Question about Curing Chamber Air Circulation

[ikeo]

Hello,

I have a question about air circulation inside the curing chamber. 

I recently picked up a True GDM-19 Commercial Cooler on craigslist and I am in the process of building it up as my curing chamber. I wanted people's advice on air circulation. I'm trying to get away with adding as little devices as possible inside the chamber. So I was wondering if i can utilize the fan that is already built inside the cooler.

A lot of folks i see use a fan  inside their chamber but I noticed that this cooler when turned on has a great fan that sucks up through the top, across the cooling coils and blows back down through the back wall inside the cooler. it moves enough air that air is moving throughout the entire unit, while its turned on and running of course.

Under the control of my external temperature controller the chamber turns on i would say for 1 minute every 15 minutes or so. during this 1 minute the fan is blowing and circulating the air inside the chamber.

 Doing some searching I see some folks say you need to circulate just a bit, some say you need to pipe in fresh air from the outside, (i want to avoid cutting the walls if i have to) and some say you just need a fan inside the chamber running constantly.

So if the internal fan circulates in 1 minute intervals every 15 min or so: Is this enough air movement to be considered decent circulation for dry curing?

Thanks,

2014-10-17 18.49.15.jpg

• ikeo
• Oct 28, 2014

 

[chef willie]

Sorry, no help from me BUT, wanted to say that's a great looking curing chamber and I'll be watching this post for answers as I really, really want to get into this aspect of curing. Best of luck with the build.....Willie

 

[daveomak]

You will need some amount of air change.... Continually recirculating the same air won't work... Filtered fresh air intake and filtered exhaust will be needed....
Take a look at the "ducting" around the cooling/heating" coil.... perhaps a small inlet on the suck side of the fan and a small exhaust hole on the pressure side of the fan will work.... cover those holes with a filter media.... then the humidifier you install will be able to do it's job... You may have to make the holes "adjustable", with some sort of dampers, until stuff gets adjusted so the unit works properly...
I'm thinking starting with 1/4" holes... with the fan running for 1 minute, a 1/4" hole will move maybe 1 cubic foot of air..... This is all a guess.. Without a calculator for building a curing chamber, and min/max numbers, a SWAG is about all anyone can come up with.....


Dave

 

[dingo007]

I agree with Dave...you will need some air exchange....how much is unclear...I dont use any fans....just open the door in the morning and evening whilst checking on my babies seems to be enough.

On the flip side, if you cooler is circulating a "LOT" of air, you might end up with case hardening issues.

 

[zalbar]

You could just open and close the door once a day.