My High Risk Multi Chamber drying rig

Here we go... I’m putting a whole harvest on the line with this concept. The ambient air RH is roughly 30% this time of year, and my previous harvest did not get a great cure because it got too dry too fast. I’m trying to slow things down a bit with this setup.

This rig is a three chamber setup with the top chamber being the controll chamber, or air handler. The air will circulate in a serpentine fashion from bottom to the top and back to the bottom chamber again thanks to a 100 cfm duct boosting fan. As the humidity in the control chamber rises, it will kick on a 60 liter per minute air compressor which will pull the humid air out and ambient air in through a hole in the control chamber, with a complimentary intake hole on the opposite side of the chamber. The intake whole has a thin sheet of plastic covering it on the inside to act as a bladder, allowing airflow into the chamber when the compressor is running creating a low pressure environment inside, and should self seal when the internal pressure is equal to or greater than the ambient air pressure. My hope is that I can step down the humidity in stages and allow the buds to dry evenly until I can get them into jars for the final stretch.

Interesting concept on the second picture. Care to dive into more detail please?

bk78 said:

Interesting concept on the second picture. Care to dive into more detail please?

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Always leav’em wantin’ more!

So far so good. I put this unit into service last night and the internal RH never exceeded 66%.

Let us know if your bud ends up smelling like plastic Home Depot totes. Them bitches stank

LinguaPeel said:

Let us know if your bud ends up smelling like plastic Home Depot totes. Them bitches stank

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I know the smell you’re talking about, but this batch didn’t seem to have it. It may be that I bought them in the winter time so they weren’t cooking in a shipping container for the last few months.

Here’s my update;

I jarred the nugs today. The system seemed to work at keeping the internal humidity from running away. It kept the humidity right at the set point plus the RH variance of 4% for 5 days. Over the last 24 hours the humidity inside the unit dipped rather quickly, so I made the choice to jar them. The outside of the buds was a little stiff but not brittle. I think I got them in time to continue the cure. There is definately more moisture in the buds and stem. The next step I believe is to let the moisture equalize in the buds and cut them off the stems, then finish the cure by hand.

I’m satisfied that the unit slowed down the process enough to not let it run away. Future plans include adding a mini humidifier inside to set a minimum humidity set point and allow more even drying.