Automated drying and curing, are these devices worth it?

TomH

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Drying and curing are my weakest points (honestly, I keep hoping to improve my entire game in the grow area, but dry and cure mess with me).

Mainly because I have no controlled evironment, I have to count on Mother Nature for good temp/humidity. Most the time this is acceptable, but this year has been hellasious.

To that end, I started looking at equipment that can improve the process.
There are modified food dehydrators that look decent, most of these are in the 200 dollar range, but there is this thing called a Cannatrol cool cure.

$US1,600. Oof! That hurts, but if it produces quality results, well worth it and certainly less than I’ve put into this hobby already.

Anyone have one, use one before or know anything about these things?

Or, anyone have any suggestions for dry and cure in an uncontrolled environment, indoors but no AC.

4E12A5BD-3B87-403D-ABC5-F017D35AE279.jpeg
 
Drying and curing are my weakest points (honestly, I keep hoping to improve my entire game in the grow area, but dry and cure mess with me).

Mainly because I have no controlled evironment, I have to count on Mother Nature for good temp/humidity. Most the time this is acceptable, but this year has been hellasious.

To that end, I started looking at equipment that can improve the process.
There are modified food dehydrators that look decent, most of these are in the 200 dollar range, but there is this thing called a Cannatrol cool cure.

$US1,600. Oof! That hurts, but if it produces quality results, well worth it and certainly less than I’ve put into this hobby already.

Anyone have one, use one before or know anything about these things?

Or, anyone have any suggestions for dry and cure in an uncontrolled environment, indoors but no AC.

View attachment 75507
No experience with anything like that. But it looks more like a modified wine cooler then a food dehydrator to me.
 
Drying and curing are my weakest points (honestly, I keep hoping to improve my entire game in the grow area, but dry and cure mess with me).

Mainly because I have no controlled evironment, I have to count on Mother Nature for good temp/humidity. Most the time this is acceptable, but this year has been hellasious.

To that end, I started looking at equipment that can improve the process.
There are modified food dehydrators that look decent, most of these are in the 200 dollar range, but there is this thing called a Cannatrol cool cure.

$US1,600. Oof! That hurts, but if it produces quality results, well worth it and certainly less than I’ve put into this hobby already.

Anyone have one, use one before or know anything about these things?

Or, anyone have any suggestions for dry and cure in an uncontrolled environment, indoors but no AC.

View attachment 75507
My buddie has one its amazing.
@steamroller has one. @Stoneyluv built one.i use a humidor i20241005_174650.jpgScreenshot_20240216_180804_Chrome.jpg20240313_225353.jpgt works great.if you get a wine fridge or a humidor make sure is is thermoelectric (dosnt have a compressor) the compressor makes the humidity jump around.
 
Drying and curing are my weakest points (honestly, I keep hoping to improve my entire game in the grow area, but dry and cure mess with me).

Mainly because I have no controlled evironment, I have to count on Mother Nature for good temp/humidity. Most the time this is acceptable, but this year has been hellasious.

To that end, I started looking at equipment that can improve the process.
There are modified food dehydrators that look decent, most of these are in the 200 dollar range, but there is this thing called a Cannatrol cool cure.

$US1,600. Oof! That hurts, but if it produces quality results, well worth it and certainly less than I’ve put into this hobby already.

Anyone have one, use one before or know anything about these things?

Or, anyone have any suggestions for dry and cure in an uncontrolled environment, indoors but no AC.

View attachment 75507
@OLDCRO has one He seems to like it, Just too much for me but I've looked at them more than once and would love to be able to afford one.
 
I have a wine chiller I've used. It works but for me my results weren't much different than I got drying in a closet under the basement stairs and then curing in Grove bags. The closet has no source of heat and year around, its temp stays in the 65-70F range.
 
Atm for me.i can build a room cheaper than purchasing an cannatrol.i really like the hands off and simplicity of them though .they need to b way cheaper and to hold more before I take the plunge.did you see steam mentions moe is on this subject as we speak and stoney has made one what stonemason mentioned above..
 
i don't think my homemade one works as well as cannatrol... i didn't have cured/ready to smoke bud in eight days.. maybe 12 and 14 for the larger colas.

i've only used it once so far but i feel i need to make a few changes to improve it.

i couldn't keep my numbers consistent enough. my peltier cooler would run to my set point of 68° and the second the cooler turned off my RH would go through the roof. once it reached 69° the cooler would turn back on and start to lower the rh but it was fluctuating way to much. it needs software like fuzzy logic to toggle the cooler more often to keep it steadier. for now my fix has been to just let the cooler run nonstop and keep the rh low.

so it worked, just not as good as the cannatrol but i also only have less than $200 wrapped up in it. anyone interested in making their own i suggest starting there, a sealed container or cabinet. mine came from a customer that had a broken wine fridge and needed to get rid of it, he felt i was doing him a favor by removing it from his house. it was a compressor style and the replacement parts were a few hundred just for the parts. i bought a peltier unit and power supply and some controllers for temp and rh...


i have an outdoor plant that i will be harvesting soon and i'm going to try the new changes from the beginning and see if it performs any better.

i wish i understood more about vapor pressure and dew point correlations and how to control them! if i understood the actual theories it would be much easier to figure out without experimenting so much. doe anyone here have a good handle on these? from what i read this comes from cheese makers and maybe i need to ask question starting there, they're not as greedy as cannabis people and may be willing to help.

the one thing that was very awesome about drying in a sealed box was the zero odor and my harvests are now no tell no smell!!! :D my old method would stink up half the house for the first couple days!
 
I read something recently about food dehydrators doubling as canatrol with the heating element removed...

I remember words to effect of you're getting the same thing minus the eye-watering price of the cannatrol?
I think I saw @Bandit420 uses something like that.
 
I think I saw @Bandit420 uses something like that.

Yep I use a modified Herb Now dryer.

I tripled it's capacity and modified some racks so it can be a rack dryer or hang dryer.
Like Cannatrol it's temps are based off ambient temps so if it's in a cool area it will dry cool and slow. Warm, it will dry faster so I like it to run in the 60s to low 70s.
I use it in combination with Grove bags and electric cooler set to 50*F with Eva Dry passive dehueys inside.
I'm very happy with the results.
The cooler was the most expensive part being $400 but it's huge. So big I can set my tumbler down in it for dry extractions so that's why I bought one so big.
All together I probably have around $600-$700 tied up in drying and curing. Cold storage for me is mandatory since I live in a warm climate. Cupboard & cabinet storage is too warm for weed here.
 
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Yep I use a modified Herb Now dryer.

I tripled it's capacity and modified some racks so it can be a rack dryer or hang dryer.
Like Cannatrol it's temps are based off ambient temps so if it's in a cool area it will dry cool and slow. Warm, it will dry faster so I like it to run in the 60s to low 70s.
I use it in combination with Grove bags and electric cooler set to 50*F with Eva Dry passive dehueys inside.
I'm very happy with the results.
The cooler was the most expensive part being $400 but it's huge. So big I can set my tumbler down in it for dry extractions so that's why I bought one so big.
All together I probably have around $600-$700 tied up in drying and curing. Cold storage for me is mandatory since I live in a warm climate. Cupboard & cabinet storage is too warm for weed here.
So do you put the herbs now deal in the cooler?
 
So do you put the herbs now deal in the cooler?

I could but I don't.
I set it up in my room with the AC on and let it do it's thing. Takes about 4 days to dry. Then I destem and load all the flower into Groves to lock up the humidity and the cooler keeps the bags and other goodies chilled.

IMG_7774[1].jpeg
 
I could but I don't.
I set it up in my room with the AC on and let it do it's thing. Takes about 4 days to dry. Then I destem and load all the flower into Groves to lock up the humidity and the cooler keeps the bags and other goodies chilled.

View attachment 75800
Loving the American flag groves.
 
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