My Borglunds 3.0 Curing Chamber

Where to buy, how to use. Stuffers, casings, spices, grinders, etc.

Postby Wunderdave » Thu Jun 21, 2012 3:33 pm

wheels wrote:
Cedaronics wrote:So it's (reducing humidity) not about reducing the amount of moisture in the unit, but cooling the air, Phil?


Not so much that, because reducing the temperature should actually increase the RH (if the amount of moisture stays the same), but for some reason when the fridge compressor is running the RH drops - I guess that's why fridges normally have low RH.

Phil


This is due to the way that refrigerators work. They cool by compressing liquid refrigerant and then allowing it to expand into a tube or plates. The expansion of the refrigerant absorbs energy in the form of heat, which makes the tube or plates cool down. In turn, water vapor in the air condenses on the tube or plates, which removes it from the air and lowers the RH.
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Postby wheels » Thu Jun 21, 2012 3:35 pm

Kenth

Have a great Midsummer party! :D :D

Likewise our other members who celebrate the solstice.

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Re: Advertising for cedaronics

Postby Wunderdave » Thu Jun 21, 2012 3:35 pm

stborgke wrote:Hi cedaronics

I shall make advertising for you on my swedish blog. I like the regulators/controllers but i would like to have oné controller with PID regulation.

/Kenth


Be careful regulating a refrigerator with a PID controller, the compressors aren't designed to be turned on and off for repeatedly very brief periods like a PID controller would do.
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Postby Cedaronics » Thu Jun 21, 2012 5:00 pm

@ Phil, yes, I can see that now. I need to spend a bit more time getting my head around humidity; it's not been something that's figured in the applications I have been dealing with so far.

@ Kenth - I have just built this PID controller. It's so new I don't have a price! I have another four in the making. Is this what you meant?

Image
DSC05568 by Tim Redberry, on Flickr

Image
DSC05567 by Tim Redberry, on Flickr


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Re: Advertising for cedaronics

Postby Cedaronics » Thu Jun 21, 2012 5:16 pm

Wunderdave wrote:
stborgke wrote:Hi cedaronics

I shall make advertising for you on my swedish blog. I like the regulators/controllers but i would like to have oné controller with PID regulation.

/Kenth


Be careful regulating a refrigerator with a PID controller, the compressors aren't designed to be turned on and off for repeatedly very brief periods like a PID controller would do.


This is very true.

The control type offered by this unit can be changed to simple heat/cool; not all PIDs can.
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Postby wheels » Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:38 pm

Mine have a 'system' whereby you can set a delay so that you don't get cycling on and off of the fridge. It seems to work OK, with over-run there's quite a time between things going on and off.

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Re: My Borglunds 3.0 Curing Chamber

Postby reee » Mon Jan 13, 2014 10:19 pm

Wheels, I am having an issue in the winter (winter only) where my meat actually looks like it's sweating in the chamber. It stays between 32f and probably 55f outside during the winter. It must be too humid, but my humidity says it's staying at about 70 and my tem is about 52f. Btw, it did this last winter too.

I'll be the first to say I dont understand dew point and how it would work here. I feel lik this might be my problem though - that I need a more powerful heater in there (right now it's a reptile mat but I dont think it is getting hot enough to cycle the refrigerator enough).

Are you using a ceramic heater like this? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002A ... =curmea-20

Also, how will I know if I get the thing cycling enough during the winter months? Just see if the meat starts looking right?

Thanks. I've got about 8 days to get this right before anoter batch goes in.

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Re: My Borglunds 3.0 Curing Chamber

Postby wheels » Tue Jan 14, 2014 5:27 pm

That's a tough one. Do you have a humidifier in there? If I remember correctly, you log your chamber; are your logs showing anything unusual - the temp or humidity swinging wildly between high and low?

Can you test the humidity with a hygrometer to see if the sensor on your hygrostat is OK?

Oh, not that it affects anything, but the answer to your question about the heater is that I use one of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tubular-Heater- ... 00408OB1W/

HTH

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Re: My Borglunds 3.0 Curing Chamber

Postby reee » Tue Jan 14, 2014 6:21 pm

I do have a humidifier in there. My hygrometer reads pretty steady at 70%. But the fridge rarely cycles due to the outside temp. I look at the temp and humdity twice a day. There are no wild sings.
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Re: My Borglunds 3.0 Curing Chamber

Postby wheels » Tue Jan 14, 2014 9:20 pm

I'm at a bit of a loss with this one, bear with me while I think out loud:

Everything's fine according to the readings, but something's different from in the summer. We know this, because the salami's not right.

We know that in the summer the fridge cycles more often, which in turn, should lower the RH. In which case the humidifier will operate more in the summer as well. The inference is, that if the fridge was cycling on/off more, things would be OK.

Given the external temperature, the fridge isn't going to cycle more often - even if we leave the door open! The only other way to make it switch on is to increase the humidity.

That sounds completely mad to me! Problem: salami too wet. Answer: increase the humidity. Nah! That's daft.

Does your humidifier have a very low setting? Is it possible that it could be used to trigger the heater, and in turn, make the fridge cycle on more often? Or, is there another way of doing this?

Sorry, that's about the best I can come up with at the moment; I'm not used to fridges that are in low ambient temperatures as mine is in my heated office. I know that some of our US members have fridges in cold basements/outside stores. Maybe one of them can shed some light on the problem.

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Re: My Borglunds 3.0 Curing Chamber

Postby reee » Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:36 pm

Thanks Wheels. Yeah, what I was thinking was to put a heater in there to cause the refrigerator to cycle more which would, in turn, lower the RH. At a minimum, my thought was that the extra moisture would be cycled out when the fridge turned on and condensed the air... But what the hell do I know :)
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Re: My Borglunds 3.0 Curing Chamber

Postby wheels » Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:51 pm

That sounds logical.

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