Cold drying cured meat. How to make a dehydrator for vegetables and fruits with your own hands Simple solar dryer

Drying fruits and vegetables is in a good way save them useful properties for a relatively long time. To quickly and efficiently dehydrate food, you can purchase a suitable dehydrator in the store household appliances. In addition to harvesting vegetables and fruits for the winter, with the help of such devices you can also dry meat, fish, and cook homemade yogurts. However, a store dryer is a relatively expensive pleasure. If you wish, you can save money by making a similar unit from improvised means with your own hands. The article discusses options for dryers that you can do yourself with a minimum of costs.

Homemade dehydrator from an old refrigerator

For the manufacture of a dryer at home, the main factor is the presence suitable material for the body of the unit. Good for these purposes. an unnecessary refrigerator.

Preparatory activities

The body of the old refrigerator a good option for homemade electric dryer. Roomy and stable, it will get a second life as an outer frame for home drying equipment.

To make a dehydrator, you first need to get rid of unnecessary parts: freezer, compressor and radiator. Dismantling should be carried out very carefully so as not to spill the working substance of the refrigerator. As a refrigerant, for example, freon, ammonia, SF6 can be used. These substances are unsafe for the human body.

Important! It is also necessary to remove the lining and insulation from the refrigerator, which, during heating, will decompose and release substances harmful to health. The rubber backing on the refrigerator door is not removed.

Advice! During the preparatory work It is recommended to use a respirator, gloves and goggles.

Dryer assembly

After the preparatory activities in the place where the compressor was installed, a fan of suitable dimensions is mounted. Suitable device with a diameter of about 120-200 cm and a power of 18 W. It can be purchased specially or removed from the old exhaust system. A feature of the installation is the fact that the fan must work to force air masses into the dehydrator.

In the upper part of the refrigerator, you need to cut a hole for a pipe with a diameter of 10 cm. This can be done using a tool available at home, for example, a crown or a jigsaw. This hole is designed as an outlet for humid air. On the roof of the refrigerator, a segment is installed in it metal pipe(with the corresponding diameter) or aluminum corrugations. A sufficient length of the pipe is 2-3 m.

For faster drying at the upper end of the pipe, you can install a small hood. The top of the air duct should be protected from insects with a mosquito net or gauze folded in several layers.

For the possibility of loading products into the future dehydrator for drying on the sides of the body refrigerator compartment attached wooden slats . Pallets will be placed on them. The distance between the slats is chosen 10-20 cm. This is enough to accommodate various vegetables, fruits, mushrooms and herbs, both in sliced ​​form and some in general. If it becomes necessary to dry larger pieces, then it is enough to pull out the extra trays from the refrigerator.

Important! To increase productivity homemade unit the use of a fan heater is recommended. There is also an option using electric heaters. Installed on the back wall of the refrigerator, they will significantly speed up the drying process.

It should be noted that when using heating elements, it will be necessary installation of an additional fan to speed up the extraction. If these methods of drying acceleration are not required, then a simple fan can be dispensed with.

If desired, a homemade dryer can be improved with the help of temperature sensors. Also, with due skill, you can equip the equipment with a timer and other automated tools for your convenience.

Pallet manufacturing

The trays for the dehydrator should be selected or made according to the size of the refrigerator, so that there is a gap of 2 cm between their edges and the door. The same gap should be provided between the trays and the back wall of the case. This is necessary for the full blowing of products at all levels.

Advice! As drying trays for vegetables and fruits, you can take oven trays, grill grates, metal sheets, mesh shelves. Suitable designs are easy to make from wire, plywood and other improvised means.

DIY drying cabinet

In the absence of unnecessary equipment with a suitable housing at home, drying cabinet you can make your own. For work you will need the following materials:

• plywood sheets;
• slats;
• corners;
• foil;
• electric heating device;
• conventional and fan heater;
• self-tapping screws.

First thing cabinet frame installed, then it is sheathed with plywood or other wood on all sides, except for the door. In the rear wall, you can pre-make holes for mounting fans. The door is made separately from the same materials and is attached to the body with hinges. Numerous holes with a diameter of 5-10 mm are preliminarily drilled on the surface of the door.

Closet Lined with aluminum foil on the inside and wooden slats for pallets are fastened along its side walls.

Trays for fruits and vegetables are selected in the same way as when making a dryer from a refrigerator. Their dimensions should not interfere with the free circulation of air inside the dehydrator.

Both fans mounted on the back of the cabinet: the fan heater to the bottom and the conventional fan to the top.

Allowed parallel connection of devices, thanks to which they will work from one switch. You can also equip the drying cabinet with light bulbs, which will serve as visual indicators of its operation.

Solar dehydrator assembly options

Solar dehydrators are dryers that are used to work solar energy . They are well suited for drying herbs, fruits or vegetables, even fish. Such designs are more economical, however, it will be possible to use them effectively only in hot sunny weather. Can be done completely simple design in the form of an ordinary box, or you can make a more “advanced” device equipped with additional equipment.

Simple Solar Dryer

To make a simple solar dryer for a summer residence, you will need a minimum of materials, tools and time. The assembly of the body is carried out by a method similar to the manufacture of a dehydrator in the form of a home-made cabinet. The exception is that there is no need to make holes for fans and in the door of the dryer.

small slots for ventilation are made in the upper and lower walls of the structure and are equipped with mosquito nets. Another difference is that the bottom surface must be longer than the top, thus achieving the angular position of the door. The drying box must be installed on a stand made of wooden bars, made like a stool.

Important! The back wall of a homemade dehydrator should be sheathed with a metal sheet. Its heating will provide a temperature of 40-50 degrees inside the box. Also, the inside of the structure must be painted black to ensure greater temperature.

The box door must be made from transparent material : glass, plastic, polyethylene film. It is mounted to the top like a frame.

in a box rails are installed for the opposites. Their number is determined by the size of the manufactured box. Do not leave a small distance between the pallets - this has a bad effect on the circulation of air masses.

In the end, it remains only to pick up or make matching pallets. After that, you can put a homemade dehydrator in a well-lit place.

Manifold device

A solar dryer with a collector is a more labor-intensive version of the product. The drying box is arranged in much the same way as a simple dryer. But there are a number of significant differences. Such a dehydrator consists of 2 parts: an air heating zone (collector) and a product drying zone. From the front, both zones should be covered with a transparent material.

At the bottom of the heating zone, make holes for free air flow. An aluminum plate painted black should be installed on the inner wall of the collector. The air, passing along this plate, will heat up and flow through an additional hole into the lower part of the drying zone. Rising up, it takes moisture and exits through the exhaust pipe to the outside.

For efficient operation of the dryer with a collector, it must be moved so that the collector is constantly directed towards the sun. To avoid this, you can improve the dehydrator with additional collector devices from each side.

Modification with fan and thermostat

To make it sunny dryer with fan and thermostat, you should prepare the following materials:

• glass or plastic;
• plywood;
• corners, bars, slats;
• wheels with a diameter of 40-80 mm (for ease of moving the unit);
• aluminum sheet;
• small fan (diameter 120 mm, 12 V);
• thermostat;
• voltage stabilizer with a KR142EN8B chip;
• solar battery with a voltage of 12 V;
• mosquito net.

For ease of assembly, be guided by a drawing indicating the dimensions of the parts of the product, which is presented below.

The first step is to assemble from bars and plywood product body and seal it. Then, wheels are mounted on the bottom of the dryer. With their help, the product will easily turn towards the sun. Made of transparent material (glass or plastic) backdoor dryers.

If you observe the dimensions proposed in the drawing, then in this dryer 7 pallets can be installed at a distance of 7 cm from each other. For this purpose, wooden slats are mounted in the body. Pallets for this design are appropriate to be made of mesh material and support rails.

A black painted aluminum sheet is mounted on the manifold. A fan is mounted in the upper part of the box and, in accordance with the diagram assembling an electrical circuit from the fan solar battery, voltage stabilizer and thermostat.

When connecting elements electrical circuit should be guided by the diagram below.

For performance improvement Once assembled, the solar powered dehydrator must be positioned so that the collector and battery are facing the sun.

infrared dehydrator

good dryer for herbs, nuts, mushrooms and fruits can be made using an infrared lamp. For work, you need the following materials and tools:

• wire with a diameter of 5-8 mm;
• small cardboard box;
• foil;
• metal grid;
• lampholder with mounts;
• thermometer;
• infrared lamp with a power of 60 W;
• screwdriver, knife and awl;
• self-tapping screws, adhesive tape.

Advice! Instead of a light bulb, a heating element used when installing underfloor heating is quite suitable. A piece like this will suffice. 50 × 100 cm films(You need to proceed from the size of the box). Its power will be approximately 110 watts.

inside the box cover with foil and mesh shelves are prepared according to its size. On one of the walls below, a hole is made for the wire and a cartridge with an infrared light bulb is fixed there. A thermometer is attached to one of the inner walls of the box.

Made from pieces of wire mesh tray holders. To do this, you need to pierce the walls of the box, thread the pieces of wire and secure their ends with tape.

Using a thermometer, you can monitor the temperature inside the device. It is recommended to dry vegetable products at a temperature of 40-50 degrees. If the temperature inside the dryer exceeds the norm, you can turn off the light for a while or leave the lid of the box ajar. This product can be made more convenient to use by installing temperature sensors. Which will turn off the lamp itself when overheated.

Drying chamber for meat and fish products

Protein products can also be processed in a dryer. This process is called curing. Dehydrator for meat and fish can be made from a plastic box with lid right size. For manufacturing, you need a fan, a piece of pipe or coupling, threaded studs, washers and nuts. There are a number of videos on how to make your own drying cabinet meat products. A very simple assembly option is presented in the video below.

Self-manufacturing a food dryer with the right components is a relatively easy process. Assembly options can be much more than considered. It all depends on the imagination and possibilities. Also, any home-made model can be automated so that the drying process delivers as little hassle as possible and practically does not require personal intervention.

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got a new toy - made a dehydrator.
"What the hell is this?" you ask. Ooooh, it's a thing!
If you say in Russian and understandable language, then this is an ordinary dryer. These are freely sold on the Internet and home appliance stores.
How it works - air is forced from the room into the drying chamber, which then exits a special hole, taking with it particles of liquid from the product.
They dry mainly fruits, berries, mushrooms, thin slices of meat and even fish.
The most widely known apparatus in Russia is the Sukhovey - many families have one. But what happened to me is a truly universal thing!
I must say right away that the idea is not mine! I have LJ friends who are capable)) The king of sausages and syrniki. I remembered the idea, and then for some reason I constantly stumbled that something needed to be dried, but nothing.
No, I used to calmly use the oven for these purposes - I turned on convection without temperature. Or if you wanted to quickly - confection, minimum temperature and ajar door.
Now, hehe, I'm whining again - I don't have an oven (temporarily, temporarily, for half a year already and xs when it appears). So it is very necessary to make a drying box.
The second magic pendel in favor of the dehydrator happened from the Hare - I periodically, and everything would be fine, but the picnic-garden season has begun - there are regular guests in the house and a refrigerator always clogged with pots and bowls. I simply do not have the opportunity to allocate a whole shelf for dried meat.
That's all, guys, I've assembled a dehydrator! On the knee, with pink instruments and female hands right in the middle of the living room)))
The hare performed feats with a fence and didn’t give me a normal screwdriver in my hands - he needed it himself, so he helped me only at the very end.

What nnada:

• Plastic container or box to lid
• threaded rod on M6 or M8
• nuts and washers suitable for the diameter of the rod
• ventilation grille
• forced draft fan

All this goodness cost me a little more than a thousand rubles: 516 rubles a huge box on wheels and 700 rubles accessories (4 kg of nails for a suddenly fallen fence). Forced exhaust can be found cheaper, and so many nuts are not needed.

Forced exhaust is located at the bottom - we mark the place. The ventilation grill is located as far as possible from the hood - ideally on the lid of the box, but my lid was uneven, so the place for the grill will be on the wall opposite from the hood at the top. We also mark the place for the hole. (if anyone is interested, I drew this with a special glass pencil, but you can use a marker or scratch it with something sharp).

Cut holes for the hood and ventilation grill. In fact, the easiest way to do this is with a special circular saw-crown - the largest diameter is 10 cm, just for all built-in hoods and grills this size. BUT! The screwdriver was busy, and I was embarrassed to take a drill. There was an idea to use a jigsaw - I was afraid that the plastic might crack. I went a longer, labor-intensive, but accurate and accurate way. With an ordinary hand drill and a thin drill, I made holes around the perimeter of the circle of holes (I put a piece of rubber under the bottom so as not to spoil the floor, and a piece of paper so that the borders could be better seen).
And then with an ordinary kitchen knife I cut through the jumpers between the holes. If you heat the knife with a lighter, things will go much more fun.
We insert the ventilation grill into place, we also install the hood, it still has special holes for fasteners. (Dada, in the frame man's hands- The hare came to look at the process, distribute valuable advice and mock the pink pliers.)

On the side of the box along the top, stick masking tape and make markings for the holes for the bar. We drill (yeah, much faster with an electric screwdriver).

It remains to cut the threaded rod to the desired length. The shortest rod in the store is a meter. I would just cut it in half, but the Hare suggested not leaving long ends sticking out. While I was thinking about going to a neighbor for auto-dismantling and asking for help with a grinder (thanks, of course), the Hare sawed everything with a hacksaw.

It remains to insert the rods into the prepared holes and secure them with nuts and washers. Alternatively, instead of ordinary nuts, you can screw on wing nuts - this way it will be more convenient to remove the rods if you have to dry something bulky.

Everything, the drying box - the dehydrator is ready!

Who among you likes dried meat? Probably faced with the problem of how to make it at home in the apartment. Today we will solve your problem and tell you how to assemble a dryer for meat and food with your own hands. In it you can dry fish, fruits, mushrooms, socks, as well as various other useful things.

To begin with, we will purchase a box with a lid, an M8 threaded rod, an exhaust grate, nuts, washers and a fan.

We glue the adhesive tape along the top of our box and make markings for the holes.

We drill holes with a diameter of 9mm.

We cut the rod into 5 parts and install it in the holes. Fasten with nuts and washers.

We try on the grate for the hood in the far corner of the lid.

And we cut it.

But we replace the fan from the old computer with a fan for forced exhaust. It was possible from a computer, but the power is too small and I don’t really want to mess with the power supply.

We cut a hole for the fan and drill holes for fasteners.

We fix the fan.

And at the output we get this design.

You can dry everything you want in it. Need heating? Add a reptile heating mat to the structure. You feel hot? Freeze in plastic bottles water, clog the box with them and you are provided with air conditioning for the night. Dry the mushrooms - replace the rods with removable grills.

It turned out to be a very useful bag. Overall, assembly took a couple of hours. For the money came to 1300r., But it can be cheaper.

It's no secret that I make almost all the blanks in the Vigor electric dryer.

It is equipped with a heating element, a fan and a rheostat. When the rheostat is activated set temperature the heater and fan are turned off.

In the case of the minimum set temperatures, switching on is too rare, and many types of recipes just need to be dried at room temperature.

Drying just in the breeze is too long, so I decided to assemble my dryer from improvised means.

The main elements of the future dryer were: a plastic container and a fan lying around in the garage.

A hole is cut in the edge of the container according to the size of the fan.

The fan is fastened by friction. Additional reinforcement made of silver tape.

Holes are cut under the lid of the container into which I inserted pieces of a round glazing bead - these are the crossbars to which the meat will then be hung.

The future basturma is hung on strings in front of the fan. Then the top is closed with a lid. I loosely covered with foil leaving a hole for air to escape.

As a result, we get a closed volume with constantly circulating air. At the same time, such a fan is very quiet and can be driven around the clock. The drying time of basturma is significantly reduced, and various insects and animals will not get to the meat.

At the same time, there is no heating, and therefore the meat does not dry out. This is especially true for sausages from which fat is rendered when heated.

In principle, if there is a desire to dry something with simultaneous heating, the dryer can be supplemented with a 50-watt incandescent lamp.

Here is such a fairly easy-to-make dryer I got.

In the following articles, there will be recipes for beef basturma and dry-cured sausage dried in this dryer.

I finally assembled a chamber for curing / drying delicious meat and sausage products. A kind of result of the love of a hedgehog and a snake.

The task was to strictly maintain the temperature and humidity in the chamber where sausages and other balyks are dried/cured for a long time. Although in our Geyropas meat is a thousand times safer and more proven, botulism and other mold do not sleep and try to get through Aeroflot flights.

He was taken:
outdated refrigerator
Temperature controller STC 1000 (Amazon 20 EUR)
Humidity controller DHC 100+ (Amazon 50 Euro)
Humidifier Orbegozo – Ultrasonico (Amazon 40 euros)
Exhaust fan for toilet (Amazon 20 euros)
A pair of boxes for wiring and sockets for a couple of euros in a construction store
And like everything

The temperature device adjusts to the desired temperature fork in any increment (for example: from 12 to 18C) and will keep it in the chamber. If it falls less than necessary, it will turn on the heating element (mat, lamp for reptiles, etc.).

The temperature will rise - the refrigerator will turn on.

The humidity control device works on the same principle: turns the humidifier on and off, i.e. keeps the desired humidity plug in the chamber.

Devices the size of a pack of cigarettes. I crashed them into electrical boxes, screwed sockets on the back, everything about everything - an hour of work.

I checked it for 4 weeks on drying sausages, setting the camera with several third-party temperature / humidity meters, everything worked like their native Chinese - for days, without noise and dust.
The sausages dangling in the photo lost 45% of their weight in 19 days and were orally destroyed. Everyone is alive, and even slightly well-fed.

Well, my hands itched to break something ... I cut two holes of 10 cm from the walls of the refrigerator. He inserted an exhaust fan into one, and he flies the other beautiful mesh.

In the absence of a compound drying product, the chamber can be used as a dryer. (aesthetically - dehydration).

An air flow of 97 liters per minute dried 6 chickens after wet curing for smoking in 45 minutes. withered a piece of beef tenderloin (sunzhuk) in 2 days.