Thermoelectric wine cooler drying and curing - DIY

Do you have the same issue? I loaded my wine fridge with more buds which leads to a lot of dehumidifier activity. Unfortunately it seems like my wine fridge can’t cool against it. Is that a sign for peltier degeneration?
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Am I alone with this issue?
Or is this to quick, to set the humidity to 62%-55%? If I would go down stepwise, i think the humidifier wouldn't run 24/7.
I tested it quickly 72-65% and it seemed better.
However..
Changed the setup now to my glycerol-setup.
 

sgnpuflm

Active Member
I'm hoping to assemble mine today, but as I understand it's a gradual step down. Maybe someone can correct if I'm wrong.
 

Tolerance Break

Well-Known Member
Planning on chopping this weekend, and would like to go straight into the cooler. I read through about 20 pages and got a little confused, so I figured I would just ask, what are the starting parameters I need to be aiming for?
 

sgnpuflm

Active Member
Wow, that easy easy to put together. I think I spent more time trying to make my wires pretty than I did actually assembling anything. I drilled a 1/4" hole since I'm using the Controller 79P, and getting the sensor probe and the peltier wires through was maybe the hardest part since it's JUUUUST big enough.

Won't get to use it for a few weeks but I'm excited to. I need to read up on how to set the controller/step the humidity down.
 

Nugnewbie

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure who said what below, but I copied and pasted into a memo pad some various methods that others have posted:


-Here’s what’s been working for me;

load up the fridge with trimmed flower. I really crammed it in there. Set inkbird controller to 90% RH. Wait 12 hours, record the RH it settles at. Adjust inkbird RH to recorded max RH.

While monitoring the temperature so I don’t exceed 60F, I slowly nudge the inkbird down 0.5RH. If I drop it 0.5 every day it’ll be smokable in 2 weeks. After this I throw them in grove bags.


-I load it up full but only one layer per shelf, it is full and holds quite a bit though. I start off with temps at 55 to 60f and decrease to 50 by finish. At first I set the Inkbird to start the dehumidifier at about 85% rh and drop to 80% rh. Depending on how wet everything is it can take a while to get down to 80, then shoot up fairly quickly after the dehumidifier shuts off. I let it cycle like that until it takes about 20 minutes to rise back, then lower it by 5% rh and let it go again. It takes just a couple days to get under 70%, then I slow it down so it take a couple weeks and settles in at 62% rh, similar to your method of just lowering a percent or so a day. I can hold it there for weeks or months if needed, and into grove bags whenever is convenient.




-Directly into the koolatron from harvest:
1. Remove as much of the stem and leaves as you can, just do a decent wet trim but all nugs, no stem. Don’t pile it high or super tight, but it can be fairly well packed in a single layer.
2. Start at 60f and about 76% rh, drop .5-1% a day, you may be able to jump a couple percent lower depending on the moisture in the buds, each run is slightly different but it is easy to figure out once you’ve seen it work, start here.
3. Transfer to bags after you reach 62%-58% dips and the rise part of the dip is longer than the drying phase, it will make sense once you see it running.
 

sgnpuflm

Active Member
Do you have the same issue? I loaded my wine fridge with more buds which leads to a lot of dehumidifier activity. Unfortunately it seems like my wine fridge can’t cool against it. Is that a sign for peltier degeneration?
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What are, or where did you get the small sheet you have tied to the rack? I'm realizing I still need to do that, I only have the curved racks intended for wine bottles still.

Here's another question I hadn't considered. I've only ever just cut and hung, and then dry trimmed. I see people loading the racks with individual, trimmed buds though. I was originally planning on just cutting and placing wholish stems with buds on them (where length would allow) on the racks. I don't know why I didn't think about it until now, but is this a wet or dry trim solution, or both? Would I be better cutting and bucking everything down to just the buds and throwing them on the racks like pictured? Maybe I'm just overthinking this all :)
 

TCH

Well-Known Member
What are, or where did you get the small sheet you have tied to the rack? I'm realizing I still need to do that, I only have the curved racks intended for wine bottles still.

Here's another question I hadn't considered. I've only ever just cut and hung, and then dry trimmed. I see people loading the racks with individual, trimmed buds though. I was originally planning on just cutting and placing wholish stems with buds on them (where length would allow) on the racks. I don't know why I didn't think about it until now, but is this a wet or dry trim solution, or both? Would I be better cutting and bucking everything down to just the buds and throwing them on the racks like pictured? Maybe I'm just overthinking this all :)
The more you wet trim, the more you can fit in there.
 

UnknownRemedy

Well-Known Member
What are, or where did you get the small sheet you have tied to the rack? I'm realizing I still need to do that, I only have the curved racks intended for wine bottles still.

Here's another question I hadn't considered. I've only ever just cut and hung, and then dry trimmed. I see people loading the racks with individual, trimmed buds though. I was originally planning on just cutting and placing wholish stems with buds on them (where length would allow) on the racks. I don't know why I didn't think about it until now, but is this a wet or dry trim solution, or both? Would I be better cutting and bucking everything down to just the buds and throwing them on the racks like pictured? Maybe I'm just overthinking this all :)
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These are what I bought. I do what they have been telling you. Cut down your plant, and trim off all of the leaves(and stems if they can't fit). Set controller to 75% rh and your cooler at 58f. And then slowly drop the rh until it reaches 60% rh. Once the 10-14 day dry is up and I'm at 60% I drop the rh to 58% for the cure.

I just leave my buds sitting in the cooler, no transferring to anything. They just hangout on the fridge until my next harvest, and then if anything is left I'll put it into my cvaults.
 

Tony9d9ct

Active Member
Hey yall. Been lurking on here for over a month, and just wanted to share my progress. Koolatron with the recommended dehu, but I'm using a smart outlet with a wifi hygrometer. I can set humidity range and dehu kicks on and keeps it there. It's EASY to build. I'm ordering another one soon, which I'll try and do a video on, and I'll be using the AC Infinity 79 pro I ordered for this one. I think a second one for long term storage would be mint. The smart outlet and wifi hygrometer I already had, and they work incredibly well. If you can operate a drill and a screwdriver this is simple to build. I have a run hopefully ending in 3 weeks or so and I'm excited to see this thing make magic.
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Delps8

Well-Known Member
Heh, thought I'd add my tuppence after running the Koolatron for a couple of months…

It works like a total champ! Again, thank you for this excellent idea and keeping this thread "between the guard rails".

I started building it with a retired Inkbird but switched to using a retired AC Infinity C69. I made the change only because I have a C69 Pro so both controllers run from the same app.

It was easy to build/assemble the pieces. I have very little space to build things (I live in a newer community in SoCal where floor space is limited) so I ended up drilling the hole in the Koolatron by putting it on the floor of my garage and then assembling everything in my home office. Everything went together easily so, if anyone reading this thread is hesitant about being able to cut and or drill, it's really very straightforward but as always, "measure twice, cut once".

The only issue - we had a power outage here and the fridge lost its temperature setting so it got chilly in there. I set the C69 to send an alert for RH being out of range but didn't set one to alert me for temperature. Oops.

All in all, this is a great idea and I'm looking forward to using it for my future grows.
 

gooshpoo

Well-Known Member
Would it hurt to add a small computer fan in the bottom running all the time to circulate air like the cannatrol ? I no the dehu has a fan but it only runs when it kicks on, I don’t think a fan blowing up would be that great of idea but what about a fan fastened to bottom of bottom tray blowing down to circulate air ?
I have a 120mm fan in both.
 

gooshpoo

Well-Known Member
If you are not maintaining temperature inside and your outside temp is constant then you need to back off the humidifier the temperature is far more important for preventing mold.
I am cutting down and loading directly into mine with stems. If you are using a ACI controller just use the Cycle function and set a timer for 3min on 3 min off and if you are not holding temp give it more off time.
 

Hook Daddy

Well-Known Member
Hi! I have an eight bottle wine fridge loaded with 160 g of fresh cut wet weed (1 day drying in the tent) , but my humidity never is higher than 60%
What am I doing wrong?

Peaks = open door, but it needs quite a long time to cool down this time
Did you calibrate the dehumidifier, or double check it with another? Also if your in Ca with low humidity and a don’t have it loaded very full that might explain it, in which case just let it ride, 58% rh is ok and better than the outside humidity. You could put a damp sponge in to see if rh rises to check if your rh probe is working.
 

vivalapuna

New Member
Been reading this thread last weeks and just joined to Say: kool & the gang.

I was part of an amazing thread some time ago called dr ziggy's lo and slo, which was a great update in Lotus Drying. Now this conversation is getting Even further and can't explain how glad I'm to be here.

I'm from argentina, sorry for My Bad English. Sure i'll make lots of spelling mistakes.

I dried huge batchs in a no-frost fridge with no dehu in it and got great results, with an average time of 12 days to get 60% rh once in jars. But I can not control it to stop removing moisture when it gets to the desired point, so this is the way to improve My setup.
 

vivalapuna

New Member
Forgot to add: I had an idea while reading. Warmer air can hold more water vapor in it. So, if you want to remove more humidity the first day try with a higher initial temp (up to 68F seems to be safe). Then get it down while reducing RH.
 
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