Hoggy's Thermostat for Aging Meat.

Hello all,

This page is about making a cheap, but very efficient line thermostat for cooling or heating your aging chamber for dry curing meat.

It is very easy to make and costs around 2.00 $

 
Cold Smoke Generator - Aging Thermostat - Curing Thermostat - Humidity Control

Background

Recently I have re-build the smoker that I once made for my father in law, and while doing that, I got more and more interested in dry curing ham etc. My father in law only wants to hot-smoke ham and smoked meat, you can see the smoker under the tab Cold Smoke Generator.

To dry cure meat, you need, as you know, special circumstances like temperature and humidity. I am not going into details how to make an aging chamber, lots of ideas are available in forums on the Internet. The most inportant things to control are temperature and humidity. This page is about making a very simple and cheap line thermostat.

IMPORTANT : this solution for a thermostat is based on the fact that you have a ( good ) isolated aging chamber, placed in an area of which the outside temperature of the chamber is ALWAYS higher or lower then the inside temperature of your chamber thoughout the year. If you can manage to keep the outside temperature always lower, that would be the easiest solution. Aging is done between 75 - 95 F (24 - 35 C), and I have my aging chamber in a good isolated part of my wood working shop, it is always lower then 75F in sommer, as well as in winter.






This is basically what you need :

  • 1 open adjustable temperature switch( I bought these at an electronic shop 1.00 $/each
  • knob ( same shop, same price )
  • a light bulb + housing

Open adjustable temperature switch
These are very simple make/brake swithes, they work with a bi-metal that you can adjust with the rotating shaft on the right. Just look in the store with turning the shaft if the switch makes and brakes at that temperature, you are in business. These switches make when the temp goes down, and break when the temp goes up.

 

Knob for the switch
They have those in the same store, costs 1.00 $ also

A light bulb + housing
I won't go into this, everyone has an old lamp somehwere.

Later on you will need some sort of protection box to built the swith in, this box has to be placed INSIDE your curing chamber. A plastic outlet box works fine, at each DIY store they sell them. You will need to drill some holes in it, otherwise the switch can't measure the temperature.

Wiring

If you don't have the knowledge or don't feel comfortable with doing the wiring yourself, please ask someone to do this for you. A nice DIY resourse is http://www.selfhelpandmore.com/

This kind of thermal switch OPENS when the temperature reaches the set point.

EXAMPLE

The outside temperature is 65 F and the switch is set at 85 F . This means that the switch is ALWAYS CLOSED under 85 F. If you start with the outside temperature of 65 F, the switch is made and the lamp will start to burn until the inside temperature reaches 85 F. At that moment the switch will go open and the lamp will stop to burn. Because the outside temperature is lower, the temperature inside the aging chamber will go down slowly until the switch is made again, this will be around 80 F. Then the bulb will start to burn again etc etc etc. So you have a temperature range for about 5 F, not bad.

When your outside temperature would go higher then the set point of the switch, the switch will stay open, the bulb will not burn and your aging chamber temperature will slowly rise until the outside temperature.

If you are interested in a simple thermostate ( on the same principle ), but you want to cool, you should look at the tab Curing Thermostat on top.