Do they literally just blow warm air over the food?some of them cost over £500. I already have metal boxes and hot wind isn't exactly hard to attain.
>>2792179In general you get a superior product from not using heated air. A box fan with some racks will make better beef jerky or dried fruit than a $500 dehydrator because it won’t cook the stuff as it dehydrates it. They all have pretty shit temp controls with wild swing, they’re just poorly constructed convection ovens, and when the heat element kicks on the temperature can swing wildly. I tried one (granted it was a cheaper model) where an rtd inserted in the chamber showed a spread of +-28F from set temp during drying. Critical reviews from people who know their shit seem to suggest the $500 ones have similar issues, though not as bad.
>>2792179>>2792191Diy dehydrator thread? I want/need one too. They all seem to be cheap, with more expensive ones just bigger. I want to dry herbs, spices and berries from my garden.Any more details on the diy box fan idea? I can work with rtds and relays. Should I add a big ceramic tile for thermal mass or something?
>>2792191>In general you get a superior product from not using heated air.now this is interesting to me, wouldn't that take fucking forever though? have you tried that? what was your set up?>A box fan with some racks will make better beef jerky or dried fruit than a $500 dehydrator because it won’t cook the stuff as it dehydrates it. so i thought the idea was that they don't cook it, just warm it, to about 60C max, which is enough to aid evaporation and make the drying quick enough that bacterial/fungal growth doesn't happen, which is what would happen with no heat.basically, in making jerky, if you just hang the meat out with no heat, i thought it would go rotten before it dries.
>>2792193>rtds and relaysyou can work with retards and relays? you are fully equipped to post on /diy/. carry on.
>>2792193serious reply now; i am thinking either, hair dryer on low, or even a heat fan on low, directed into the box. although i feel like they'd both be too hot even on low. additional internal fan for circulation because, who on /diy/ doesn't have a massive surplus of fans?I have a broken electric oven I can use for the main thing, has racks already.How much ventilation do these things need? I know they need some, i'd like a better look at the commercial ones, see how ventilated they are.>berriesyou could probably benefit from using some fine stainless steel mesh on your racks. could repurpose a sieve or frying pan splatter protector thingy.I might try to get something like a small radiant electric heater or one of those ceramic tube heaters.
>>2792194You don’t need heat at all. You’re overthinking this. You generally need dry air, that’s far more important than heat. If you have an arid environment (run a dehumidifier) it’s as simple as turning a box fan as on its side, putting some cheap hvac filters on top to use as racks, and putting food on said filters. It’s ghetto and ugly but it will work and will generally give a superior product to drying processes that accelerate the process via heat. Remember that this is literally one of the oldest ways of preparing food that predates fire. Read up on it, if you’re doing meat read up on marinades and rubs that have proper salt content, trimming fat, preparing and selecting cuts (which also applies to fruits) and heat won’t matter, most shit will dry in a day or two, long before it would ever rot. It’s very safe to do and again is a food preparation method that has been practiced for millennia
>>2792179>>2792193just literally use your fucking ovenset it to lowest temp and prop the door open
>>2792179If it's something with a low level of water like a carrot you can just toss it into your freezer and it will freeze dry over time. For better quality freeze drying you just put it in a vacuum container with some desiccant which will suck the water out of your produce.Pro side of freeze drying is it preserves better, nutrition wise and texture as well as being faster.
>>2792179Spend 6000 on a Harvest Right then let us know how it went.
>>2792540that is not the /diy/ way, i bet you just BUY things when you need them, don't you? jesus fucking christ.I've tried that method already, made a lot of successful jerky, and it takes >6 hours and costs way more in energy than a dehydrator would.>>2792536pic rel ... if it's that simple, then holy shit, I'll have a jerky making machine up and running in 10 minutes.
>>2792179>Do they literally just blow warm air over the food?yes
I have oneA 10 tray i bought ~10 years ago was only about 150 usdI love it but if it breaks i will just diy repair it with a box fan like you say It was worth the money though just for the racking system and steel trays which i use for all kinds of things not just dehydratingDoubt you can find one so cheap anymore though
>>2792710what does yours have? heating system? fan? does it have a door or is it just open at the front?
>>2792179Like >>2792191 and >>2792536 said, pretty easy. Here's a video if you need a reference:https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/good-eats/videos/withering-bites(Skip to 1:22 if you're in a hurry)
>>2792179OP back with progress.>>2792781link is dead, but don't worry, it's fucking happening
disassembled an old broken electric oven, found some cool gizmos and switches inside. if I can be arsed i will route the power through the original power switch, and add a light.There's already an internal mains filament bulb, then that got me thinking, I saved one of the hobs to use as a heat source (original oven elements trip the leccy, must have a short) however I am pretty damn sure it will be far too much heat- but I have an alternative, filament bulbs! I'm going to get a bunch of filament bulbs and install them in random places inside, any suggestions on where would be best? bottom is the obvious first thought; convection, but maybe there's be some benefit to having them in the sides? input appreciated.
So I'm trying the airflow only method first. i was going to install 3 fans but one does the trick, i can feel the air blowing out of the gaps around the door on the front! did an experiment with some loo roll, put a few sheets inside on the rack and i can see it blowing slightly, across the whole rack, so there is air movement everywhere inside.I just did a quick calculation and I think this costs me 0.1p to run per hour (one tenth of a penny), it's only 4.8 watts.beef seasoned with salt and garlic granules drying as I type.
well holy fuck it's working! i just checked it after 4 hours and it's like 30% dry.Still feel like a little heat would help it though.Will leave it on overnight, for a grand total of about 1p electricity cost.I can't believe this is working.>>2792536>>2792191if this works, big big thankyou anon!I ... can just make jerky, overnight, for like 1p. what. I will add the other 2 fans I was planning for a total of 3p electricity cost. lol, lmao even.
>>2792932Heat will speed it up but will change the final result. You may or may not prefer it. It’s not necessarily better or worse but it is different when heat is applied. Imo it’s superior without heat, more tender, better flavor, but others might prefer the slightly tougher/chewier texture from heated drying. And a lot of that can be greatly impacted by choice of meat/marinade anyway. Again look up marinades since a marinade with proper acidity and salt content can help increase the safety quite a bit. It looks like you didn’t do a marinade at all, which isn’t the end of the world, but it’s much safer to at least liberally salt the meat which hopefully you did. That oven is disgusting so maybe you’re not overly concerned about food safety I guess. You don’t need three fans. Intense airflow won’t help as much as you think and will more likely just disturb the food especially if you dry stuff like fruit that doesn’t sit as easily and is more likely to slide around.
>>2792722Its just a square with racks, a cover for the front and a fan with a heating element behing it in the back
>>2793293noice thanks.>>2793235>That oven is disgusting i mean, yes, but it's mostly just rust and the meat only ever touches the clean rack. As long as you buy from a good butcher, you can eat meat raw. i did salt it well.Results are in;In about 10 hours, it did not fully dry the thicker pieces, which were still only very thin at about 6mm, and it created a jerky tougher and more leathery than anything i have ever had. i prefer my jerky tough so i cut with the grain of the meat, but this was so leathery, it was nearly impossible to bite off a chunk.pro tip: if you do it this way you MUST cut across the grain.>You don’t need three fansi am going to add the fans, and switches to control them individually.So i also had a 600w hob and a 1000w hob scavenged from this oven, but only the 1000W one is working, which is about 208 times the present electricity cost.I'm not sure the light bulbs will provide enough heat. we shall have to experiment.
>>2792540This work in most ovens, which bottom out at 180 or so. The sensor will constantly tell the oven its too cold and power up the elements while even 180 with the door closed is way too hot. I've tried it in mine a few times and it sucks. IF you have a convection oven that can be set low enough might work.
made a batch of lamb jerky, also came out very very tough and leathery.It needs 24 hours to fully dry meat & make it into jerky.for some reason I only have broken light bulbs in my box of filament bulbs ????????? and normal shops don't sell them anymore.Where the fuck can i get these guys?
>>2792193Solar thermal ones look interesting (and, pretty easy/basic).
>>2793341Again, secret to soft delicious jerky is all in prepping the meat. Read up on marinades like I said earlier and you would’ve seen cutting against the grain is what you should do 100% of the time but you figured that out on your own so nice work. Acidic marinades will help with the leathery texture but this is also about choice of cut (start with something like top round) and timing (you can dry too long). Keep in mind if you’re aiming to get a product like store bought jerky/jacks links you’re fighting a losing battle; they use good cuts of meat bought in bulk that will make it hard for you to save any money preparing it yourself (a $7.99/lb top round becomes 1-2oz jerky vs a $5 bag of jacks links that 3.5oz). Additionally they prepare it with a shitload of sugar, like well over 10x what you’d typically use at home (why theirs spoils quicker after opening) and they prepare it with industrial machinery called a tumble dehydrator which allows it to maintain more of the weight from the marinade and increased sugar content during drying. See https://youtu.be/sRnRXzMQDEs?si=jXVyG7H1-Kzwhxf8 for what a tumble dehydrator looks like, although it’s not that interesting
>>2794123You should get 4 ounces out of a pound of meatAnd dont use top round, use eye of round
>>2792179The ideal dehydrator will:>warm the air in the enclosure, but not above a desired temperature>have a method for removing the moisture out of the enclosure>have a method for reducing the humidity inside the enclosure below that of the outside airThe top two points are doable with simple fans and/or heaters, but the last point is necessary if you're in a humid environment or want shit to be really damn dry. To achieve all three I'd use a heat pump system as follows:>dry air passes through hot side of heat pump>heated air passes through food>moistened air passes through heat exchanger with outside air>moistened air passes through cold side of heat pump>moisture condenses on the cold heat sink and is extracted>dried air goes back to the hot side of the heat pumpThis process makes net heat, so to prevent the system getting too hot, the fan on the outside of the heat exchanger should be turned on by thermostatic control or PID or whatever. I've seen designs for this sort of heat-pump dehydrator for drying honey, though the heat exchanger addition is my own idea.Another method is to use a concentrated desiccant to extract the moisture, and then to dry that desiccant out automatically. You could use a rotating drum of desiccant with seperate air paths, or a pump around a concentrated liquid like in Tech Ingredients' diy air conditioning system.I come at this from the perspective of drying out 3D printing filament. There I hear desiccant alone is far too slow, and just leaving shit at 50°C isn't really an issue.>>2792677>if it's that simple, then holy shit, I'll have a jerky making machine up and running in 10 minutesEvery month or two another south african boomer comes into the local jaycar to buy a fan and light bulb to make a biltong box. Biltong is great.>>2793855Ovens and microwaves still use the small bulbs that die somewhat regularly, they should be obtainable in hardware stores.
>>2794123>(a $7.99/lb top round becomes 1-2oz jerky vs a $5 bag of jacks links that 3.5oz)i am not going to bother converting things but i will tell you that a TINY bag of jerky, costs about £3 here.I spent £2.90 on all the beef I used and it made WAY more than the tiny bag. atleast double if not tripple.>although it’s not that interestingyou underestimate my autism, I am playing "prismcorp virtual enterprises: home" instead of their music. thanks for the info. i always wondered how they got it that way.>>2794162>Every month or two another south african boomer comes into the local jaycar to buy a fan and light bulb to make a biltong boxnoice, good to know my idea works!I found some of the light bulbs at a supermarket of all places, the hardware stores don't stock filament bulbs anymore.
>>2794380>I found some of the light bulbs at a supermarket of all placespretty sure people buy them to make crackpipes
>>2794486pretty sure you need to stop watching breaking bad and go outside, jesus christ. I am really sick of everyone bringing that up every time you mention light bulbs.it's a normie bullshit thing that they say to try and sound smart and cool, like>yeah, i know this edgy thing, heh, illegal things r cool and i am smartshut up and fuck off you druggie normie.Here's some better uses for incandescent light bulbs:>nice lighting that is not cold white or actually strobe (fucks with your eyes, gives headaches)>low level heating>heat source for incubators>indicator lights for cool oldschool control panels>a weird resistor that changes resistance dependent on voltage>carefully remove the metal cap and break into the glass part, put in moss and soil and replace the cap to make a cool little terrarium>a fucking dehydrator
>>2795028I agree+the sell those crack pipe flower vases fucking everywhere why would anyone bother getting cut up by some overpriced light bulb?
>>2795028>pretty sure you need to stop watching breaking bad and go outside, jesus christmy chinese friend who worked at a dairy in a shitty part of town told me, i trust him, not in america though so our crackheads aren't as experienced>changes resistance dependent on voltageisn't that just the tempco talking? it's tungsten, i see no reason why it would be non-ohmic.>>2795205never seen these lmao
>>2794162I have a room dehumidifier, if I just put it on lowest humidity setting and then a cheap oven element and small fan it should work right? I don’t know the capacity of the dehumidifier but it makes about a gallon of water in 5 hours when I put it in the shower room
>>2795373>never seen these lmaoI bet you will now
>>2795373>never seen these lmaoGo to a non chain gas station or convenience store in a slightly less nice part of town. It doesn't even have to be the hood these days.
>>2795388the oven element will be way overkill. i seriously think a 100w light bulb would be enough. i am going to simply put a 25w light bulb in front of each fan and maybe add a two more underneath.waiting for bulb sockets to arrive.>>2795373>isn't that just the tempco talking? it's tungsten, i see no reason why it would be non-ohmic.i don't think i fully understand what you are saying, but as the voltage going through it heats the element, the resistance changes, it gets higher. see the above graph. there's a non-linear relationship between current and voltage.pic only slightly related.
How do you make a freeze drier?
>>2795548>How do you make a freeze drier?A sub-zero freezer that can be sealed and a vacuum applied.The 'real' ones cycle through temp changes and pressure changes but vacuum freezing is mostly it.
>>2795541>as the voltage going through it heats the element, the resistance changes, it gets higherYeah, that's the resistance temperature coefficient. But the actual resistance curve for any given temperature is a straight line, not the curved line in that graph. If you wanted a resistor that changed resistance based on voltage (e.g. for soft clipping distortion of an audio signal), an incandescent lamp would be a poor choice, it would only have that behaviour if you changed the current/voltage slow enough to let it heat up. For fast (e.g. audio) signals it would just act like a normal resistor. The temperature coefficient is actually useful in some circuits, like for stabilising a sine oscillator, but the graph and your statement implies it has a nonlinear I/V curve like a diode. It does not. I am mostly just being a pedant.Interestingly enough though, when Edison was experimenting with carbon filament bulbs, these filaments were made from carburised bamboo. This charcoal structure actually had a negative temperature coefficient, and the bulbs kept dying from thermal runaway. They had to roast the filaments in a kiln, this changed the structure of the carbon into something more like conventional graphite, which has a positive temperature coefficient and is stable with a constant-voltage source. The original filament would have been usable with a constant-current source, or with a current limiting ballast capacitor/inductor.
>>2795765aaaaah ok i get you now.the temperature is only going to change slowly, so for higher frequencies it doesn't do that.in other news i have one bulb in my dehydrator now and am thinking about where to put the other fans.if you look at my above photos you can see i made accomodation for 3, in a horizontal row, however i want some lower fans, i think maybe just two aligned vertically might be better, thoughts?
>>2792179due to government regulations and food safety standards, modern dehydrators do indeed 'just blow hot air over the food' which partially cooks it, evaporates some moisture, and kills surface level bacteria.if you want to be a purest, you can dehydrate food with literally just the wind, and if you want to be a cheap diyer, you can dehydrate food with just a regular box fan with a frame attached to it. My first attempt at dehydrating jerky was the box fan/square tray method and the food was perfectly edible. Drying after all, is simply the act of removing moisure via moving air. But the added heat does speed up the process and removes a lot of doubt. In the preindustrial era, drying would be achieved by setting up meats in the air on string and letting the air blow through it but that would take days if not weeks and required good luck with the weather. A modern heat-utilizing dehydrator can achieve the same thing in hours. It's pretty unreliable, which is why most cultures then transitioned to smoking meat which.... is basically blowing hot air through the food to dry it out while inccidently flavoring it as well.
>>2792710i had that model, motor burned outbought a new model, its double walled, same price. 10x better. not riveted, doesn't vibrate or shake, can actually touch the outside.
>>2796330Where did you buy it
>>2796416https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076HFCW4R/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1i paid $270 4 years agozero issues
>>2796418Sooo not the same price
>>2794380good job op, you fullfilledfor anyone else that wants some bigger or frankensteini built one of these for mushrooms and it worked greatsome playwood walls, brackets not painted on corners. some legs, hinges for a front doorstaple some mosquito net layers or screen or whateverthrow a box fan on top and plug it in4 square feet of drying space per rack, they only need to be like 6 inches apart so you can fit an obscene amount of wet goods
>>2796884ffs
>>2796885we all forget the image sometimes. nice schematic.did you have any heating at all? or just wind?
>>2792552>just toss it into your freezer and it will freeze dry over timeThere’s no way this won’t taste like sweaty ass. I guess if you’re stocking up for shtf that’s ok but you’re supposed to eat through your supplies gradually so they don’t spoil unless they’re mre’s or a similar product. Honestly asking, will the carrot last indefinitely pr would I actually have to eat it?
>>2796885Any reason to put the fan on top instead of on the bottom? avoid drips on the blades?
>>2795028So if I’m following here, this anon is triggered (very triggered) over people who don’t make it a daily habit of associating with people who smoke crack. Have I got this right?
>>2797122>Have I got this right?no.
>>2796839i paid $220 for yours like 10 years ago. prices go up.
I have added four light bulbs, 3 at the back and the one that was in the oven anyway; the one near the fan is enough to heat the air blowing over it- warm wind.No photo yet. more jerky drying now. here's a photo of a submarine taken in half.
>>2797176>>2792710>bought ~10 years ago was only about 150 usd
>>2792710give the dog some he's a good boy
>>2796418>$300Nah, as far as i can tell >>2796885 should be doable with some beech slaps, angle pieces, off the shelf racks and whatever electronics i wish to use. Which should be all flying around here somewhere, except racks.Dunno if i'm convinced by the missing heating element though. Weather here is quite moody and can get quite humid.
>>2797250That is ai
>>2797252prices change during the year. you bought it when it was low, i got it when it was high.
>>2792179Not seen anyone mention it, but silica beads and activated alumina pellets are dirt cheap and 3lbs of each is enough drying capacity to make mushrooms cracker dry in less than a day, without airflow. I’ve been thinking about how to incorporate moving air so that I can start making jerky, and here’s what I’ve got so far. A fan pulls air into a chamber full of desiccant. It moves through a tube with an inline filter to catch particulate, and passes into a sealed dog food tub (used because it has sealing gaskets on the lid). The tub has the racks for the jerky, and the exhaust just blows out of holes on the opposite end. I’m worried about developing enough pressure to move through the inline filter, so I may have a fan on the outlet pulling air as well.The tubs are long, but kinda short, so I’m thinking of stacking them and splitting the air flowing out of the drying chamber into multiple tubs.
>>2797505The desiccants are rechargeable (just bake them to get the moisture out), and the whole point of heat in the first place is to increase the saturation point of the air so it can pick up water as it moves past the jerky. It makes more sense to me to just completely dry the air first, that way you aren’t dealing with heat fucking with the food.
>>2797374false, that is a submarine cut in half.
>>2797505why do you need the lid seal if you are going to make air holes in the tub?
GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!my dehydrator is a success! Now with the light bulbs it is capable of drying large beef slices, and i mean seriously thick and large like 10mm thick in some places, in 24 hours no problem. they are fine after just 18 hours, but i want to give them longer to get them really bone dry.>>2797117gravity.if things you are drying are light, a fan below will blow them off the rack.
the observant will have noticed there's some herbs drying too, I put some wild garlic in there in a mesh tray which I also fashioned from some scrap.
I feel like the photo doesn't capture it but this jerky is very large, look how the light shines through it! i cut into it in the middle to see how dry it was, still needed a tiny bit longer for my liking but WITH THE LIGHT BULBS THE TEXTURE IS BETTER! much crisper and easier to chew. still tough but less so than with just the fan used to dry it.just look at that beautiful jerky.
