Grow Room Are there remote control dehumidifiers?

[SHRED]

The Controller 69 kicks ass.

I bought the 67 when they first came out and managed to get the Controller 69 Pro a few months ago. AC Infinity has an excellent product on their hands makes some excellent products and the Controller 69 and it's is going to cause "all sortsa hell" for Inkbird and Pulse. I use two Inkbirds and a PulseOne. The Inkbirds will be retired in a few days and I'll keep the Pulse running (for very specific reasons) but, if I were starting a new grow, I'd take the Controller 69 over the others, no doubt about it.

Re the networking in the Controller 69 - the Bluetooth model is $30 less than the WiFi model but the WiFi model is well worth the $30 unless a grower is absolutely sure that they will not want to be able to control your grow from more than 30' from the Controller.

"WI Fi LOCAL networking" vs Bluetooth - Bluetooth is a "point to point" protocol meaning that one device communicates directly with another device. Some devices can be connected to by more than one other device at a time (I think that's a feature of the newer Bluetooth protocol) but in most cases, it's one on one, eg a mouse communicates directly with a computer, a watch communicate directly with a phone, etc. "pairing" the devices sets up each device so that it knows about the other device and that it can communicate in a secure manner. And Bluetooth is, by design, limited to "short" range. (Checking Google, the original 10 meter range has been increased to 240 meters with Bluetooth 5.0.)

"LOCAL wireless" is a misnomer. All WiFi is "local" in that it can only run on one network. The key is that, unlike Bluetooth, which is "point to point", WiFi traffic is "routable". A "host" (a device that is capable of communicating on a TCP/IP network) on a WiFi network communicates with the router and the router routes the packets to the appropriate host or hosts on that network. If the traffic is destined for a computer on another network, routers handle moving the packets from one network to another. As of about 50 years ago, we started laying the groundwork for a world wide network of connected networks that we call "the internet". In contrast to the "internet", which moves traffic between networks, the word "intranet" is/was used to describe the network(s) that run within a given organization.

I don't mean to be pedantic but that's the basic view of Bluetooth vs WiFi. They're both great technologies and each has their own strengths and weaknesses.

And, yeh, the Controller 69 is primo, in my book.

I'm going to run a 69 pro in my additional tent I just ordered.

 

[SHRED]

Yes.

I see that your grow is in a garage that's "not ideal". Looks like we're members of the same club! My 2' x 4' tent is in an unfinished garage in SoCal. I phrase "controlling the grow environment' as "influencing the grow environment" and it takes some work to deal with each of them.

Re. RH - the eternal struggle. A spike in humidity is damaging if you end up with mildew or some other malady. Other than that, I can't think of an serious issue. Having out of control makes it hard to manage vapor pressure deficit, a measurement that is very important in all horticulture. I learned a lot from this site and, a couple of years later, it's the best summary info I've found on the topic.

The the Inkbird and the AC Infinity Controller 69 - @Cannaficionado brings up some good points and, as of a few days ago, my Inkbird devices are on their way to the Minors. I've been using their RH controllers, a temperature controller, as well a PulseOne ($200) since I started growing again 23 months ago and, I can no longer make a compelling argument to buy or use those devices.

If a grower needs to control only one device, the Inkbird is $50± and will do the trick. The Controller 69 allows you to control 4 devices so, even though it's $99 (for the "Pro" model which support WiFi), there's tremendous value because it's "smart". The Inkird, my RH controller was named "Wetbird", is a dumb device in that it maintains a constant setting, within the parameters that you set. In contrast, I set my Controller 69 to keep VPD at 0.9, plugged Hugh (my humidifier) into an adapter and, as of two days ago, all I've had to do it watch the Controller do its thing. That setup would have saved me dozens of (billable) hours over the last two years that I spent adjusting RH values that are needed to keep VPD in range.

I've ran my tent as a drying tent with the dehumidifier in there..
It gets the tent a bit warm but I never worried about that before this grow.

I had put my scrubber and exhaust fan in the tent running before and sealed up the tent.

I'm gonna try to keep the tent cooler this time and vent it as needed on the thermostat.

Will see if the dehumidifier can handle it. It's working during the grow but it's in the mid 70s in there.

 

[GreenBean]

Midea makes a cube dehumidifier that is wifi controlled, don't need to plug into the Inkbird. Or you don't need to connect to wifi that is just a convenience to monitor it remotely. I used one last winter in my garage outside of the tent and it worked really well. We had to move and I can no longer grow in this garage in the new place, so I sent it back. Luckily I was still in the return window. I'm also in Southern California and it is always wet and humid here in the winters.

 

[SHRED]

Midea makes a cube dehumidifier that is wifi controlled, don't need to plug into the Inkbird. Or you don't need to connect to wifi that is just a convenience to monitor it remotely. I used one last winter in my garage outside of the tent and it worked really well. We had to move and I can no longer grow in this garage in the new place, so I sent it back. Luckily I was still in the return window. I'm also in Southern California and it is always wet and humid here in the winters.

Thanks.
Can the dehumidifier you mentioned be controlled remotely or just monitored?

 

[GreenBean]

Thanks.
Can the dehumidifier you mentioned be controlled remotely or just monitored?

You can remote control it, if it is connected to your wifi. The way that I had it set up was I had a Govee wifi thermometer/hygrometer in the tent. The humidifier outside the tent. And I could monitor the two from anywhere and adjust the dehumidifier if needed. The Midea cube comes in a few different sizes. But if you are going to just let it drain outside with a hose, you can use the smaller size. If you are not going to drain it, it will drain into the bottom bucket it comes with and dump as needed. Pretty cool dehumidifier in reality. I did not drain outside, but the smaller version worked fine for a standard 2 car garage. That garage was OLD AF too basically a shack. But it did a good job.

Amazon product

 

[GreenBean]

One thing to mention and I dunno if anyone else did. If your garage gets below say 45F pretty much any dehumidifier will start to work inefficiently. The upside is that a dehumidifier will warm the air. But if you're in an area where your temps drop below 45F for long periods overnight, your humidity will spike.

 

[SHRED]

One thing to mention and I dunno if anyone else did. If your garage gets below say 45F pretty much any dehumidifier will start to work inefficiently. The upside is that a dehumidifier will warm the air. But if you're in an area where your temps drop below 45F for long periods overnight, your humidity will spike.

It doesn't get that cold.

I chop tomorrow.
The light had been removed so I am testing with exhaust and dehu hooked to my 2 InkBirds. 1 thermostat and 1 dehumidistat.

Dialing in won't be easy but I'm getting close to drying stats in there.

 

[Delps8]

I've ran my tent as a drying tent with the dehumidifier in there..
It gets the tent a bit warm but I never worried about that before this grow.

I had put my scrubber and exhaust fan in the tent running before and sealed up the tent.

I'm gonna try to keep the tent cooler this time and vent it as needed on the thermostat.

Will see if the dehumidifier can handle it. It's working during the grow but it's in the mid 70s in there.

I have the large Waykar dehumidifier and I was surprised how much heat it gave off.

Good general rule is that cooler and drier is better - 60°-75°` and 45% to 60% come to mind.

 

[GreenBean]

It doesn't get that cold.

I chop tomorrow.
The light had been removed so I am testing with exhaust and dehu hooked to my 2 InkBirds. 1 thermostat and 1 dehumidistat.

Dialing in won't be easy but I'm getting close to drying stats in there.

View attachment 1554636View attachment 1554639

I think I have the same Inkbird and I have the older AC exhaust with the regular digital control panel. I haven't upgraded to the newer ones with the fancy controller and app because my fan still works fine. I will upgrade when it breaks.

Sometimes it's a juggle to get them to interact best together. I find if I want to keep my tent at say 80F/60RH during the grow, I set the AC fan to kick in at like 79F and 64RH. And then I have to sorta do the same thing with the Inkbird. I have it set to kick on the humidifier around 56RH or something.

Also calibrating the Inkbird and the AC to one another helps a lot too. Because they are never the same. Or at least they weren't until I calibrated them to a more accurate hygrometer(s) so they matched. Good luck.

 

[FlyFishBill]

Double recommendation for a Midea dehumidifier. I have my tent set up in my storage/spare room, and my Midea unit is high up on a shelf where I can’t really reach the buttons to allow the drain hose to go out the same window insert for my tent exhaust. Easy to control on the app, reacts fast to changes in humidity.