Hey everyone,
I’m currently sizing equipment for a commercial solventless lab and want to get some real-world data on the Harvest Right Medium Pharmaceutical.
Lowtemp state it can handle 4 to 6 lbs of wet hash per cycle. For those running these commercially:
What is the actual max wet weight you can run without significantly increasing cycle times?
If you push it to 5 or 6 lbs, does the layer get too thick?
Appreciate any insights.
The cycle times are gonna hover around 32-35 hours no matter what if running at max capacity. The only thing that hurts the terp profile would be a fucked up temperature that it’s not supposed to run at. When you scoop hash all scoops are not going to be at the same precise moisture content so guessing how heavy/weighing etc will be a fools errand unless you run unreasonably small batches to avoid that. I have ran more hash than I can count and I never have weighed the incoming hash I put in the freeze dryer simply because it’s a volatile number that’s different for everyone. Also what does 6 star mean in this context because if it’s 6 star, it’s gonna remain 6 star unless you heat it up so much that it damages the incoming product during the freeze drying process. You REALLY have to fuck up hard to change the quality of your hash between the freeze dryer and the press - like ‘i’m trying to make this hash come out bad’ levels of trying so don’t worry about it. If it’s nice and you keep it cold it stays nice. If you’re running full batches just check for frozen chunks of hash but that should all be a part of your post-freeze dry pre-pressing routine you have worked out.
Thanks for the solid breakdown. The 32-35 hour cycle times actually fit perfectly into our 3-day-a-week wash schedule, so that’s great to know. I also appreciate the tip on just loading the trays evenly by eye instead of wasting time trying to weigh wet hash on the way in.
Just to close the loop on the math: when you pack a Medium Pharma to its absolute limit like that, what is the maximum dry weight you are consistently pulling out of a single machine?
Thanks again for the insight!
No problem. I wouldn’t even think about max dry weight on the trays itself, only what percentage output the material i’m washing will give me after the fact. If you stuff the trays with the intent of getting absolutely the most product dried at once you’ll get large frozen chunks. Once you hit the limit of how much liquid it can take out of your material that frozen material will now stay in your hash patties.
Washing hash isn’t like BHO/distillation/solvent based extraction as you’re sort of doing a dance with the material and recognizing what it’s doing and working it on the fly vs. focusing on numbers and exact parameters. It’s very hard to give you correct figures because hands on experience has so so so much to do with it, an inexperienced operator could create a lot of waste during the washing/drying process even down to how you set your material on the tray itself so you can get the most efficient drying cycle possible because it is within the realm of reality that you have underneath the max amount of liquid in your hash patties but they’re arranged in a way where frozen bits still remain.
Rosin is a pain in the ass and is extremely hard to work numbers for unless you’ve got the process down pat to the point where you’re doing it in your sleep because different levels of experience are going to have different levels of waste while washing the same material. Also…if you haven’t purchased the pharma, just go for the home version provided that it’s got the same amount/size trays (i dunno what HR is making these days). You’ll save a thousand or more and can just simply upload the firmware from other harvest right models to get the same functionality you would get out of the pharma.
If you check out the Rosin Press Go Brrrr thread it shows a lot of examples of this and can get an idea of what i’m talking about
Using a shop vac to pull the excess water out of the hash prior to putting in the freezer pre dry helps immensely with packing hash in
God no
any theories on the testing discrepancies of the hashvac dried stuff that lowtemp posted?
I’m curious how much terpene content gets carried over in the hydrosol/water that the hashvac pulls off
My thoughts exactly tbh
Good catch on the software flash! Just a quick hardware note though: there is actually a physical difference out of the box. The Home version Medium only has 5 trays (taller spacing for food), while the Pharma version has 7 trays (tighter spacing).
But to bring it back to my main goal for this post: I’m trying to nail down exactly how many HR units I need to buy.
I’m planning to work 45kg of Fresh Frozen per wash day (3 runs of 15kg). Yielding around 4%. We would wash 3 days a week.
What would be your play?
Option A: 3x Medium Pharmas
Option B: 2x Large Pharmas
Would love your take on which setup makes more sense for that specific load and workflow.
Just in terms of run spacing 3 mediums. I personally like keeping my batches all put together and for my broken brain knowing ‘freeze dryer no. 1 is running X freeze dryer 2 is running Y and freeze dryer 3 is running Z’ personally in my mind would be easier to maintain some sort of order. To me good rosin is produced by having your processes down and not having to call audibles on the fly, or at least having to call as little audibles on the fly so you’re not rushing
Man, you just sold me on the 3x Mediums. Thanks for taking the time to share that operational perspective, it’s hugely appreciated and definitely makes it a lot easier! 
No problem man hit me up if you need anything else