Hi there all, I just finished my curing chamber project and was so delighted. I followed the same basics as xtufuzzy using a upright 17cu ft freezer. Put a low volume fan 14 cu ft/min in the bottom and an exhaust port at the top barely moves the louvers on the dryer vent on the exhaust port so should not cause case hardening but exchange air so evaporated moisture from the suasage doesn't build humidity up and go stagnant, dual temp controlled plug to pwr it on as needed to maintain the desired temp and as I';m in Alberta Canada and the unit is in the outside garage with no heat can use either the refrigeration or a ceramic heater depending on the time of year, have a dual humidity controller plug so can use humidifier or dehumidifer, purchased a humidifier as our RH avgs 25-30% so figured from all the research of others that I would be needing to add humidity. Also put in a remote temp/humidiy monitor.
Plugged in the fan and monitored for several days, things looked good temp and humidity stabilized to outside measurements all was looking good. Set the temp controller and plugged in the refrigeration and yes it kicked in and brought temp down to the 40F I set it to, I got all excited went and got my meat, when I got home and looked at the monitor temp was at 40f but the humidity was up to 88%, WHAT? Put meat in to chill till next morning, checked the monitor and it was now 40f and 90%. I was devastated, change plan from dry cured to smoke cooked, processed meat and seasoned put back in till next morning to stuff and smoke, next day 40f 98%. All this time the fan has been running continuous, unit is holding 40f no problem, but how is it the humidity has skyrocketed , the current humidity outside is 25%.
I took the meat out and stuffed and hot smoked my sausage, turned out great.
I left the unit running and now over several days the temp remains at 40f and the humidity has dropped to 81%. I checked inside and there is water running down the walls.
HELP. Anyone out there that can explain what is happening. People doing the same thing in higher humidity locations are adding humidifiers to get humidity up to the 70-75% mark and I can't get it down below 80 in this arid climate of ours. The inside of the chamber is just sweating from the humidity.
This is a manual defrrost unit as has been recommended for this purpose by those that have done this.
I'm looking at dehumidifiers, as I don't know what has gone wrong, other than I have to get the humidity down and be able to control it at desired %
Here's hoping someone can help me
thanks.
Plugged in the fan and monitored for several days, things looked good temp and humidity stabilized to outside measurements all was looking good. Set the temp controller and plugged in the refrigeration and yes it kicked in and brought temp down to the 40F I set it to, I got all excited went and got my meat, when I got home and looked at the monitor temp was at 40f but the humidity was up to 88%, WHAT? Put meat in to chill till next morning, checked the monitor and it was now 40f and 90%. I was devastated, change plan from dry cured to smoke cooked, processed meat and seasoned put back in till next morning to stuff and smoke, next day 40f 98%. All this time the fan has been running continuous, unit is holding 40f no problem, but how is it the humidity has skyrocketed , the current humidity outside is 25%.
I took the meat out and stuffed and hot smoked my sausage, turned out great.
I left the unit running and now over several days the temp remains at 40f and the humidity has dropped to 81%. I checked inside and there is water running down the walls.
HELP. Anyone out there that can explain what is happening. People doing the same thing in higher humidity locations are adding humidifiers to get humidity up to the 70-75% mark and I can't get it down below 80 in this arid climate of ours. The inside of the chamber is just sweating from the humidity.
This is a manual defrrost unit as has been recommended for this purpose by those that have done this.
I'm looking at dehumidifiers, as I don't know what has gone wrong, other than I have to get the humidity down and be able to control it at desired %
Here's hoping someone can help me
thanks.
