Drying Bud with a Dehumidifier????

I'd like to make a DIY Bud Dryer like Al B.s BUD_DRYER, but i haven't a clue about electrics and circutery.
Could anyone tell me, if i got one of these Dehumidifier's and put it in a large tuberware container like Al B.s, would it dry the bud out quicker?
Has anyone dryed bud out in a room with a dehumidifer?
Or would it be a bad idea for any reason?

I can't answer the question...but I wanted to thank and rep you for the laugh in the thread title......I have a friend called Dud, and I can't stop picturing him like he just fell in a pond or something and we are trying to dehumidify him to dry him out.....probably just the fatty I smoked at lunch, but that shit is funny to me!
ppm

I can't believe i spelled bud with a D LOL.
I'm sure most people will know what i mean LOL.

I've used a food dehydrator to dry bud that I have water cured. It works pretty good. But its still better to just let them slow dry. The taste will be better. If you're in a hurry just pop some in the oven at its lowest setting. Its going to be harsh but still smokable.

I don't want to add heat, the THC will break down from 29c upwards. Thats why i don't want to mess about with that heat sink that Al B has, you need to know what your doing.

Fitz, a dehumidifier will work great, but it will need to be in a sealed space with the buds (eg a closet) to really work. Otherwise it will be mainly occupied removing humidity from all the atmospheric air in the vicinity. Problem with running a dehumidifier in an enclosed space is that they are small aircon units and they develop a fair old amount of heat just sitting there running. You'll have to assure that your small space doesn't exceed 29C. I in fact rely on the dehumidifier in my op to warm it up a bit in deep winter.

Hey fitzy... I also saw als dryer and thought a little out of my league,so i came up with the next best thing.... you can purcahse an open coil heater at most good hrdwre stores for about 20 $ ... i hooked mine to a dimmer ,place the fan behind it and adjust the dimmer for about 10 deg. above ambient... warm not hot .... with lots of air flow ... mine works like a champ... no bad taste ... curing has its place but sometimes its nice to have it NOW..... good luck

Nah, toast master i dont really need it right now, but i'd like to have one up and running. I don't know how a dehumidifier really works, thats why i was asking would that dehumidifier actually dry bud out. God, it would save all that electrical stuff, no harm intended Al, you know what your at, it's a bit too complicated for me.
Al, if i drop that dehumidifier into a large sealed tuberware box, put a damp cloth and a thermometer in with it, and if the highest temperture reading doesnt go above 29c, i'm laughing?

While I appreciate that the heater unit on my bud dryer may appear on the surface to be complex, it's honestly not that involved. If you have a drill and a few bits and a soldering iron, it's less than an hour's construction time to cook it up. 4 holes to mount the fan to the sink, 12 holes in the sink to fit the 6 resistors, 14 soldered connections, all very simple point-to-point wiring. If you can rewire a table lamp, you can build this. The right heat sink, of a size suiting the fan, can be challenging to find I suppose, but that's just a little shopping. Mine came out of my junkbox or I'd be able to give chapter and verse of where to get one.

There's a squillion different ways to make a small amt of heat, though, as TM has found. Several ppl have told me that they've built dryers without any heating element at all. They still work but don't go from wet bud to smokably dry in 3 days, rather more 6-8 days.

Al, you've built an ingenius way to dry bud out fast.
Fans would be simple to wire up, but when it comes to resistors, heatsinks and soldering stuff, i'll leave it to the experts.

fitzyno1 said:

I don't know how a dehumidifier really works, thats why i was asking would that dehumidifier actually dry bud out.

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A dehumidifier is actually a small air conditioner with evaporation and condensation coil 'radiators' arranged cleverly. Like any aircon unit, a dehumidifier has a compressor which liquefies the refrigerant, an evaporator coil where refrigerant is released from pressure, where it returns to a gaseous state, creating a cooling effect. When humid air is drawn over the cold coil, water from ambient air condenses on it (like on a cold can of beer) and is caught in a drip tray. There's also a condensation coil for completing the refrigerant's path back to the compressor to be recirculated and the process repeats.

Al, if i drop that dehumidifier into a large sealed tuberware box, put a damp cloth and a thermometer in with it, and if the highest temperture reading doesnt go above 29c, i'm laughing?

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Yep, but I think it's going to get hotter in your box than you anticipate. My dehumidifier uses about 300W of power running its compressor and whatnot, quite a bit of that power is discharged from the unit as heat. That requires a fair amount of airmass volume in which to dissipate the heat. I don't think that less than a walk-in closet sized airspace will be sufficient to dissipate the heat while still allowing the dehumidifier to run constantly without air temp rising above 29C. Remember that most dehumidifiers are designed to dry the air for many hundreds of cu ft of airmass such as a basement.

Al B. Fuct said:

While I appreciate that the heater unit on my bud dryer may appear on the surface to be complex, it's honestly not that involved. If you have a drill and a few bits and a soldering iron, it's less than an hour's construction time to cook it up. 4 holes to mount the fan to the sink, 12 holes in the sink to fit the 6 resistors, 14 soldered connections, all very simple point-to-point wiring. If you can rewire a table lamp, you can build this. The right heat sink, of a size suiting the fan, can be challenging to find I suppose, but that's just a little shopping. Mine came out of my junkbox or I'd be able to give chapter and verse of where to get one.

There's a squillion different ways to make a small amt of heat, though, as TM has found. Several ppl have told me that they've built dryers without any heating element at all. They still work but don't go from wet bud to smokably dry in 3 days, rather more 6-8 days.

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What in the world hapened to our stoned slacker.... 1hr of work... thats got to be wrong....... hell theres no way thats al talking someone hijacked his good name

I said LESS than an hour! That's as long as I can be bothered actually working.

Forget about that dehumidifier!
Yesterday i looked through the sellers feedback, and saw people who bought this dehumidifier and left positive feedback for the seller. I sent them a message asking if these dehumidifiers are and good. Only one wrote back so far.

Heres the reply...

Must have been a VERY cheap dehumidifier to just chuck it out!

It occurs to me that we have some 'Damp-Rid' moisture absorbers in our clothes closets. They are essentially a plastic netpot which contains the Damp Rid crystals (calcium chloride) in a plastic container which catches the water as it drips off the CaCl. It's amazing how much moisture this stuff removes from air, I think it'll fill a 300ml container with water in a week or so in humid conditions. The absorber and refills for the CaCl crystals are available at any grocery store.

If you put one of these in a plastic box with some sort of rack to hold the buds in a single layer and a very small circ fan to stop mould, I bet it would work a treat.

Ya thats a trick idea..... I use it in the safe .. not sure if the odor put of would gather on the out side of the buds ... there is a small hint of odor when i keep the dorr closed a few days .... might try it though next round.. could do it in a seperate box so it can be monitored...

you can make a pretty decent dryer with a cardboard box and a muffin fan and 1 small window screen. Fasten screen inside box half way up so the buds will be suspended in the middle of the box, cut a hole the size of muffin fan in the top of the box and tape fan into place so it is pulling air out of box, cut some small breather holes around the bottom perimeter of the box. plug in fan and let her go for 5-7 days. Its not perfect, but it takes 5 minutes to build with duct tape and gets the job done even if it still takes a lil longer than Al's method.

I think that small dehumidifier would only work for very small spaces, it uses the peltier method of cooling a metal plate which then drips the condensed water into a small cup for disposal.

NoDrama said:

you can make a pretty decent dryer with a cardboard box and a muffin fan and 1 small window screen.

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Yep, that'll work too! You win the MacGuyver Award for the day.

I think that small dehumidifier would only work for very small spaces, it uses the peltier method of cooling a metal plate which then drips the condensed water into a small cup for disposal.

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Peltier devices are fascinating. However, they still work by shifting heat and make a bit on their own. The heat's got to go somewhere and it's got to be away from the buds.

toast master said:

Ya thats a trick idea..... I use it in the safe .. not sure if the odor put of would gather on the out side of the buds ... there is a small hint of odor when i keep the dorr closed a few days .... might try it though next round.. could do it in a seperate box so it can be monitored...

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What you smell in your closet is previously established colonies of mould or fungi. If there were no spores on the articles when everything goes into a disinfected closet and you maintain humidity too low for any interlopers to grow, there'll be no smell, even if you keep it closed.

There's mould & fungus spores everywhere. Your job in drying buds is to make conditions inhospitable for their growth. Drying quickly means you're trying to win a race by removing water faster than the pathogens can colonise. Air motion also makes it harder for moulds & fungi to establish. Air motion alone is often enough to prevent mould, but reducing the RH of the air drawn through the buds seriously hastens the drying process.

Al B. Fuct said:

Must have been a VERY cheap dehumidifier to just chuck it out!

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Dehumidifier mini micro midi 250ml\day BNIB on eBay, also, Dehumidifiers, Heating Cooling Air, Home Garden (end time 22-Sep-08 17:49:47 BST)

Yep, it's cheap. 250ml a day, thats 9 oz