One day I was walking down the streets when I found this bad boy in the dump.
A Sankoo Baby Bottle Sterilizer and Dryer Machine in perfect condition!
The inside (2 baskets) was missing but the base and lid was in perfect condition.
I always wanted to own a food dehydrator and this bad boy looked very valuable to me and immediately I was sold and I took it home.
When I got home, I researched the device on the Internet and downloaded the instructions. I was interested in the dryer part and this bad bay even has a special dryer program!
It was like winning the main prize. This could be my future food dehydrator!
The Problem:
Unfortunately, while reading on, I found out that the dryer program was limited to a maximum range of only 0-40 minutes operation. Obviously, this would not work well to dehydrate food. Nevertheless, I tried the dryer program to check the temperature matches a commercial dehydrator and it seemed perfect for my small project.
In the base is a small fan and a heating element. The fan draws in the cold air from below and direct it through the heating element (150W), heating the air and pushing it into the interior. This creates a warm air flow of approx. 40-55 ° C, which can heat the water of anything wet or containing water inside the machine and push the hot steam out through the vent holes in the upper lid, thus drying anything wet or containing water inside the machine.
The only problem was the duration of the dryer program was too short and whether the device is suitable for a longer start-up. For the first, I wanted to do a little research/disassemble/tear down/ take apart/reverse engineering. For the latter, I haven't found anything on the internet.
Introduction
The dial is a touch dial and has a big center timer. To start the dryer program, select the dryer program, then set the time in minutes, of course limited to a maximum range from 0-40 minutes, and then press the start button.
Disassemble, tear down, take apart, reverse engineering
Inside there is a smaller circuit board attached to the dial, a bigger circuit board, 2 heating elements (1x ca. 600W, 1x 150W) and 1x fan.
Then I removed the small circuit board and operated it for a test with + 5V from my USB port on my PC. It works!
As you can see in the photo, the timer shows 0 when the machine is ready and waiting for an user input. After activating the dryer program and setting the timer to 40 minutes, it starts counting down until it reached 0.
Hack, Mod:
From then on, it was quite easy and also much safer to identify the pins for the dryer program and to bridge them with a simple switch.
In the Off-position the machine works as before. If the switch is in the ON-position, the dryer program is permanently activated, bypassing the input dial and the timer.
Then I just needed to put the whole thing back together and operate it with 220V again. The dryer program worked liked a charm and everything else, too!
I test operated the dryer program for many days without any overheating whatsoever. It is also only powered by 150W while most commercial food dehydrator has a higer wattage heating element and also thus higher power draw. Of course my little DIY food dehydrator seems to work good for now.
Still I also had to order 5x Aluminium Mesh Pizza Baking Flat Trays from Aliexpress to be able to stack the food vertically and then my new dehydrator was ready for the first real world test!
Total cost was only approximately 12€ for the 5x Aluminium Mesh Pizza Baking Flat Trays and of course the little of work (and luck).
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