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Advantage of using wine cooler as proofer - manipulating temp while at work

barryvabeach's picture
barryvabeach

Advantage of using wine cooler as proofer - manipulating temp while at work

I wanted a proofer that would handle chilling the dough to get longer ferment times, some suggest pizza fermentation is much better when chilled, but significantly warmer than the average home refrigerator.  So I bought a small wine cooler.    I later wanted to work with some higher temps - like the 82 F.  I bought one of the cheap digital controllers, and wired it up , then hooked it up to a heating pad which I kept in the wine cooler.  So when I wanted  a warm ferment, I unplugged the fridge, plugged in the controller for the heating pad, and when I wanted cooler temps.  unplugged the controller, plugged in the wine cooler. 

Today's revelation was I wanted a 6 to 8 hour ferment at 82F to bolster the sour in the sourdough, but knew I would not be back at home for about 12 hours.  Found two of the outlet timers you use to make lights go on and off when you are on vacation, set one up so that the heating controller would run for 6 hours, then set up the other timer to bring on power to the wine fridge ( which defaults to 54 when it is plugged in ) to kick on after 6 hours, and to run till I got home.   I came home to a very well risen, but not overproofed bulk ferment.     Sorry I hadn't thought about it earlier.  It may not work for everyone, but it may help with someone else struggling to fit sourdough fermentation around a work schedule. 

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Great idea, Barry.

I’m curious. What is your heat source and how do you control the temperature of the heat? I assume the wine cooler is set for a certain temperature and that for it you use an on/off cycle.

It amazes me how industrious a person can become when properly motivated. What will the future hold?

I am in the process of building a retarder. The last piece is due tomorrow. I am taking my queue from Maurizio on The Perfect Loaf, only I chose a small 3.2 cubic foot chest freezer because of limited space. https://www.theperfectloaf.com/build-your-own-dough-retarder/

We’ll have to compare notes once I’m up and running. I look forward to learning from your prior experience.

Dan

barryvabeach's picture
barryvabeach

Dan, thanks. The temp on the wine cooler can be adjusted digitally, though when I am using it with a timer,  when it comes on, it comes on at the default temp of 54, so I have no real control over that.  I thought about wiring it to the digital controller - which has output for heat and cooling, but decided against it, since previously ,  i needed either heat or cooling, not both.

The heat source is just a heating pad. It sits in the bottom of the wine fridge, then there is a piece of foam poster board above that, then I taped the sensor for the controller on the wall of the cooler above the foam board.  The controller is just a cheap on off digital controller - my guess is the temperature swing is around 5 degrees .  My wine cooler is a small 6 bottle unit , so the heating pad provides enough heat for the space.  Your 3.2 cubic feet chest freezer sounds much bigger, though it is probably better insulated.   If I were starting from scratch,  I might buy an aquarium heating pad, that may take up less room than the regular heating pad you would find at a drugstore.

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

Barry, have you investigated these HEATING MATS? They are small and thin in size. The digital controller works fairly well for the price. I have used a smaller setup to control the temperature of my starter in the winter.

saintdoughco's picture
saintdoughco

Hi Barry,

Do you think you could snap a few pictures of your Wine Cooler Proofer, so  I can get an idea, would love to build something similar for home use.

 

Thanks

barryvabeach's picture
barryvabeach

Saintdough -  here is the photo  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/437126#comment-437126   .  Not much in the way of a build ,  just bought a used wine cooler, heating pad, and a digital controller.   

DanAyo's picture
DanAyo

SaintDough, do you plan to buy the wine cooler or do you already have one? IMO, a wine cooler has limitations when it comes to retardation. As far as I know a wine cooler will cool down to 54F or so.

I elected to go with a mini freezer and a Johnson A21 Digital Controller . The cold and hot temps are unlimited. Many times I want to retard @ 37-38F in order to hold the dough for convenience.

Barry, if you were building a proofer from scratch would you choose the wine cooler?

Danny

barryvabeach's picture
barryvabeach

Danny,  it depends on the needs.  You are right that a wine cooler won't cool off as much as a fridge or freezer.  So if you need to go to low temps that is not a great solution. For me,I have a regular fridge that I use to keep things in the high 30's, and use this one only for much higher cooling - for example I use it for an overnight proof at 60F, and that works fine.  If you go with a wine cooler with the electronic cooler, it has a very low amp draw, so you can use a cheap digital controller, The one I got was around $15 on ebay.  Another option would be a dorm fridge, I am not sure, but it is possible it could be run off a $35 controller  https://www.amazon.com/WILLHI-WH1436A-Temperature-Controller-Thermostat/dp/B00V4TJR00/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?keywords=digital+temperature+controller&qid=1562624265&s=gateway&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1     My main use was to do warm proofing to try to encourage sour, so I wanted something small that a heating pad would be able to warm up. 

So to me, it all depends on your budget, how much space you need to store dough, and exactly what temps you want to maintain.

 Edited to add 

Dan,  one other downside with a digital controlled wine cooler, like I have,  is that it probably can't be controlled using a separate controller - at least without some extensive rewiring of the cooler guts.  On a as standard dorm sized fridge with a simple dial thermostat, you could put it on a controller that turned on the power till it cooled to a certain temp, then shut off power, then came back on to maintain the temp set by the controller,  On my wine cooler, once the controller shut off power, the temp setting on the cooler goes away, and when the power comes on ,  it will go back to the default setting.  In another post I experimented briefly with using timers to set a proofer so that it would chill the dough for a certain number of hours, then switch to warming it  ( I was working on getting a really sour loaf )  and that would probably not work with a wine cooler, but would work with a small dorm fridge.