Airflow in curing chamber

[FreshGround]

I'm working on putting together a curing chamber along the lines of the one Eric (Two Guys and a Cooler) describes in his video. I know what I'm going to do about temperature and humidity but I'm not sure about airflow. I am using a beer cooler and the internal fan seems like it produces too much airflow using the hanging butcher twine test. So I took the fan out and had a look at it. It shouldn't be a problem getting a 'milder' fan. But the existing fan is powered by a 2-wire connector and I can find milder fans that use a 2-wire connector, so it would be easiest to buy one of those and just plug it in rather than running another power wire through the door gasket to a USB or AC fan.

But here's my issue/question. If I use the 2 wire connector the fan will cycle on and off as the inkbird temperature controller cycles the power for the compressor on and off. That would make the air flow intermittent as the fan cycles on and off. I've had the cooler under the control of the temperature controller for a while for testing purposes and it does cycle on and off pretty often, and I can probably increase the frequency by tightening up the temperature range. So my question is, (yay, he finally got to it, LOL) is whether that intermittent airflow will be sufficient for my purpose? And should I tighten the temperature range to make the cycling more frequent?

As always, thanks for any help you can offer.

Rich

 

[Sven Svensson]

indaswamp is the resident expert on all things cured. He’ll jump in once he sees this.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Air speed from .5 to .1 m/s is where you want to be. Computer fans with a controller work well here. Faster fan speed and the beginning then lowering the air movement towards the middle to end.

 

[indaswamp]

Do not tighten the temp. range. The compressor needs time to cool off from running. In fact, I'd increase the range to 5-7*F. Intermittent airflow is best for a home curing chamber using a frost free unit. As mentioned, you want the airflow to be between1-4" per second. (1) or (2) 3.6~5.4CFM computer fans should suffice to blow air over the evaporator coil.

 

[fornoa]

I'm working on putting together a curing chamber along the lines of the one Eric (Two Guys and a Cooler) describes in his video. I know what I'm going to do about temperature and humidity but I'm not sure about airflow. I am using a beer cooler and the internal fan seems like it produces too much airflow using the hanging butcher twine test. So I took the fan out and had a look at it. It shouldn't be a problem getting a 'milder' fan. But the existing fan is powered by a 2-wire connector and I can find milder fans that use a 2-wire connector, so it would be easiest to buy one of those and just plug it in rather than running another power wire through the door gasket to a USB or AC fan.

But here's my issue/question. If I use the 2 wire connector the fan will cycle on and off as the inkbird temperature controller cycles the power for the compressor on and off. That would make the air flow intermittent as the fan cycles on and off. I've had the cooler under the control of the temperature controller for a while for testing purposes and it does cycle on and off pretty often, and I can probably increase the frequency by tightening up the temperature range. So my question is, (yay, he finally got to it, LOL) is whether that intermittent airflow will be sufficient for my purpose? And should I tighten the temperature range to make the cycling more frequent?

As always, thanks for any help you can offer.

Rich

I'm working on putting together a curing chamber along the lines of the one Eric (Two Guys and a Cooler) describes in his video. I know what I'm going to do about temperature and humidity but I'm not sure about airflow. I am using a beer cooler and the internal fan seems like it produces too much airflow using the hanging butcher twine test. So I took the fan out and had a look at it. It shouldn't be a problem getting a 'milder' fan. But the existing fan is powered by a 2-wire connector and I can find milder fans that use a 2-wire connector, so it would be easiest to buy one of those and just plug it in rather than running another power wire through the door gasket to a USB or AC fan.

But here's my issue/question. If I use the 2 wire connector the fan will cycle on and off as the inkbird temperature controller cycles the power for the compressor on and off. That would make the air flow intermittent as the fan cycles on and off. I've had the cooler under the control of the temperature controller for a while for testing purposes and it does cycle on and off pretty often, and I can probably increase the frequency by tightening up the temperature range. So my question is, (yay, he finally got to it, LOL) is whether that intermittent airflow will be sufficient for my purpose? And should I tighten the temperature range to make the cycling more frequent?

As always, thanks for any help you can offer.

Rich

 

[fornoa]

I'm working on putting together a curing chamber along the lines of the one Eric (Two Guys and a Cooler) describes in his video. I know what I'm going to do about temperature and humidity but I'm not sure about airflow. I am using a beer cooler and the internal fan seems like it produces too much airflow using the hanging butcher twine test. So I took the fan out and had a look at it. It shouldn't be a problem getting a 'milder' fan. But the existing fan is powered by a 2-wire connector and I can find milder fans that use a 2-wire connector, so it would be easiest to buy one of those and just plug it in rather than running another power wire through the door gasket to a USB or AC fan.

But here's my issue/question. If I use the 2 wire connector the fan will cycle on and off as the inkbird temperature controller cycles the power for the compressor on and off. That would make the air flow intermittent as the fan cycles on and off. I've had the cooler under the control of the temperature controller for a while for testing purposes and it does cycle on and off pretty often, and I can probably increase the frequency by tightening up the temperature range. So my question is, (yay, he finally got to it, LOL) is whether that intermittent airflow will be sufficient for my purpose? And should I tighten the temperature range to make the cycling more frequent?

As always, thanks for any help you can offer.

Rich

Hi Rich,
The following link to a post I made on another thread on this site, may help you with your curing Chamber 'AIRFLOW' considerations.

Curing Chamber Modification

All my parts have arrived to control humidity etc - installing with my handyman Monday and will be putting product in on Wednesday. What do you clean your chambers with between cures?

www.smokingmeatforums.com

Cheers