Homemade Sausage Making

I am using my refrigerator for a fermentation/drying chamber. I just came across this thermostat/Humidistat on amazon. They wanted $74 for it.

http://www.zoomed.com/db/products/Entry ... RhdCI7fQ==

Just wanted to know what people on the forum thought of it. I am just a beginner at making fermented sausages. I want to make semi dry sausages beginning with fermentation to cooking to drying. I will be using a recipe out of "The Art of Making Fermented Sausages"I want to make sure I like this part of sausage making without spending a lot of money. Thanks

Hi Scott,
Wow, that is a nice price for a unit with BOTH controls. My only concern is... it will only handle 1000 watts (combined fan (heat) and humidifier), as compared to other units I've seen handling 1800 watts. I am certainly no expert in this area - I just wanted to draw your attention to the difference. We'll have to ask a real electrician about this difference and see if the extra 800 watts is even necessary. How about it Trosky? Can you offer some advice here?

Best Wishes, (an electrical dummy )
Chuckwagon

Blackriver; A 1000 watts would be enough for a curing camber but not enough for cooking. If you really like that controller all you have to add is one of these and you'll be good for any thing up to 3600 watts @ 120v. And that should get the job done.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

Hi Blackriver,
Nice bit of kit, only thing I notice is that it only controls up to 50 deg C which will not help if you also want to use it for cooking.
A good idea is to purchase a seperate relay to connect your load to and you use your controller to switch the relay, that way you will not damage the contacts in your controller if you overload it, rather mess up the relay

Thanks a lot I think I will purchase one of these. I am only going to use it for my fermentation/drying chamber so I think it will work perfect. The relay with the 120V coil looks great, that will make for less load on the units's contacts.

Hi Blackriver,
Sorry I do not seem to find the link but from what you describe it sounds right, may be a bit of overkill but rather that.Yes the only load that your controller will be switching is the relay coil.The relay contacts do the hard work.

Hi Maz,

Try this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

Looks fine they are quite durable units.Some of them you can even buy replacement contacts.But they are silver plated and for home use should last forever.

I just wanted to follow up on the the Zoo Med controller. I wanted to make sure the unit performed well so I set up a temporary chamber with a humidfier, and a 100 watt light bulb in my refrigerator. The thermostat of the unit worked great I had it set at 68 degrees and the thermostat would kick on at 65 degrees, not bad. The humidistat was a different story. I had the humidity set at 75%. it would come up to 75% just fine and then shut the humidifier off. The humidistat would not turn back on until the Rh was at 50%. I am sending the unit back. I just wanted to inform other people so they don't make the same mistake I did.

Blackriver; I am about to start putting together a curing chamber too. Controlling humidity has been my biggest concern. I never worked with anything in that area. Let us know what type of humidifier you had bad luck with and what you end up using.
Trosky

Troski I had bad luck with this control unit.

http://www.zoomed.com/db/products/Entry ... RhdCI7fQ==

I just ordered this unit from Amazon. It controls both humidity and temperature. The specs say it is accurate + or - 2RH which is good.

http://www.amazon.com/Dayton-1UHG9-Line ... 467&sr=8-1

I will give a test run and follow up on how accurate it is.

Blackriver; The new controller you ordered looks pretty good. Keep us posted.
Trosky

Hi all
For humidity control, I have had good luck with this controller from http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/DAYTON ... Pid=search.
I then installed a utility outlet inside the fridge, plug in the Humidifier Controller and the nursery humidifier. I would not recommend using this controller in a high heat area, over 100 deg. Tried once, ordered a replacement the next day!
For temperature controller, I installed a ranco temperature controller, on the outside of the fridge, this thing is spot on with temperature. I also have one on my 100 lb smoker.
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/RANCO- ... Pid=search
Just a thought...