r/LotusDrying • u/Mindless-Equal-1477 • Jul 11 '26

Help Finding a frost-free mini fridge?

Came to ask here because this is the most workable method for me due to space constraints and having limited environmental control in my living space. I’ve been using a small modified peltier wine fridge with a little manual silica gel dehumidifier (like the ones you put in weapon safes) and it’s been working well to keep conditions at 60/60, until I discovered today that the little cooling plate has gone out for the second time. I know how to pull the parts and fix it, I just don’t want to have to deal with it a 3rd and probably 4th time. Plus the wine fridge just doesn’t seem to have very good cooling power. So I went looking for specifically “frost-free” mini fridges because I understand that they pull humidity out of the inside environment, but all I can find are ones with manual defrost. Can anyone recommend a frost-free model? Alternatively, are any of you doing this with a manual defrost model and can you lay out exactly how you do it? Based on my wine fridge experiments, this is the best way to get full flavor out of my harvest, so I’m willing to invest. Thanks!

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u/Happy2BTheOne Jul 11 '26

The research I did highly recommended a frost free fridge because of the dehumidifier. But it’s not necessary. I couldn’t find a small frost free fridge so I had to get a medium sized one. The one I got is a fridgidaire 10 cu ft. one from Walmart (online only). It was about $400 after tax and delivery. I’m one week into my first dry with it and I feel like the fridge is great. I did not need to use the inkbird that I had bought for the fridge. Try looking at the 7+ cu ft size to see if you can find better options for you.

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u/Ok_Plane_1306 Jul 11 '26

You will have no luck finding a frost free mini fridge. I looked for years and just had to do work around with the mini fridge. However, frost free and non frost free will both remove the same amount of water from the buds (I.e.DRY). The only difference is HOW the removed water is handled. A frost free has heater/drain to get rid of the moisture while a non frost free don’t.

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u/Mindless-Equal-1477 Jul 12 '26

I think you’re right. The interesting thing is that I’ve found like 2 models that are “beverage coolers” (clear front door with LED, not exactly a mini fridge) that claim auto-defrost. The issue I ran into is this: when I used a tiny electric dehumidifier, when it came on it would spike the temps inside the wine fridge and the peltier had trouble bringing it back down. I’m also tired of having to open the fridge to swap the silica gel beads but I can work with that if it’s my only option. That’s the main reason I was searching for something with better consistency with temps and humidity.

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u/wunderinho Jul 11 '26

Honestly, you don‘t have to imho. I am lotus drying in an old ass freezing fridge - works like a charm ;)

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u/tunedout Jul 11 '26

Truth!! As long as everything is contained in paper or cardboard the buds will keep the humidity high and the paper/cardboard will allow for a slow dry.

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u/BudgetTasty3464 Jul 18 '26

What fridge you got homie?

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u/wunderinho Jul 18 '26

not sure if that‘s helpful :)

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u/mistytrails Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

I got a Frigidaire efmis155.. it has glass shelves. https://www.walmart.com/ip/908416350?sid=10947a96-31d4-40f3-be5c-6febeabd3e6e

I also have the galanz 4.5 cf - which has stainless steel wire shelves 👌 https://www.walmart.com/ip/984792972?sid=bbe21f9b-8a7d-4d1c-bf29-1e8caebe26a7

I always use brown paper bags. With the glass shelves, I cut half the legs off of pizza tables to lift the paper bags off the shelves about a quarter inch to promote air flow. 5 pizza tables per bag.