Bud dryer - manicured to smoke in 3 days

Thanks for the linkage, silk.

One thing I notice from all those commercial dehydrators is how much heating power they have - anywhere from 220W to 600W. Lots of watts, probably very good for making beef jerky. However, I seriously doubt any of the commercial units will be adjustable down to 29C, which is the very maximum temp you want to expose buds to while drying or storing. Throwing 600W into a load of buds would very quickly destroy the THC and turn the buds crumbly.

My dryer only puts 25W worth of power at maximum (more than that should pop the resistors) into the air which runs through the buds. When ambient temperature is about 24C, it only takes about 10-15W to raise the temp to 29C.

I had considered modifying a commercial dehydration unit by putting a high-power incandescent dimmer unit in series with the heating element to limit the max temp, but the cost to buy a new dehydrator unit was far, FAR in excess of what I could build one for.

courtcourt420 said:

Al B. Whats up. We built a dryer in a a container about the same size. with 2 fans, 125 cfm total, on each end sucking air out. and 13 total holes to bring air in .

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You might think about trying a reversible mod to your dryer to convert it to crossflow.

If the fans are already on opposite ends of the box, tape shut your 13 holes with some staunch duct tape (from inside and out) and turn one of the fans around backwards so you have one pumping air in and one pulling it out. I think you'll find that this will speed up the drying even without adding any heat to your intake air. Even the motion of the airstream hitting the water molecules on the bud material, without any added heat, will help speed the evaporation.

The fan locations are important- it wouldn't work too well if the in & out fans were right next to one another- the main stream of air would travel by the shortest, lowest resistance path from one fan to the other. The mass of buds should be right in the midst of the airstream for best effect.

Lemme know how you go.

Maybe my link wasn't clear, those excalibur dehydrators can go down to below 19C which is lower than my air drying method which is around 23C. I'm actually gonna pick one up for other uses but I'll give it a try with buds sometimes. I don't really have a mold threat in my home, particularly in the oven!

Thanks for the info, but where are you getting the 19C figure from? The small units on the page you linked all have a note saying 'adjustable thermostat' but only the $5000 'professional' unit gives a temp range (specifies "80F-200F+"). The 'pro' unit sure looks nice, though! If it can maintain 29C/84F, it's just the ticket!

I'm sure the other units can either go down close to 29C or could be modified to do so, but they're all priced at a lot more than you'd spend for a slapdash converted storage box special.

I admit to being both lazy and cheap, but I think I'm cheaper than I am lazy.

This page from the Excalibur FAQ says the adjustable range is 95F-145F.

FAQs Regarding Excalibur Dehydrator

Is an adjustable thermostat important? Yes, it is. For best flavor, fastest drying, highest nutritional value, and overall versatility, and adjustable thermostat is a "must". For example:

Item​

Termostat [sic] Setting​

Herbs 95º F Cake Decorations 100º - 110ºF Yogurt 115º F Vegetables 125º F Fruit 135º F Jerky 145º F

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Just a LITTLE too hot for buds. If it could only come down 10 more degrees F, it'd be the shit.

Al B. Fuct drop the company an e-mail. They will tell you you can get below 70F on it. I know two foodies that own the retail models and have dehydrated below 70F.

al b.

hello again. are there any draw backs of speeding up the drying process? ive read in some places it can possibly take away potency.

silk said:

Al B. Fuct drop the company an e-mail. They will tell you you can get below 70F on it. I know two foodies that own the retail models and have dehydrated below 70F.

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No prob- they ought to put that on their website, though. It's good info that some of their potential customers (like us) could put to good use!

courtcourt420 said:

al b.

hello again. are there any draw backs of speeding up the drying process? ive read in some places it can possibly take away potency.

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This is THE most common question about my dryer. I've answered it a few times already, but I'll go through it once more with feeling!

The only way to reduce the potency with a dryer/dehydrator is to exceed the temp at which THC breaks down (29C). Most commercial dehydrators operate at much higher than 29C, but silk has found some commercially made units which will go down to 29C.

When you find references to dehydrators damaging the potency of buds, they are generally talking about commercial dehydrators which most often run hotter than needed for buds.

There's no magic in drying buds. Nothing happens in hang-drying which actually requires 2 weeks of hang-time before smoking. You're not dealing with fermentation, which does require some amount of time to work correctly. Whether you're hang-drying or using my dryer (or an equivalent which does not exceed 29C), these methods only remove water, more or less quickly, nothing else. My dryer is designed to remove water from buds as quickly as it can be done without raising the air temp above 29C.

My dryer is very specifically designed for buds. It puts out only a very small amount of heat. The temp is easily controllable via the highly stable dimmer module, down to 1/10 of a degree C.

If you knew the precise resistance value needed to raise the temp of the air coming off the heatsink to 29C (based upon your local line voltage), you could eliminate the dimmer module. However, I haven't calculated these values. These values would vary quite lot with different sized heatsinks and fans, so I have not bothered. With the dimmer, the circuit as drawn above will work for 110V-240V AC. You just have to manually set the temp.

However, it's possible to add a thermostat to mind the max air temp for you. Just wire a t'stat from a broken aquarium heater in series with the dimmer unit and put the thermostat in the warm air stream. Set the thermostat until the max temp is 29C- and forget about it. A thermostat will shut off current to the resistors on the heatsink when temps exceed the 29C limit, but the fans will keep running. This method is useful when your ambient air temps get close to 28-29C. If your ambient air temps don't usually get close to 29C, you will do fine with no thermostat, just using the dimmer to set the max temp.

Thanks to rollitup admins for adding my bud dryer to the FAQ.

Al B. Fuct's Bud Dryer

How to dry buds fast without losing quality

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Great thread, AL. I will look into building one myself. After drying, do you cure your buds or smoke them right away. I read that the curing process goes a long long way in determining the quality of the smoke - longer cure, smoother smoke, better the high.

Thanks for the compliment, hearmenow.

There's a lot of myths surrounding 'curing' cannabis. I've heard everything from burying buds in glass jars for a few months to sprinkling whiskey on the stuff (yikes!).

The only thing you really need to do is trim off the bud leaves and dry the buds, either by hanging or with a dryer, no magic involved. The small bud leaves have to go because they have an awful lot of chlorophyll and cellulose by weight compared to the amount of resin and taste a bit 'green' when smoked. There's a lot of resin trichomes on those 'sugar leaves' as they are sometimes called due to the 'frosty' appearance of the resin trichomes, which makes such trimmings ideal for the ice water/filtration method of hash making. I don't dick around with making water hash, I just smoke the resin which sticks to my fingers while manicuring. Yummy stuff, finger hash.

In answer to your question, I just 'manicure' and chuck the buds in the dryer. Manicuring is much easier when the plant is fresh. If the plant is allowed to wilt before manicuring, the manicuring job is 10x harder because the trimmings will stick to the scissors. If a plant wilts before you get around to manicuring, you may as well let it dry fully (by hanging or bud dryer) before trying to trim off any unwanted leaf material. Dried leaves are stiff and are much easier to trim than floppy, wilted leaves.

Soon as the buds are dry, they're ready to smoke. There's no real need to 'age' buds. In fact, THC content will be at its peak at the moment you take the plant down. You're not going to get any more THC by 'aging.' If anything, the treatment after manicuring and drying tends to reduce THC levels by breaking it down into other less psychoactive cannabinoids like CBD. Keeping your air temps under 29C and protecting drying buds from exposure to light, whether hang-drying or using a dryer, will best preserve the THC content.

Smoothness or harshness of smoking quality is determined by the amount of water left in the buds. A little bit of humidity left in the buds will make them smoke more smoothly as it slows the burning a little (this is the main reason why cigars are kept in humidors). If you stop the drying process when the buds are just a tiny bit springy, they will have just enough water left in them to make them smooth and flavourful to smoke.

If you do accidentally overdry to the point of crispiness/crumbliness, you can put a tiny bit of water back in the buds by nesting a paper towel with a teaspoon of water in the buds, all in a Tupperware type container or a plastic bag. It takes some practice with the dryer to get the moisture content perfect every time, but anyone can work it out after a few tries. The main thing is that if you do accidentally overdry, it's reversible in an hour or two.

I realise that cannabis 'curing' myths have been around for a long time, but I'd invite anyone to do a side-by-side comparison of hang-dried and 'aged' buds against buds dried in a low-temp dryer/dehydrator. If you can pick the difference at all, it's probably because you can taste a tiny hint of mould in the hang-dried buds.

That's some very useful here, Al. Thanks for taking the time.

Fyi, regarding overdried buds, I usually put a couple slivers of carrot in with the buds overnight and they return to their springy soft texture.

cannabis curing is a "myth"? careful with your statements please.

i have first hand knowledge of this and you are mistaken. chlorophyll determines harshness as much as water. if water even determines it. buds are full of chlorophyll all the way thru. my buds turn GOLD after six months of curing and the flavor and smoothness is NOTICABLY better.

i would like to know where you found your info. you seem so certain on it's truth.

no problem, hmn.

Rehydrating overdry buds can be done a number of different ways; a slice of apple, carrot, even some orange peel can be used.

I use a paper towel and a few ml of plain water as I don't like to add any 'foreign flavours' to my buds, but that's personal preference. I don't put A1 sauce on my steaks, either.

fdd2blk said:

i would like to know where you found your info. you seem so certain on it's truth.

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On-the-job training!

I've tried just about every sensible suggestion and some that aren't so sensible.

Getting the moisture content right is the biggest part of it all.

This much is indisputable- THC breaks down into less or even non-psychoactive cannabinoids not just with exposure to light and high temps, but (to a lesser degree) with time. Fresher dope is better dope. Bumper stickers should be issued! (apologies to Neil Young)

Conversion of THC into other cannabinoids isn't always a bad thing- some research has been done by med users into THC/CBD balance and it was found that non-THC cannabinoids were preferred for some medical uses. THC & other cannabinoids have differing psychoactive effects; I find that freshly and properly dried buds give me my favoured light & wacky headbuzz. CBD and others are associated with more stoney, body buzz type highs.

fdd2blk, I don't mean to disrespect your experience, but most of the positive qualities touted in curing and aging can be replicated with much less time. The most noticeable quality to smokers is smoothness- and that's the easiest part to sort out, simply by getting the moisture content right.

I can see your point about chlorophyll, but I think you'll find that there's much more of the stuff by weight in the leaf material than in the empty seed bracts we call buds. Leaves are much darker green than bracts/bud material due to the chlorophyll content. One thing that aging definitely does do that my dryer won't is break down chlorophyll- that IS something which takes time. However, the strain I'm presently growing (Sweet Tooth #4, Spice Of Life Seeds) is a very pleasant smoke right out of the dryer.

i appreciate that this didn't turn into a fight. much respect.

i guess my main objective IS chloropyhll break down.

i do my best to cause as little degradation as possible. stored in sealed jars in the dark under controlled temps.

i know a guy who turns on his dehumidifier and heater. get's his room at 70 degrees and 0 humidity. then he throws in 3 lbs of primo medical grade and literally sucks it dry. when you pinch it to roll a doobie it just goes POOOOF! and turns to powder. that's my issue.

i'll admit i've used low heat and fans to get to a point of curing. and using a quick dry method for the first half of drying may be something to look into on my end.

i'm still a little doubtful though.

just an old dog i guess.

fdd2blk, sorry to raise your hackles, anyway. Wasn't my intent. Apologies if you've taken offence.

The suckiest part of cannabis prohibition is that everything surrounding it really has to be underground. This doesn't do much for advancing the art. You'll agree that there's quite a lot of unsubstantiable garbage information floating around regarding pot, from growing to rolling. Sometimes you just gotta do it yourself until you sort out what works.

I'm not so ready to dismiss all this information, good and bad, down to personal preference. I tend to investigate and experiment when I get new information. I'm no scientist, but I do understand the scientific method and use it to make my assessments.

My op is not huge, but it does make enough spare buds that I can dork around with some of them to try out different things, even if it means I waste some. That's how the dryer came about. I was also extremely skeptical about what a dryer would do to the smoking qualities. My standard technique at the time was hang-drying and then storing the buds in a tightly sealed Tupperware in a dark, cool place. However, as I said in the first post in this thread, having them hanging about being all stinky for a couple of weeks was a security hazard. Something had to be done- and the low-temp dryer has worked out to be the best solution, with no compromises over smoking quality.

Once again, sorry to cheese you off!

i heard that is gonna dry that shit out too much anyone cure there weed or too impatient ?

sequento, read back over the thread- and you'll see why the dryer doesn't overdry (with proper attention) nor damage THC content.