you're saying makes sense

 

[Blue brother]

So you are using the fridge to dry with no hang drying? I am so worried about mold , but what you're saying makes sense

Yeah that was always the idea when I built it. I did worry about mold too, I won’t lie, but I packed 15oz into mine the first time I used it and it was all perfect, game changing actually.

Until I built it I had no idea how much terps I was throwing away at every harvest, after running it for 3 years now I couldn’t go back to smoking hang dried bud, it tastes and smells incomplete.

 

[Hook Daddy]

Here’s a pic of the Dosidos this morning. It’s been drying in the cooler since Dec. 3, so about 3 weeks, and it’s down to 61% rh now. I put this all straight in without hanging first. I did get all the fans and large stems off, there’s pics going in the cooler on the previous posts. Smells fantastic, I agree with @Blue brother, I can’t imagine hanging all to dry. I hate when I have to pick some that doesn’t go in because I don’t have enough room. Might have to build a third soon.

 

[Nizza]

Here’s a pic of the Dosidos this morning. It’s been drying in the cooler since Dec. 3, so about 3 weeks, and it’s down to 61% rh now. I put this all straight in without hanging first. I did get all the fans and large stems off, there’s pics going in the cooler on the previous posts. Smells fantastic, I agree with @Blue brother, I can’t imagine hanging all to dry. I hate when I have to pick some that doesn’t go in because I don’t have enough room. Might have to build a third soon.

View attachment 5354806

That bud looks fantastic

I bought a koolatron off ebay for 125$ and it was an "open box"

The front right leg was broken (shattered to peices in the box) so I contacted koolatron and they sent me a new leveling leg for it

 

[Blue brother]

I now use an ac to dry what I sell, and my fridge to dry my own flower, and a freezer for my fresh frozen stuff so I do manage with just the one unit. But even an ac controlled tent run cold just gives the terps too much space to run and hide imo, I’m working on a proof of concept right now that will allow us to set and forget and dry in an actual fridge at 4’c.

 

[groworm]

got the koolatron, but there's a green and red led on a pcb in the back, and the red is quite noticeable from outside the unit .. thinking it must be a power light rather than a malfunction indicator, but does everyone else's have the same?

 

[Hook Daddy]

got the koolatron, but there's a green and red led on a pcb in the back, and the red is quite noticeable from outside the unit .. thinking it must be a power light rather than a malfunction indicator, but does everyone else's have the same?

I don’t seem to have the pcb with the LEDs in the back of mine. Koolatron may have made changes to the power supply, is it the same model? It shouldn’t make any difference unless you’re putting it in a grow room or something. Anyone else have LEDs in the back of their units?

 

[TCH]

I've got a red one that i can see but only if I'm looking into the side of it.

 

[Hook Daddy]

I just checked again and from the rear and left side I can’t see it, but with lights off I can just make it out on the right side, so I guess maybe the new ones got brighter LEDs or redesigned the back so you can see it better. It shouldn’t make any difference.

 

[Hook Daddy]

We did do a smoke test last weekend, the bud from the koolatron beat out the hang dry hands down for taste and smoothness, it was a split decision on potency, but the majority still felt the Koolatron bud was stronger as well. I think it definitively preserves the terps better. Here’s a picture of one of the buds straight out of the cooler, it’s been in there drying and then curing over a month now, and is sitting at 61% rh still.

 

[Nizza]

We did do a smoke test last weekend, the bud from the koolatron beat out the hang dry hands down for taste and smoothness, it was a split decision on potency, but the majority still felt the Koolatron bud was stronger as well. I think it definitively preserves the terps better. Here’s a picture of one of the buds straight out of the cooler, it’s been in there drying and then curing over a month now, and is sitting at 61% rh still.

after the bud is dried do you store the crop inside the koolatron, inside grove bags?

 

[TCH]

after the bud is dried do you store the crop inside the koolatron, inside grove bags?

I pull out of the koolatron once it is stabilized after a couple weeks normally. I recently just consolidated jars and put it all into Grove Bags and heat sealed them.

 

[Nizza]

I pull out of the koolatron once it is stabilized after a couple weeks normally. I recently just consolidated jars and put it all into Grove Bags and heat sealed them.

do you think it would be beneficial to keep it refrigerated at 60 degrees or so though? I wonder if it increases shelf life
I was thinking of a fridge for seeds/bud

 

[TCH]

do you think it would be beneficial to keep it refrigerated at 60 degrees or so though? I wonder if it increases shelf life
I was thinking of a fridge for seeds/bud

I dont think it'd hurt. Matter of fact, that's a selling point for the Cannatrol. I just ran out of room in the Koolatron so I pull it when it's ready for jars/grovebags.

 

[curious2garden]

do you think it would be beneficial to keep it refrigerated at 60 degrees or so though? I wonder if it increases shelf life
I was thinking of a fridge for seeds/bud

I've been moving my dried bud from my freeze dryer to my Koolatron for rehydration, stabilization and storage. The two, so far, are working very nicely together. But I've been storing weed in mine for several months and love it for that.

 

[Hook Daddy]

do you think it would be beneficial to keep it refrigerated at 60 degrees or so though? I wonder if it increases shelf life
I was thinking of a fridge for seeds/bud

I will leave buds in the koolatron until I need to harvest and start again usually. I will then move the buds to grove bags and store them in a different wine fridge I have. It’s not thermoelectric but once they are sealed in the grove bags I don’t think it matters as long as they are kept cool and dark. I think keeping the grove bags between 50-60f and in the dark helps keep them longer, just my opinion on that though.

 

[Plant Techniques]

can i just use an AC Infinity Controller 69 to control all of this just like in my grow tent, but instead of inside a wine cooler?

 

[Lou66]

can i just use an AC Infinity Controller 69 to control all of this just like in my grow tent, but instead of inside a wine cooler?

That is what the inkbird is for. You can probably hack another controller but I'm not familiar with that one.
No reason to reinvent the wheel.

 

[Plant Techniques]

That is what the inkbird is for. You can probably hack another controller but I'm not familiar with that one.
No reason to reinvent the wheel.

but there's no need to hack, AC Infinity sells 120v outlets that connect to the controller. The DeHu can be plugged into one outlet and the Wine cooler can be plugged into another. These are then connected to the AC infinity controller 69 via UIS (basically USB-C) and the Controller 69 can set high/low temp, high/low humidity and control the slope. They basically cost $100 bucks. A LOT of growers use these controllers for their grow tents.