Homemade Cardboard Dehydrator

dan5505 · Jul 17, 2015

I'm too cheap to buy a dehydrator, so here is my DIY solution. Its free if you have any old pc parts.

I used this last year to dehydrate my orange and red habs so that I could make powder. I'm sure this doesn't dry as fast as a real dehydrator, but it works for my low volume of pods. If I remember correctly, it takes a few days until fully dry with cut pods.

Here are some supplies you may or may not have laying around. A computer fan, a small cardboard box, tape, and an old pc power supply. I'm sure you could use ac adapters as well, but you have to use one that has a high enough voltage output. Probably need 10 to 12 volts. Cell phone chargers are 5 volts and will not work.

Tape your fan in place.

I lay a couple paper towels in the bottom of the box to lay the pods on.

Go pull some pods and cut them in half.

SmokenFire · Jul 17, 2015

Nice DIY workaround bud. Reminds me of something Alton Brown did with cheapo box fans and furnace filters.

SL3 · Jul 17, 2015

You got to love the MacGyver's of this world.

Chilima · Jul 18, 2015

This will work as good as putting them somewhere on the open where is slight breeze and its pretty warm

plus one for effort tho

JoynersHotPeppers · Jul 18, 2015

Nice work and I hope it works for you but the air if not warm enough will allow thicker flesh pods the ability to mold before drying. It should work for thinner walled pods.

dan5505 · Jul 19, 2015

Chilima said:
This will work as good as putting them somewhere on the open where is slight breeze and its pretty warm

plus one for effort tho

I agree. Last year, I tried leaving them out in the open to dry, but wasn't getting enough airflow. I'm sure you could accomplish the same thing with a box fan pointed at the pods, but it wouldn't be as quiet or compact.

This is what the pods look like after 2 days. Not quite done yet.

Shorerider · Jul 19, 2015

Why not use something you already have like your oven? Both these powders were smoked, and then finished off in my (electric) oven at 60deg c for 6-7 hours. Color was great, and they blended up fine.

SR

gangaskan · Jul 20, 2015

neat idea, maybe rig it up to get more airflow in a push / pull configuration if you're going to do it that way? or use low cfm 120mm for more surface area?

frosty · Jul 26, 2015

This is funny I was thinking of something similar. I was thinking of a box with a peltier plate. The net effect of the plate is to warm the air. The cold side would collect condensation.

I think it would dry faster without heating the peppers too much.

Im thinking a box with pc fan recirculating air and the plate with a condensation collector (funnel with tube). The hot side of plate would be in the fan path with a nice heat sink.

gangaskan · Jul 31, 2015

frosty said:
This is funny I was thinking of something similar. I was thinking of a box with a peltier plate. The net effect of the plate is to warm the air. The cold side would collect condensation.

I think it would dry faster without heating the peppers too much.

Im thinking a box with pc fan recirculating air and the plate with a condensation collector (funnel with tube). The hot side of plate would be in the fan path with a nice heat sink.

dont want the cold site collecting too much condensation though or cooling too much as it will ice up, but depending on what kind of Peltier you get, maybe a low wattage one in the 5-10 watt range?

oldsalty · Jul 31, 2015

Shorerider said:
Why not use something you already have like your oven? Both these powders were smoked, and then finished off in my (electric) oven at 60deg c for 6-7 hours. Color was great, and they blended up fine.

SR

Brother that Bishops hat powder of yours is fantastic.

Shorerider · Jul 31, 2015

oldsalty said:
Brother that Bishops that powder of yours is fantastic.

Thanks mate, glad you liked it.

oldsalty · Jul 31, 2015

And I don't know if y'all tried craigslist but in my area there's a ton oh cheap dehydrators for anywhere from ten bucks and up! Just a thought. But I do love pepper peoples ingenuity!!!!

frosty · Aug 12, 2015

gangaskan said:
dont want the cold site collecting too much condensation though or cooling too much as it will ice up, but depending on what kind of Peltier you get, maybe a low wattage one in the 5-10 watt range?

If it freezes up that is even better. Just makes the air dryer

gangaskan · Aug 13, 2015

frosty said:
If it freezes up that is even better. Just makes the air dryer

but dosent that take a ton of cooling on the hot side for that to happen? if i remember correctly they work depending on what side you cool / heat. i was looking at freezing a cpu with one at some point, but the cost was a little bit for me
come to think of it, what if you put a ceramic heater on one side and pushed/ pulled??? that might work better bringing hot dry air in?

frosty · Aug 13, 2015

No. The current pulls heat from one plate to the next. One side will always be hot and the other cool. They are very inefficient but good for some applications

The ideal dehydrator doesn't get very hot but gets very dry and blows the dry air over the vegetable. Heating changes the taste.

The net effect of a peltier is heat but if the air only gets warm and you have condensation then you have warm (not hot) dry air circulating,sucking the moisture out.