Thermoelectric wine cooler drying and curing - DIY

[Nugnewbie]

My harvest of Meltdown on the 15th is almost ready for grove bags, will taper down to approximately 58% in the next 3-5 days. Amazed how much the buds shrunk, and also that the drip tray was inadequate to contain all the water that was removed. Put a tin cookie sheet under the unit to catch any overflow.

 

[curious2garden]

My harvest of Meltdown on the 15th is almost ready for grove bags, will taper down to approximately 58% in the next 3-5 days. Amazed how much the buds shrunk, and also that the drip tray was inadequate to contain all the water that was removed. Put a tin cookie sheet under the unit to catch any overflow.
View attachment 5380651View attachment 5380652

Wow, looks great, nicely done.

 

[Nugnewbie]

Wow, looks great, nicely done.

Thank you. Will weigh once I'm putting in bags. It will be less than harvest weight as I was out of bud, and so I've been sampling, heh. Good smoke indeed. I'm terrible at describing flavors and smells, but seems potent enough for sure, still has that lime smell when breaking it up in the grinder.

 

[beer30]

Finally got my code straightened out and bench tested all the sensors and display. Crazy how long things that seem so simple can take when you don't know wtf you're doing LOL. Today I learned that Arduino and ESP32 pwm do NOT work the same, not even close. Good times. Can tell I'm mellowing in my old age. Not a single thing thrown, smashed, or broken. Yet lol. Peltiers are suppose to show up today. So I might actually get to see if all this fussing was worth it tomorrow. Long as they work I'll be right on target to actually use this thing next week. My trichomes are around half cloudy so guessing a week maybe a bit longer.

 

[beer30]

Well with roughly a half gallon of water soaked in towels sitting in bowls for some moisture even without insulation it appears as though it will work. It is able to keep the box at or below room temp. Now of course some insulation would be helpful and is something I will likely do here shortly. But if you have an air conditioned space you could keep a tote in so far I think this diy way will work.

It is built out of 2 of the dual peltiers units on ebay, the cheap ones with the simple flat heatsinks. Using one set as the cooler and hooked up only one peltier as the dehumidifier. The peltiers are controlled by 2 BTS7960 motor controllers that are in turn controlled by an ESP32. BME280 sensor for Box temp and humidity, could of used a dht22 or whatever I had a spare bme280 on hand. 2 ds18b20 temp sensors are stuck in the cold side heatsink fins to tell me what the heatsink temps are.

Tried having the fan on the dehumidifier cold side run but it wasn't getting cold enough unless the power was cranked. The cooler was still pulling the moisture level down pretty good though. So those thinking a small heater would work are right. But I have the peltier so I clipped the fan and gonna run another test.

 

[dwc420letsgo]

Right after i finish getting everything together and making holes in my koolatron, I realized the dehumi i have is too big. Dammit more amazon packages incoming… whatever i got the koolatron open box that was pretty much brand new for $150

 

[beer30]

Right after i finish getting everything together and making holes in my koolatron, I realized the dehumi i have is too big. Dammit more amazon packages incoming… whatever i got the koolatron open box that was pretty much brand new for $150

Too big as in it's overpowering the cooler? If so hunt around and find a power brick that puts out less voltage but roughly the same amps as the one it come with. Or just order a variable voltage power supply something like 0-12v 10a or so should be plenty for 1 peltier like that.

 

[dwc420letsgo]

Too big as in it's overpowering the cooler? If so hunt around and find a power brick that puts out less voltage but roughly the same amps as the one it come with. Or just order a variable voltage power supply something like 0-12v 10a or so should be plenty for 1 peltier like that.

Nah just physically too big. See the pic, it blocks out the bottom tray so id be able to fit a lot less. I just ordered the pohl schimmtt or w/e it’s called

 

[beer30]

Nah just physically too big. See the pic, it blocks out the bottom tray so id be able to fit a lot less. I just ordered the pohl schimmtt or w/e it’s called

Don't think the others are really much smaller. Scroll through the pics and look. Fan, peltier, heatsinks. Can't get much smaller. But the cooler being tiny is why I decided to go the diy route.

 

[dwc420letsgo]

Don't think the others are really much smaller. Scroll through the pics and look. Fan, peltier, heatsinks. Can't get much smaller. But the cooler being tiny is why I decided to go the diy route.

The one im using has two peltier chips. The one OP uses fits below the bottom tray line

 

[beer30]

The one im using has two peltier chips. The one OP uses fits below the bottom tray line

Ah yes 2 peltiers would most likely over power the cooler too. From my digging around it's said that they make roughly 1.75 times more heat than cold.

 

[gooshpoo]

Potential Replacment
Check this thing out I know the whole cant use compressor type but this claims to regulate humidity and temperature

 

[groworm]

Potential Replacment
Check this thing out I know the whole cant use compressor type but this claims to regulate humidity and temperature

 

[beer30]

Wow at the translation on that page, can tell nobody speaks english. Not even close. But huge BUT if it does what it says it does then yes that would work nicely. I would have to see how it handles humidifying and dehumidifying first though.

 

[beer30]

After messing with my diy cooler more today I think this will work. In my case since the tote is larger than it probably should be and not insulated I don't really need the humidifier at all. Just adjust the cooling module voltage to regulate dew point / water vapor pressure and the temps naturally end up cold enough. For those curious about temp and RH running the cooling module almost full blast it has managed to pull the box down from 73f and 80%rh to 64f and 69% rh in about an hour maybe less. That is a drop from 66.5f dew point to 54f dew point. Or 2218pa water vapor pressure to 1404. Again that is with towels soaked in water. The rh starts rising soon as the voltage is reduced or cut so it appears as though I have a decent amount of moisture in the box. Which is the idea.

Now will it be good for curing or long term storage? Not really as it has to work too hard to drop temps. But obviously put these same modules in a smaller insulated box like a cooler for example and I think it would work fine.

 

[dwc420letsgo]

Just finished building mine, now I just need an actual harvest lol.
Anyways, my dehumi sits akwardly between the bottom racks. Anybody have a better placement solution?

 

[pahpah-cee]

You need the aluminum fins sitting in the back drip area so the excess water coming off goes out the drain. I would cut a little notch off the tray so the dehumidifier fits.

 

[Hook Daddy]

Just finished building mine, now I just need an actual harvest lol.
Anyways, my dehumi sits akwardly between the bottom racks. Anybody have a better placement solution?

As @pahpah-cee said cut the back left corner out of the bottom shelf so the dehumidifier can sit with the pointed fins in the coolers drip channel at the rear left of the cooler.

 

[dwc420letsgo]

As @pahpah-cee said cut the back left corner out of the bottom shelf so the dehumidifier can sit with the pointed fins in the coolers drip channel at the rear left of the cooler.

Appreciate you kind sir

 

[beer30]

Welp real flower testing has come early. My peanut butter breath decided she had her fill of the stress of life and threw a cpl tiny little nanners. First time running it, probably the last unless it's amazing. Thankfully not super early the trichs were mostly cloudy. Was hoping to wait for some amber but nope day 60 she said enough.

From some earlier tests I think I'm gonna have to keep atleast one wet towel in the box as it's only like 2.5 racks of flower. Not really racks I drilled holes and used dowels to hang stems from. Was way cheaper and easier then racks and flower won't end up with flat spots that way. Going to try slowly pulling the water vapor pressure down over 5-6 days.