Building a curing chamber out of a stand-up freezer

[noxwaste]

I see a lot of builds from refrigerators, but in my area, I'm seeing a lot more freezers available on Craigslist, etc. Is building a curing chamber out of a freezer a very good idea? I'd watched a YouTube video of a dude who got a glass-door refrigerator and had a couple of devices installed that basically turned on when the temp got too low, and shot off when it got too high. Another device turned on when the humidity got too low, and shut off when it reached the target humidification. Of course the first device had the actual refrigerator plugged into it, and the second had the humidifier plugged into it.

I would imagine that if I plugged the freezer into the device, it would cool it down, but faster than a refrigerator, right? I mean, shouldn't it function identically to a refrigerator build, other than being able to cool to lower temps? I'd love to build a homemade chamber, but until I can get someone in the area to part with a fridge without a freezer for a good price, I may have to settle with a freezer (I could even use a chest freezer, I'd be okay with that).

Also, what about using a mini fridge? Would that be a viable option? Other than not being able to do a TON of meat at once, surely it would be capable of doing the same thing, right? Or am I over-simplifying this all?

 

[shyzabrau]

A lot of homebrewers (myself included) use chest freezers with an external controller for our kegs. (They call them "keezers" but I refuse to use such an ugly portmanteau.) You'll be fine with that. A lot of upright freezers have the refrigerant lines built into the shelves. You can't use those if you want to hang your meats. (And I wouldn't want to place your meats on the shelves with the refrigerant lines as you would have a chance of freezing the meats a bit as it is cooling the entire chamber.)

 

[noxwaste]

A lot of homebrewers (myself included) use chest freezers with an external controller for our kegs. (They call them "keezers" but I refuse to use such an ugly portmanteau.) You'll be fine with that. A lot of upright freezers have the refrigerant lines built into the shelves. You can't use those if you want to hang your meats. (And I wouldn't want to place your meats on the shelves with the refrigerant lines as you would have a chance of freezing the meats a bit as it is cooling the entire chamber.)

Nice! Thank you! I'll be sure to open up my search a little more. Can you point me into the right direction of hardware that I might use to control humidity and temperature that work best with freezers? Or would anything I've already found work just as well? Do you have a list of what you've used previously in your build?

 

[shyzabrau]

I haven't done a curing chamber yet!

I use several Ranco controllers for my brewing, but those are temperature controllers (RANCO ETC-111000), but there are a lot of options out there for temperature.

For humidity control, you can use the Dayton 1UHG3 Humidifier Control. I have no experience with it, but have seen it recommended.

You can have a power strip plugged into the humidifier controller. Plug the humidifier and a fan into the power strip, so you get some air circulation every so often.

A small ultrasonic humidifier won't be too expensive. Use distilled water. Humidifiers always have a risk of developing mold, so be sure to clean and sanitize it regularly.

My wife will go nuts when I buy a new fridge/freezer for curing meats, but such is life. (I have two chest freezers for brewing. A freezer in the garage for meat. A fridge in the basement just for beer. My bar has a beer fridge and a wine fridge. I'm about to buy a small chest freezer for beer on tap by the pool...)

 

[noxwaste]

 
I haven't done a curing chamber yet!

I use several Ranco controllers for my brewing, but those are temperature controllers (RANCO ETC-111000), but there are a lot of options out there for temperature.

For humidity control, you can use the Dayton 1UHG3 Humidifier Control. I have no experience with it, but have seen it recommended.

You can have a power strip plugged into the humidifier controller. Plug the humidifier and a fan into the power strip, so you get some air circulation every so often.

A small ultrasonic humidifier won't be too expensive. Use distilled water. Humidifiers always have a risk of developing mold, so be sure to clean and sanitize it regularly.

My wife will go nuts when I buy a new fridge/freezer for curing meats, but such is life. (I have two chest freezers for brewing. A freezer in the garage for meat. A fridge in the basement just for beer. My bar has a beer fridge and a wine fridge. I'm about to buy a small chest freezer for beer on tap by the pool...)

Mine isn't going to be too happy either... Haha. I found a brand new one at Lowe's that's only 5 cubic feet, but it's $148 and you can't beat that price. I got an Amazon shopping list put together, so I might be able to build one of these dudes for a total of about $350 including the freezer. I don't plan to cure hundreds of pounds at once, maybe only 20 or so at a time, so the 5 cubic feet should be plenty of space if I'm hanging meats in an offset pattern from each other. I'll be sure to start a build log so all the tech-nuts on the forum can get a kick out of my experiment haha.

 

[shyzabrau]

I like the plan, so I'll keep a close eye out for your build.

I also am planning to build a reverse flow smoker this summer, so the wife will have even more to complain about! I'll be doing nothing but building a smoker, smoking meat (on my Bradley), brewing beer, building a curing chamber, curing meat, and drinking beer....

 

[GBones]

Mine isn't going to be too happy either... Haha. I found a brand new one at Lowe's that's only 5 cubic feet, but it's $148 and you can't beat that price. I got an Amazon shopping list put together, so I might be able to build one of these dudes for a total of about $350 including the freezer. I don't plan to cure hundreds of pounds at once, maybe only 20 or so at a time, so the 5 cubic feet should be plenty of space if I'm hanging meats in an offset pattern from each other. I'll be sure to start a build log so all the tech-nuts on the forum can get a kick out of my experiment haha.

How did you make out with your freezer ? I have one in my garage 5 cubic we were gonna toss but i will convert it if possible

 

[indaswamp]

How did you make out with your freezer ? I have one in my garage 5 cubic we were gonna toss but i will convert it if possible

https://tasteofartisan.com/meat-curing-chamber/

 

[indaswamp]

I just built one out of a freezer...
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/dry-curing-chamber-build.295014/

 

[GBones]

https://tasteofartisan.com/meat-curing-chamber/

My freezer is a manual defrost I was thinking about trying to adjust the thermostat to make it a refrigerator but not sure how big the manual defrost will be it’s a GV098119 made by GE

 

[indaswamp]

So it is not a frost free?
Those type are not preferred because you will be fighting high humidity levels that will be very difficult to bring down.