Building a DIY Meat Curing Chamber 

Oh, no! That's horrible! So sorry to hear about your fridge. When I was looking for a fridge, one of my considerations was getting one that I could also find a wiring/parts diagram for, which I was able to do for this one. The parts/build blow-out document I found from Danby showed that there was nothing going on for the entirety of the left wall. Another trick I used when building my homebrew bar (I didn't have diagrams of those fridges) was applying a coat of a corn starch and water mix to the exterior of any part of the fridge you might be cutting into. Then, you plug it in while the mixture is wet. Any places where there are condensing coils will dry more rapidly than the other parts of the exterior. It can help somewhat map out any places to avoid cutting. I needed to do that along the top of the bar fridges, prior to cutting holes for the beer lines to run up to the draft towers. I hope you are able to find another fridge that will work for you and that you can continue with this journey, as it's very rewarding. All the best.

How do you like it I've been looking at them but not sure if it's worth the money

@@rubenlincoln we absolutely love it!!

Thanks for the kind words! I'm very happy with this build - definitely better than my old one, which was based on a commercial Coors beer cooler. Those Cannatrol units look pretty slick. :)

@@Smotpoker is it worth the money though? How many plants can you dry at once?

@@compsigh9275 well worth it imo. I hang dry for 1 or 2 days then put it in .. this helps us to get more in.

Yeah, I could see that. I just use this unit for meat/charcuterie, which provides a bit of an extra buffer, I guess, in both humidity and temperature fluctuations, especially when I have it loaded right up. As far as curing any sort of plants goes, I have no experience with it, and I can only imagine you're correct in your suggestion of a more professional unit. :)

@@ThisDadGoesTo11 I thought you were curing flower. Great idea and keep up the great work! Thanks for the video

@@z06supervette13 Haha, all good. I bet you'd need more air flow through this unit to make that work...more like a diy oast for drying hop flowers for brewing, maybe. Thanks for watching! 😁

@@ThisDadGoesTo11 LOL! Yes definitely! Have a great nite.

@@z06supervette13 Thanks! You, too.

Thanks! I am going to add a fan to the top that pushes air in, too, to help take care of humidity better when I have a ton of fresh meat in there. Video to come after.

Yeah, I thought about wifi controllers, but ultimately went this route. Got a good deal on the Inkbirds, and I have really liked them for other projects I've done. I did try a dehumidifier unit in my previous curing chamber, and I found it filled more quickly than I would like. It would complicate things if I went on a longer vacation or was working out of town for a while, whereas the fan will keep working and not fill up. If a person was guaranteed to be home all the time and wasn't putting a ton of meat in there to age at the same time, I would consider going back to it. Plus, some air exchange in the unit is good, from everything I've read and experienced. Either way, it's pumping out delicious charcuterie. Thanks for watching and for the ideas. :)

Yes, that is a solid suggestion. In the humidifier I use, I use distilled water, and then I add a splash of vinegar to it, in order to help reduce the possibility of it going bad. Thanks for the comment!

Haha...nice! I've found the venting is really important, especially if I'm piling in a lot of salami or something. I haven't jammed this one full (yet!), but my old chamber had around 70lb of salami in it, once, and that's a lot of moisture to deal with. I don't like having to open the door any more than necessary (usually to top up the humidifier), so I like the unit to be able to vent on its own. My fans have speed settings on them, and I usually have them on low, so it doesn't suck out too much air and cause big humidity fluctuations. It does affect the temperature a bit, especially it the fans are running often (near the start of dry aging when there are several fresh items in there), so then the fridge tends to run more often than it would, otherwise. Still, I think it's a decent way to operate the unit. I currently only have a culatello and a proscunto in there (originally around 12lb each!), so the vent fans aren't running much, at all...it's more about keeping the humidity high enough. I got my heat strips at a local pet aquarium/terrarium supply store called Cornel's World (cornelsworld.com). They had custom sizes available, so I just ordered them online and then picked up in person, which worked really sweet. You might have something similar in your area, if you're trying to find the same thing. Thanks for the comments and questions! :)

did you have fans on yours?

Hey, no problem! I bought mine at Home Depot (in Canada). I might have called it EMT conduit in the video or one of the comments, which is incorrect. It's PVC conduit. The link to Canadian Home Depot is: www.homedepot.ca/product/carlon-schedule-40-pvc-lb-shaped-conduit-body-1-2-in/1000100927 Model # LBBODY-050|Store SKU # 1000100927 If you're in the US, I'm sure they have the same product on their site. I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks!

Haha, I've got nothing for plants. Not sure if they need specific temp or humidity but, if they do, something along these lines might work. Depending on their moisture loss rate and number of them in a chamber, you might need more air removal (bigger fan, or even adding an air-in fan at the top, to better move it). Good luck!

Hey, there! I bought my heat wrap locally from a pet store supplier (Cornelsworld.com). They usual sell this for terrariums, and they make them to custom size. That specific store probably won't help you, but you might be able to find a place closer to you who can do something similar. Thanks for the kind words. 😁

Right on! You could use more of a computer style fan, if you want. There are plenty of options available...in my old chamber, I used a four inch USB fan from AC Infinity (from Amazon), which was nice, as it had an in-line switch for three different speeds. I had the cord running outside of the chamber, so I could control the power via humidity controller (I had two fans, one blowing in and one blowing out) for air exchange and humidity control. When I built the new one, I traded a buddy one of those old fans for the one I put in this chamber, as its style allowed for a smaller hole for the vent. That means less air exchange when the fan isn't running, so the temperature doesn't warm as quickly. I'm super happy with this move. He's using my old one to circulate air in his homebrew keezer. Since shooting this video, I've loaded the chamber with 15kg of salami, a 5kg culatello, a 5kg presunto, and two 3ish-kg capicollas. The fridge is working awesome to easily maintain 55F and 75% RH without having to run and adjust very often. This was a huge success! Thanks for watching! :)

@@ThisDadGoesTo11 thx for the response. In your video I did not see a dehumidifier. Is it ok without? I bought the same controllers as you. For the humidity controller I have both a humidifier & dehumidifier. The humidity controller is forever shutting off one device & turning on another. I have 4 capicolas that I want to hang & dry & want to ensure that I don't mess it up & have them spoil.

Hey, it depends on how you want to dehumidify your chamber. For mine, I use that fan blowing the humid air out when I want to dehumidify, as my ambient temp in the room is far lower than 75%, and the fridge seems to suck in ambient air (through the fridge fan, I think?) to help lower it when the humid air is blown out. If you aren't going that route, than a dehumidifier is definitely a good move, especially if you are hanging more than one piece of meat or whatever in there. Another thing you can do is set your high and low RH a bit further apart. With my controller, the fan kicks on to lower at 77%, and the humidifier kicks on at 74%. Every fridge is different but, in my situation, there's a decent lull period between each unit getting activated. If you maybe set it for a wider spread, you might have less time when either unit is running. Let me know what you wind up doing! :)

@@ThisDadGoesTo11 ok I get it, you put the fan in one of the plugs of the humidity controller where in my case I have the dehumidifier in that plug. The fan I have is a table top type, small but I think too strong & could cause the meat to dry to fast. I have ordered the small computer style fan on Amazon. I have 4 capicolas that have been in the fridge for 1 week, so in a week or 10 days, I will put them in the chamber & hopefully they don't spoil.

@@ThisDadGoesTo11 So you could essentially have a sealed unit (Minus electric cords) with a fan inside and some sort of dehumidifier. I have seen some use salt blocks. Trying to think of easiest route to do this. Can you stay at the same temps/humidity with stuff sealed and stuff hanging at the same time? Newb at this. Thanks! Need to find a fridge too lol.

Hey, there! Thanks for the kind words. I just added some links to most of the specialized parts in the video description. Hopefully that helps. Thanks for watching!

@@ThisDadGoesTo11 Thank you and very kind of you to add the links! One additional question. I had been thinking of putting this unit in my 12x25 basement (not a lot of ventilation). Is that a good idea? Would you suggest I look into tapping into another vent to the outside?

It should be fine. Your basement will smell amazing! I think the only reason for any concern would be if you load it with a ton of meat at the same time, as the chamber would be increasing the relative humidity of the basement, possibly to a point where any fresh air getting in there wouldn't be lowering it a ton. As long as the basement isn't sealed up tight, and you're going down there occasionally, I would imagine nothing but awesomeness. For the record, I'm also going to be installing a second fan near the top of my chamber in the near future, just to send fresh air into the chamber (at the lowest fan speed, synced up to run simultaneously with the output fan at the bottom...video to come once I'm done!). That way, when I do add lots of meat in there at the same time, it's not working so hard to get the chamber humidity down into the 70s.

@@leafandtwigDid you have a chance to drill the hole? If not yet, just don’t do it until you know where all hidden parts are located. I destroyed my brand new wine fridge by drilling through the internal coil.

Hmm. It might be possible, if you're using the 75% RH Boveda packs. I do have some concerns with that, though. Firstly, if you load your chamber with a few large pieces of charcuterie or a decent amount of salami, the chamber is mostly working to remove all the excess humidity coming off the meat. My guess is that it would be more moisture than the packs could properly remove. If your moisure is high, it's easy to run into adverse mold issues. Secondly, air flow is important for curing meat. My method with the fan and air port helps exchange the air often enough to accomplish this without needing to open the chamber door. With just the packs, you'd need to be opening it or something to cycle out the older air. If you are doing that regularly, you might burn through the packs far quicker than is cost-effective. If you happen to have packs already, it might be worth an experiment to see how it goes; however, it might be cheaper (in the long run) and most effective to switch to a humidity controller and fan/humidifier setup. Let me know if you do try the packs, as it would be interesting to see how they work. Thanks!

Most of it was just Amazon purchases, such as the humidifier, fan (www.amazon.ca/dp/B012CL2V3I?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share), power bar, Inkbird controllers. The EMT box on the side for the electrical was from Home Depot...any big box store should have that in the electrical section. The wood panel for the top was just random wood I had in the garage. Trying to think if there was anything else, off the top of my head. If there is anything specific you're looking for, let me know. Thanks for watching!

Ack! I was lying in this comment. It's not EMT conduit (that's metal), it's PVC. Sorry for any confusion. www.homedepot.ca/product/carlon-schedule-40-pvc-lb-shaped-conduit-body-1-2-in/1000100927

I need the part that that goes inside the mini fridge , I found the outside part ok

Oh, okay! I just did a little looking. It's another Carlon brand PVC piece. I'm quite certain it's this one: www.homedepot.ca/product/carlon-schedule-40-pvc-unthreaded-meter-hub-1-1-4-in/1000184207 Model # MHUBA-125|Store SKU # 1000184207 That's the 1 1/4" port on this meter hub, which would have gone nicely over the 1" port on the exterior conduit piece. Hope that works! :)

Yeah, I just did a quick search. It looks like a sweet unit - bigger than mine! My only suggestion would be to check to see how easy it is to order replacement parts or get it repaired, in case it breaks down. It's a shame to put all the effort into converting a fridge, only to not be able to fix it if it eventually breaks. That's what happened with my first curing chamber, and it was quite upsetting! Good luck on your journey to build this! :)

@@ThisDadGoesTo11 thank you pal

@@Tashyncho-Sapa No problem! 😁

Definitely! It's holding up really well. The only thing is the single fan has trouble lowering the RH when I have it loaded up with a lot of meat. In the near future, I'm planning to add a filtered input fan to aid in that. More of a 'cycling the air' idea. Video to come. 😁

@@ThisDadGoesTo11 hey thank you for the response and heads up appreciate that!

@@mikeoconnell4399 My pleasure!

My pleasure! So, I went with the side so that I didn't have to mess with the glass on the front or risk messing up wiring or lines in the back. The fridge schematic I downloaded showed nothing in the left side wall, so that made the decision for me. It works fairly well, but I am going to add a second fan on the same side near the top, pushing air in, to cycle it better to drop humidity. This is only to make it more efficient if I load it right up with salami, as it leeches a lot of moisture for the first bit. My last run made it hard to keep the humidity below 87% RH for the first few days, which then runs higher risk of mold and whatnot. That's really the only change I'll be making. I'll film that process, too, once I get the parts and the time. Hope that helps. Thanks for watching! 😁

@@ThisDadGoesTo11 thanks for the quick reply! I wasn't clear enough with my question, so here goes again LOL: you used a radial turbine on the side, and I wanted to know if a regular fan, like the ones in the computer cases would work the same, but with a bigger hole in the fridge wall. I will put a piece of plastic (going shopping for it tomorrow) between the chamber and the internal evaporator so I can run a fan from its top to move air downward towards where the radial turbine (in your setup) is located. My rationale for this is when the evaporator is not cooling its condensing moisture on its surface, the minute it stops, it would help if a fan moves down the condensate as fast as possible. In your setup, the top fan moves only on the back of the evaporator, leaving the condensate on the chamber side to be reintroduced into it. Greetings from the other end of the continent (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

@@pablopeu Greetings, indeed! Yeah, you can definitely use that circular, traditional style of computer fan. The first curing chamber I built (out of an old liquor store beer diplay cooler) had a 10cm diameter fan of this style at the top and bottom of the unit's walls (on the left side). The larger holes were no problem...I think it meant I went through more water in my humidifier, when I only had a little meat in there that was almost dry enough and was trying to keep the RH up. I was also more worried about dust/mold/etc. getting in, as the holes where larger, so I cut and installed some pieces of cheap furnace filter over the holes on the outside, just to prevent anything from drifting in. In my new fan addition, I plan to build some sort of a housing to both cover/brace the top fan on the exterior of the chamber, as well as to have a slot into which I can slide a filter of some sort. My current thinking is to design some sort of square frame out of wood or plastic, onto which I could maybe staple a couple layers of cheese cloth or something. I really just want to prevent stuff from drifting in, and that should do the trick. To make a long answer longer, yes, you can totally use that type of computer fan for your project, as I had success with that in my previous chamber. I just liked the look of this type for this one, and I liked the idea of a smaller hole in the chamber. That being said, I now want to cut a second hole for that second fan, so...yeah. Anyway, hope that helped better this time! Best of luck with your project! Let me know how it turns out, and don't hesitate to ask anything else! The more good meat out there in the world, the better! :)

@@ThisDadGoesTo11 Hi Again with more questions, did you tested your airflow in the chamber with something like yarn strings or the like? Also, do you have a link for those heating rolls? I put a lot strings in mine today to test this before hanging some muscles for the 1st time! Thanks!

@@pablopeu I didn't test out the flow on this one, as a friend had used these fans for other (but similar air movement) purposes. I definitely like your test idea, if you haven't whirled with them before, so you know how effective they'll be. I bought my heat wrap locally from a pet store supplier. They usual sell this for terrariums, and they make them to custom size. That specific store won't help you, but you might be able to find a place closer to you who can do something similar.

Yes, that's a large part of it, helping to regulate humidity. As I sometimes have huge amounts of meat in my chamber, and little at other times, I find it more necessary to use both a humidifier and fan setup to either increase or decrease humidity - it gives a little more control over the situation. I'm actually considering adding a second fan on the same side, near the top, to push air in while the second fan pulls air out - creating a better recirculation. That would help when I have a large quantity of newly-introduced salami or something in there. Hope that helps! :)

@@ThisDadGoesTo11 I meant, if I put a a large black of salt, will it help to absorb that moisture, instead of a fan etc, also do I need a wine cooler with compressor or with thermoelectric

No worries. Yes, that would help absorb the moisture coming out of the meat (you could also add a small, portable dehydrator that has beads that suck up moisture, if a salt block wasn't quite doing it). That should work for a small quantity of meat. You don't need a particular type of fridge for this, but I do prefer units with compressors over thermoelectric plates on the back. I lucked out finding this particular fridge, as there is a parts manual for it so, if anything breaks on it, I can hopefully replace it myself, rather than tossing out the unit. My first chamber was a Coors beverage display fridge (QBD brand) that, when the compressor went, nobody would touch it with a 10 foot pole. That hurt my feelings.

@@ThisDadGoesTo11 thank you very much for your information, it was very helpful

My pleasure! I love to talk about my obsessions...er, hobbies. Haha...

Hmm. The only thing I've used in it is meat, but it might work. As I imagine you want temp and humiditiy control for that, this is a good system. I suppose considerations would be how much air movement/removal you need; as plants likely lose moisture quicker, you might need a higher CRM fan (and I'd also suggest a second one, near the top, that pushes air in while the other pushes it out. Another issue might be for when a humidifier is running...you would have to ensure that you didn't have it packed so full that the humidity couldn't circulate throughout, or you'd have overly moist near the humidifier and overly dry away from it. As long as you have enough room between plants, and maybe even a little fan to turn on at the same time as the humidifer, it might be good. I say all of this with no experience in drying plants (not even the hops I have growing in my front yard, haha, as they aren't varieties I'd want in my beer), so I could be totally talking out of my butt. Thanks for watching!

My question exactly. I was looking at the Cannatrol. I have a wine fridge and everything needed to do this same thing. What he did here is exactly what you would need to do in order to dry flower. Great video to create your own Cannatrol. I had pretty much the same ideas and was looking for someone who had already perfected it. A wise Croatian engineer once told me being intelligent isn't knowing everything, it is knowing where to look for the answers.

So, I usually keep my curing chamber humidity controller set at 73% relative humidity. I know some people go with a slightly higher RH of 75% or so, but I find this setting works well with this chamber. One thing I have to bear in mind with this build is that it retains the moisture very well, and there is only the small opening at the bottom where the moist air cycles out. I originally had it set at 75%, and I found it was just a little too wet in there. I think, if I had a second opening, or a larger one, I could go with a slightly higher RH...but that would also mean needing to fill my humidifier more often, and that's just a hassle. Haha! Thanks for watching.

I had to look it up, haha! It's 10.6 cubic feet on the inside. It holds a decent amount of meat for its size. I currently have 15kg of salami, two full coppas (around 3kg each), a culatello and a presunto (5kg each) curing in there, no problem. Thanks for watching!

Yeah, that's fair. This video really reflected my "I'm trying to figure out what the heck I want to do with this" state of mind for this project. It's on my docket of videos to tweak and release a second, streamlined version, for sure. Maybe when it's cold and boring outside this winter...haha...stay tuned. Thanks for watching (and for sticking with it)! 😁