Ok, we all know how tedious it is burping jars. Well, I saw a video on YT where the guy automates burping several dozen 5 gallon buckets with a crazy system of valves and hoses, and figured, what the hell, I can do that, and I have the key component, the air pump, already anyway.
So. I had previously designed some replacement caps for my mason jars that incorporated a hygrometer. Still like that design, and will keep it. Version 2 I added a few holes for air to get in / out, but kept the hygrometer. Version 3 was just the two holes, but bored me, so here’s my version 4.
Mind you, the room is between 72 and 82F (depending on if the dehumidifier runs non stop or not, once the furnace kicks on, the dehumidifier will be off as it really dries the house air). The humidity has been kept 60-64 rh max. These are 64 oz mazon jars The bubbling jar was just to show me the airflow from each jar and won’t be staying. The jars were all over between 57 and 63 when I initially started the system, and the hygrometers in each jar evened out at 60% in 30 mins. I’ve since put it on automatic, and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Timer currently set to be on 15 minutes, off for 2 hrs, 45 mins, repeat cycle.
I’ve always gotten 32 oz jars, but saw these at a local shop and was like"MUST HAVE!" Seriously wanna build something looking like an old apothecary cabinet for them. They are great for pickles / cucumbers too. LOL
This is the evolution of the jar top so far: Hygrometer, Hygrometer with burp holes, Hygrometer with burp holes and OG logo (2 color print), Cap without the hygrometer, only burp holes (looked too plain to me), and cap with leaf smoking a joint, plus burp holes
A single lid takes about an hour, I can fit 4-5 on a print run. If you were just installing the airline / check valve, most can use a step bit and drill the metal lid. Fitting the hygrometer into the lid was where the 3D printer came in handy.
I’m trusting my best nugs currently to it, so it better work! I’ve read nothing but good in larger scale, no reason it cant work in smaller scale (and my valve still has 4 spots open for more jars).
edit: the yellow caps I will make more of and use for the jars once they are removed from the auto-burp system. Easy way to keep an eye on the humidity inside without having to rattle the jar around to see the one inside
The principle is simple. There’s two check valves on each jar, one on the inlet, the other on the outlet. Air is pushed in past the one check valve, to the bottom of the jar. I have tied off the airline, and punched a bunch of holes in it at the bottom. Air then flows up thru the nugs, and exits via the other check valve, which only allows air to exit (and can be routed to a bubbler cup to show its working). I have no leaks on the mason jar tops when pressurized, so I have no fear they are sealed when its in its off cycle…
I saw the original 5 gallon auto burp setup and thought “well, that’s nice but I’ll never be growing that much weed” but your setup is much more applicable to my size of grow.
Are you hanging the plants for a few days before going into the jars?
I saw that 5G system and thought “Holy shit that guy has $1,000 worth of BUCKETS, each filled with 900ish grams of weed!” lol, $25 a bucket for those food grade ones!
I ran two tents when I jumped back in. One had unknown autos from PSB, one had known autos from seedsman. The unknowns I cut, hung for a week (same room, 62% humidity on avg), then cut off fan leaves, hand trimmed and into jars. The seedsman autos (black cream and blackberry) I tried trimming with the Vivosun 16" bowl trimmer. Cut from plant, wet as can be, snip all the bigger fans, toss in trimmer, then left to dry only 4 days on one of those multi-level hanging screens, and into the jar (they were feeling kinda dry at 4 days, with no fans to defer moisture, and being wet trimmed, they dried quicker).
Trying a bunch of new stuff. Like a kid in a candy store. 10 years ago NONE of this stuff was easily accessible or around
My air pump is the most expensive part, but you don’t need a massive one like mine (it serves a dual purpose, it will go to the koi pond for the winter) Since there’s really no pressure from water depth, any airpump will do, but for multiple jars you will want one with more cf/min airflow. Mine for 15L / minute, which is WAY high (I have other valves open to bleed off pressure, its that high)/ For a few jars, 3-6L / minute would be plenty I think…
edit. so the ones in the auto burp system were wet trimmed less than a week ago… dried 4 days, in the jars now 2 days, and started auto-burp today… the others were jarred a couple weeks ago, still manually burping them but not as often.
That room is almost like a lung room for the grow room, with a pair of 4" and a 6" fan venting to outside, there’s negative pressure in the grow room, pulling from the drying room. My mini humidifiers ran in the tent in early summer, but I havent refilled them in a month now since humidity arrived. Generally right around 62-65% in both rooms, in winter it will drop to 45% and stay low till spring rains, bounce a little in early summer and rise again in late summer. Knowing the house, I’ve setup humidifiers and a dehumidifier, each triggered separately, which helps to keep it stable…
Glad I’m giving ya some ideas, if ya got questions, certainly don’t hold back!
posting before reading as i saw his jars in another thread, such an amazing job and i can see these taking off in this community… what better way to burp tons of jars especially of differant strains!
Its good to note, the bubbling water jar, thats a typical wide mouth 32oz mason jar. So you can compare sizes… Both jars use the same lids / collars, the pic makes it look like the big jars aren’t wide mouth, but they are.
Added 4 more jars tonight, regular wide mouth mason jars… Still have 2 of the 64oz jars I can use, but I wanted 4. Looked up what I paid for the 6 a month ago at Wallyworld. $12!!! WTF? its $60 on Amazon, and sold out at wallyworld now. Canning stuff goes MAD expensive in the fall. Used to use Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime to add / buffer Ca in the reeftanks (make a kalkwasser solution), every fall that stuff tripled in price for 3 months. Clearly canning jars are worth 5x more during canning season than the rest of the year!!!
Yes, but it also takes one thing off the todo list I smile when I am working on the ladies and hear the pump kick on. The cure is working its magic and the smell in the jars gets better by the day. Hygrometers in each jar show 60% / 61% rh, so I’m happy with how its working
I’ll take a version four modified with black lids
Oh yeah and the instruction manual
Nice man !
Ps rn is the time to buy jars at local hardware/outdoor stores even wallys has a shit load around here boxes of 16 32 and 64 Qs …widemouths as well !
The are several types of aquarium air check valves, any insight on what type works best?
I use a strong piston pump, they contribute a little bit of heat. Have you noticed a temp increase after auto-burping? If so was it enough to worry about.
What kind of cycle times are you using?
I plan to use a SensorPush module in 2 of my jars. It is wifi and sends realtime T/H values. It is also IFTT compatible. Then using IFTT I can turn an air pump on/off according to the current H reading.
I am envisioning some thing like this, do you think it would work?
If Humidity is greater than 65 purge for 5 minutes every hour.
If Humidity is greater than 64 purge for 3 minutes every 2 hours.
If Humidity is greater than 63 purge for 3 minutes every 12 hours.
If Humidity is greater than 62 purge for 2 minutes every 24 hours.
If Humidity is greater than 61 purge for 1 minute every 72 hours.
Or some similar schedule after observing and tweaking. The cycles would be graphed by SmartPush and could be analyzed for response time.
This even opens the realm of doing different curing profiles by tweaking the cycle times, and the profiles could be fairly repeatable.
The air pump itself would need to be in a space dryer than 61%. I would envision putting the pump in an enclosure with a desiccant dryer or dehumidifier to shoot for about a 55% humidity burp. Only “needed” if my ambient humidity is too high which is probably not an issue. However if you want to repeat profiles then I think you need to control the incoming burp humidity as well.
The bubbling jar was just to show me the airflow from each jar and won’t be staying. The jars were all over between 57 and 63 when I initially started the system, and the hygrometers in each jar evened out at 60% in 30 mins. I’ve since put it on automatic, and we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
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I smile when I am working on the ladies and hear the pump kick on. The cure is working its magic and the smell in the jars gets better by the day. Hygrometers in each jar show 60% / 61% rh, so I’m happy with how its working 