Upgrade to my curing/drying game

[snadamo]

So a while ago a bought a fridge from best buy, and some inkbird temp/humidity monitors, as well as humidifier and dehumidifier. Been doing a dry run for a bit and it seems to be stable.

I guess my areas of concern, and I hope for the brethren to chime in, are as follows:

• Moisture buildup on the back plate
• Humidity range is about +/- 8 of 70%RH; is this sufficient?
• I probably should be using distilled water in humidifier (very hard water here; even if filtered)
• need to procure dowels or hangers, the fridge came with glass shelving

Worst case scenario, if this fridge isnt cutting the mustard, its turning in to my outdoor beer fridge and I will buy something else. Anywho, wanted to share, and get some feedback from you guys. I am researching lonzino as we speak.

 

[SmokeOCD]

I've seen similar condensation issues when the door gasket isn't fully sealed. All those cords coming out the front door may be your problem. Other than using a hole saw, I don't know what else to do. Also, I cannot say I'm 100% certain that's the cause. Good Luck!

 

[sudsandswine]

My guess is the condensation is due to the cooling method that mini-fridge uses. You may need to play with your thresholds that drive the timing of the de/humidifier firing up, I've gotten mine down pretty tight using the same controller you are. I'm using deep freezers though, and when the compressor kicks on the temp and humidity drop quickly, then when the compressor turns off, the humidity spikes quickly. If you're having condensation on the back wall it seems like your humidity level may be higher than is being measured.

 

[snadamo]

do you think the sensor positioning is off?

my unscientific method of testing the sensor is let it run right next to my wall clock, which has RH, and they were within 1% of each other.


@smokeOCD you may be correct also, but I try to shut it as tight as I can. I would like to avoid drilling holes in this unit, just in case I repurpose in the future.

 

[sudsandswine]

Well…your humidity is basically 100% on that back wall, regardless of whatever is going on with your ambient RH%. It’s hard for me to imagine the de/humidifiers are going to be that effective compared to the wall of water sitting on the back. I think I’d focus on addressing that first. Does it condensate when you just run the temp controller and don’t run the de/humidifiers?

 

[sudsandswine]

You’ve probably seen this already from my thread but here’s a chart showing the one day temp and humidity in my curing chamber. You can see I have some pretty steep drops in humidity when the compressor kicks on (correlates with the temp drop), but probably 85% of the sample intervals occur within a relatively tight window. I don’t think the swings are an issue per se, in my case, the average of all the swings is nearly exactly my set point. I’m using a SensorPush sensor, it looks like it may sample more frequently than what you’re using given the shape of your graph line….maybe yours is holding similarly and just doesn’t reflect in the graph.

 

[snadamo]

Well, upon further inspection, and deep diving in mfg documentation, this appears NOT to be a frost free fridge...hmmm. According to the manufacturer, The back plate will collect frost and condensation by design. While I hate spending extra money, I bought this with the plan of repurposing it if it goes FUBAR. So Plan B it is then...At least I have a new outdoor beer fridge! :-D

UPDATE: Fridge Is LEAKING on the floor. Assuming there's a drain and an overflow causing that. We dumped it all and now drying outside. Clearly not for my use case. Thankfully I kept the box and packaging.

 

[blackdogbbq21]

Keep us posted if you find another small footprint fridge that works out. I really want to build a chamber but don't have anywhere for another full size fridge right now.

 

[sudsandswine]

See if you can find a smaller vertical deep freezer instead, I see them on marketplace for $200-300 all the time. Even though they're larger than the mini style refrigerator you tried using, you can still get one smaller than your typical residential full size refrigerator, and there's no divider in middle so you can leverage the entire inside for hanging and accounting for de/humidifiers.

 

[snadamo]

So, after some more research, trial and error, I've determined that this type of fridge and the moisture on the backplate is working as intended.

My testing process was as follows:

1. Unplug and dry out completely
2. introduce power to the fridge preset on highest setting (did not do this last time)
3. Ran for 24-48 hours to measure benchmark temps and moisture
4. Introduced humidifier for 24-48 hours and measured RH
5. introduced dehumidifier and monitored for 24-48 hours

The "leaking" was from excess moisture buildup from the cooling plate, which drops in a reservoir behind the fridge, and is SUPPPOSED to evaporate via the condenser heat, but it was too much. So, I bought a mini hand pump that will remove it; which I will just do once a week. I have also put a towel underneath the plate to collect excess moisture. Every two days or so I just wring it and put the water in my humidifier. I have seen where you can use charcoal briquettes, which is in abundance at my house.

All in all, it's running at the desired temp and humidity. I found a great resource in regards to curing chamber types. While this type with chiller plate on back is not the most ideal, it's common to use, but there will be some elements that you will battle. Same goes for the mini wine fridges.

All this to say I am gonna have a go at some lonzino soon. I have a pork tenderloin defrosting as we speak.

Link: https://eatcuredmeat.com/how-to-build-a-curing-chamber-for-dry-cured-meat/

 

[snadamo]

You’ve probably seen this already from my thread but here’s a chart showing the one day temp and humidity in my curing chamber. You can see I have some pretty steep drops in humidity when the compressor kicks on (correlates with the temp drop), but probably 85% of the sample intervals occur within a relatively tight window. I don’t think the swings are an issue per se, in my case, the average of all the swings is nearly exactly my set point. I’m using a SensorPush sensor, it looks like it may sample more frequently than what you’re using given the shape of your graph line….maybe yours is holding similarly and just doesn’t reflect in the graph.

So I'm totally double-posting, but is this the sensor you have?

https://www.amazon.com/SensorPush-HT-w-Thermometer-Hygrometer-Water-Resistant/dp/B08PKWPKM2