Cannabis Drying/Curing Refrigerator - Build Questions - Need Help!

[mothy]

I rather put a-grade buds in plastic bags and let the upper part of bag open in fridge wine. It condensate lil bit of water at bottom of bag but I shake the bag once every 4-5 days. No problem so far, dimension with buds in bag are around 10x15x15cm.
I dont like to use food grade paper bags, it dries faster and smell weird.
Didnt also do some special tweaks to fridge with additional fans. I think it wokld dry faster too, which u dont want. U wanna cure this way minimum 2 weeks.
If u have problem with humidity, perhaps add rice, which will absorb a lot.

the problem with rice, descants, bovida packs etc, is they won't de-humidify the unit quickly enough, works for jars etc... They can also absorb odors, which I want my plants to retain their full aroma!

 

[mothy]

with a heat rod I wouldn’t expect it to collect any water. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work but I haven’t tested it or seen anyone else trying it.

Cannatrolls patent uses a “heating element” in their design. I would guess it’s probably something like a heating rod.


Whatever water collects in the fridge will drain out through the drain port. So it’s just preference on how you want to collect the water. Cutting the water reservoir off the Dehum is nice because you don’t have to worry about it filling up and turning off and it makes it shorter so the shelves don’t hit it.

I finally set my "canna-troll" up, The dehumidifier has 2 heatsinks, one gets cold, the other gets hot, The one that is hot has a fan on it, the one that gets cold accumulates moisture and drips into the bottom of the thermoelectric wine fridge. Then it eventually drips out the back. Its kind of a weird concept... A Thermoelectric cooler with a Thermoelectric dehumidifier inside. I thought this would be counterintuitive at first, but it seems to be working great. I tested it out empty and could maintain 65/65 easily. I have put a wet sponge inside and it does bring the humidity up to 80% but when i turn everything on I can still maintain 65/65 with no issues. Hopefully chopping my plant in a week so I can see if it really holds up to a real cannatrol!

 

[PahPahCee]

I finally set my "canna-troll" up, The dehumidifier has 2 heatsinks, one gets cold, the other gets hot, The one that is hot has a fan on it, the one that gets cold accumulates moisture and drips into the bottom of the thermoelectric wine fridge. Then it eventually drips out the back. Its kind of a weird concept... A Thermoelectric cooler with a Thermoelectric dehumidifier inside. I thought this would be counterintuitive at first, but it seems to be working great. I tested it out empty and could maintain 65/65 easily. I have put a wet sponge inside and it does bring the humidity up to 80% but when i turn everything on I can still maintain 65/65 with no issues. Hopefully chopping my plant in a week so I can see if it really holds up to a real cannatrol!

Nice! I like to think of the Dehum as a heating element that also strips moisture.


When you load it up with bud don’t turn on the Dehum. Let it sit there for a few hours until the humidity stops rising. Once you have a baseline you can turn on the Dehum and slowly start working the humidity down a point at a time. You want to avoid working the Dehum too hard because it will raise the temperature of the fridge quickly. I don’t like to exceed 60F.

 

[simonkay]

Would you kind folks give me an idea of how much fresh buds you're managing to squeeze into the fridges?

Im thinking of just getting one of the bigger ones like 36 bottles as i cant afford to always stagger my harvest.

 

[PahPahCee]

Would you kind folks give me an idea of how much fresh buds you're managing to squeeze into the fridges?

Im thinking of just getting one of the bigger ones like 36 bottles as i cant afford to always stagger my harvest.

I can fit about 1lb in my 28 bottle fridge. I run two fridges and stager my harvest. Or I freeze some for fresh frozen.

my method is I cut down one or two plants a day. Do a lazy wet trim and load up a few shelves. Come back the next night and process a few more plants, and rearrange the shelf from the prior night to free up space.

Usually within 1-2 days the nugs noticeably shrink. Rotate and rearrange the shelves after the 1-2 days and you can really jam them in there. You also avoid having the nugs gets flattened since we’re moving them around after a day or two.

After 2 weeks (average dry time if the fridge is low) I throw it all in terploc bags.

 

[simonkay]

Awesome, does anything change when you freeze them and then defrost for curing later
and do you just put them into zip locks or something more solid

Appreciate you man

 

[PahPahCee]

Awesome, does anything change when you freeze them and then defrost for curing later
and do you just put them into zip locks or something more solid

Appreciate you man

For sure any time!

so no, fresh frozen is for making hash. Essentially you just buck off the buds, freeze it and when you’re ready to make bubble hash you just process it straight out of the freezer.

I wouldn’t recommend freezing it and then unfreezing it to smoke. Not sure how that would turn out.

Ive used turkey bags and ziploc for freezing. The best method is vacuum sealing it before freezing. If I was freezing for longer than a week I would vacuum seal it.

 

[Gizmo613]

Hey guys,

Quick update. First plant took about 11 days to dry. Humidity was about 60-61% when I pulled her out. Now trying the profile that was a few pages on my second plant.

Question, I have about 4-5 days current for my second plant and looking to add a 3rd plant. Would that mess up the dry for the second plant?

 

[Kamisama]

Hey guys,

Quick update. First plant took about 11 days to dry. Humidity was about 60-61% when I pulled her out. Now trying the profile that was a few pages on my second plant.

Question, I have about 4-5 days current for my second plant and looking to add a 3rd plant. Would that mess up the dry for the second plant?

Nah, I was also adding some plants later and everything went awesome. I ve trimmed buds and put each strain to its own plastic bag opened on top. Cured each plant in two weeks.

Dont have light or direct line on that winery.

 

[simonkay]

Wine fridge came in just gotta take this humidifier down to size and find a way to thread the power cable out and the humidity probe in.
I've kept the top half of the housing on so far as I don't have the heart to open up the on/off switch as I don't have delicate hands so will probably break it but if I did open it up I'd only be saving like 5mm in height so will leave it for now unless the unit gets too hot in which case I will have little choice.

 

[LeafyGreenPhotography]

Wine fridge came in just gotta take this humidifier down to size and find a way to thread the power cable out and the humidity probe in.
I've kept the top half of the housing on so far as I don't have the heart to open up the on/off switch as I don't have delicate hands so will probably break it but if I did open it up I'd only be saving like 5mm in height so will leave it for now unless the unit gets too hot in which case I will have little choice.

I'm also building one of these. Every outdoor year I have to move my veg room into a tent so I can use the dedicated room to dry with a Window Ac, Dehumidifer, and Humidifer. In California, the cost of electricity is crazy and is almost getting to the point where having a dedicated dry room is too expensive. By building a few of these DIY Wine Fridge Dryers I can save a lot of space and money on electricity.

I have access to a 3D printing farm and have experience designing things in CAD software I think I'm going to work on a Wire Plug printed out of TPU flexible filament to fit snugly in the hole I will drill out for the Dehumidifier in the back of the Wine Fridge. I'll try to post pictures once I have everything set up.

 

[JKash]

Wrong. The whole action of curing is to get rid of the chlorophyll. That's what makes it harsh and hides the full flavor.
Chlorophyll sublimates with water at very low temps which allows it to be quickly extracted along with the water.

Half life of chlorophyll is like 12 hours or something like.... and that statement came from Bugbee

 

[misfitdad]

Thanks for this awesome thread. I also love in Cali near the coast and can’t dry anything in my shed with the nightly humidity swings. So like others I have gone the Wine Fridge route. Here is my setup, maintains a solid 60/60 no problem at all once I installed the dehumidifier. I have to build another one this afternoon and will post pics of the build. Basically just followed the theory of this thread, tore down a dehumidifier, drilled a hole, and hooked fridge and dehumidifier to an AC infinity plug controller. Fridge is set to always on and AC infinity turns dehumidifier on when needed. The material in here is not to be judged! This batch is the reason I started the wine fridge route, so it is still drying/curing in all manner of methods to see what I like best. Will be harvesting another plant in a week or so to give it a real test. I plan to have one setup for drying and one setup for long term jar storage/head stash.

 

[PahPahCee]

Thanks for this awesome thread. I also love in Cali near the coast and can’t dry anything in my shed with the nightly humidity swings. So like others I have gone the Wine Fridge route. Here is my setup, maintains a solid 60/60 no problem at all once I installed the dehumidifier. I have to build another one this afternoon and will post pics of the build. Basically just followed the theory of this thread, tore down a dehumidifier, drilled a hole, and hooked fridge and dehumidifier to an AC infinity plug controller. Fridge is set to always on and AC infinity turns dehumidifier on when needed. The material in here is not to be judged! This batch is the reason I started the wine fridge route, so it is still drying/curing in all manner of methods to see what I like best. Will be harvesting another plant in a week or so to give it a real test. I plan to have one setup for drying and one setup for long term jar storage/head stash.

Nice work!

Welcome to the diy wine fridge club.

 

[misfitdad]

Nice work!

Welcome to the diy wine fridge club.

Thanks for the inspiration!

 

[JKash]

Yes I have considered cooling my garage however the electricity costs would be pretty high to run the AC 24/7. I know $1600 is a lot of money but I think cooling my garage would actually probably cost that much per year anyways. SoCal Edison already fuck me enough as is LOL

So why not get a grow tent to set up in garage one big enough to fit portable a/c and humidifier(if needed) 4x4 would probably be plenty? Pick up a tent on Amazon for about 80 to 100 bucks... portable ac for like 400 on amazon.... keeping tent cold could be easier than whole garage

 

[simonkay]

For those who are using silicon sheets, could you tell me why you chose that over hanging the nugs from the wine racks
Tia.

 

[PahPahCee]

For those who are using silicon sheets, could you tell me why you chose that over hanging the nugs from the wine racks
Tia.

you can fit more in the fridge by utilizing the shelves.

I buck the nugs and removing the leaves to really maximize it.

 

[PahPahCee]

Cannatrol is selling shelves for a decent price if you need more.

 

[misfitdad]

Here’s the one I threw together just now. Koolatron 20 bottle wine fridge, Amazon dehumidifier, AC infinity smart plug. Just used a drill and screwdriver, and two dabs of silicone. From start to finish this is a half hour job max. I opted to not splice any wires as I am lazy and don’t see the point if you can’t see them. The dehumidifier has a push button on off toggle so it is just left on so the AC infinity can trigger it as needed. It also has an auto off switch for when the water reservoir is full, which I found can be disable by simply bending and snapping the switch arm. As long as nothing touches that switch it’s fine. Controller board is attached to a random plastic piece with one screw just to keep it from moving if the fridge is moved. Then it is all buttoned up in the back and thrown back together. Here are pics, as well as a pic of a one hour snapshot of the temp/humidity dance played by the dehumidifier/fridge. I could probably tune this further but considering I don’t control my sheds environment this may prove difficult. For now I am content with it keeping the 60/60 set point for the most part. Next is a test run once Mother Nature gets off her ass and finishes these buds I’ve been staring at for days.