Quote:
Originally Posted by 4:21oops  When drying jerkey you do have to rotate trays to allow for uneven drying but there is always somewhat of an upward airflow. I just don't think its enough for bud. However, there is adequate heat, probably too much. Thats why I was wondering, so that you could cut back the heat a bit. |
I can't see why you couldn't use a commercially made food or herb dehydrator, provided you could dial down the temp from their usual 100-160F operating temps. An incandescent dimmer would do fine as heating elements are purely resistive, just as are incandescent lamps.
If the dehydrator has a thermostat and you have had to choke off the current to the heating element, you may be using temps outside the range of the unit's original thermostat. You may have to find a tstat capable of closely regulating temps at 29C and work out a way of installing it so its temp sensor is in the warm airflow.
Food dehydrators also often have very small vertical height between trays, limiting how much bud you could do at one time.
When you really have to start doing serious modding up of the commercial unit, you may find that it's the same or less work to cook up your own.
There's some other cannabis-specific features you can put in a dryer of your own making as well, such as fitting flanges for flexible ducting to the air output of the dryer so 'stinky' air can be ducted elsewhere or through an ioniser or carbon filter.