I just started trying to dial in a spare small fridge I’ve had sitting in my garage for a while and would like to enlist some help from some of the more seasoned pros on this sub.
I plugged it in and let it run overnight with no humidity or temperature regulation (just the fridge set on its highest setting) to get an idea for how it operates on its own as some sort of “control”. The temperature was fine I think, staying within a 3 degree band, but humidity was all over the place, swinging 22% every fifteen minutes between compressor cycles. I included the screenshot from my Govee unit.
While keeping in mind that was completely without any humidity regulation, I’m worried that’s too much of a volatile start and I’ll have trouble dialing in an equilibrium once I get the humidifier/dehumidifier in there. Any thoughts from the group?
by kmp216
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This is just the struggle of using a refrigerator as a curing chamber. The cooling cycle condenses moisture from the air. When you have meats and things in the fridge it will help regulate it slightly more. Adding a humidifier will help but ultimately it will just be adding an opposing force to the never ending battle of fighting the physics of refrigeration.
I had a tinny mini bar fridge as my curing chamber for two years and you would be surprised the quality that comes out of it! Now I upgraded to large commercial fridge and battling to have all set up to perfect conditions. Last muscles came out with quite a bit of hard casing, even my average was 77% have to push to 80% or more. I loved my little bar fridge!
https://preview.redd.it/ije9740y63kb1.jpeg?width=2592&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9bb12b18c97ac48eb2b412a3390d9908de7bbb75
My fridge does these swings too. I found that with meat in the chamber and at higher humidity these swings are greatly reduced although short drops of 20% can be expected. Make sure your average hits the mark.
That said, what’s your environment like? Where I live I need to add a dehumidifier throughout winter but a humidifier throughout summer. I found that in the midst of summer the room where my fridge is gets up to 35C causing the fridge to cycle more, therefore humidifier is triggered more often and either the coils freeze over and/or the condensate pan overflows. If you can have your chamber in a more temp controlled section of your house that be better to reduce such extremes.
Also, try to reduce the airflow from your fan as much as you can without causing the above issues. Even with the right temp and humidity you can get case hardening due to excessive airflow.
Humidity swings over the course of minutes or hours is no problem at all. Moisture doesn’t move fast enough for a very short drop in humidity to cause a problem. A few hours of low humidity ~~will be~~ may start to be a problem, but anything less that than, meh, don’t worry about it.
One thing to watch out about is many mini fridges don’t have a thermostat in them. Instead they have a timed cycle where they turn on and off and the cool setting is how strong the condenser runs.
If you get an InkBird you can control your mini fridge to a specific temperature range you want and you can turn the strength of your mini fridge condenser down, which will normalize the humidity. Also adding meat will normalize the humidity too.
What are you using to track your temp/humidity? A special sensor and app?