Looking for advice from you guys that are actually using washing machines to spin dry their ethanol soaked biomass.
I’m looking first for recommendations on what to look for or what preferred brands there are.
What RPM has worked for you, or hasn’t been enough?
What recovery rates have you seen?
Have you taken apart your control panels or are you running from the maintenence codes?
Are you using one large bubble bag or multiple small ones?
Agitator or impeller?
I’m at the point where trying to run 50-100 #s a day by myself with pandas is taking years off of my life, but not quite to where I can pop for an actual centrifuge.
I’ve already read the thread here about the salad spinner tek, but looking for more specific info.
@Rowan I’m definitely interested in an alternative, I’d love to hit around 120 #s quickly so I can spend the rest of the time recovering the ethanol efficiently.
So I was doing this like a year ago. I went from pandas to a washing machine. Didn’t modify it at all just ran it on spin cycle. Was probably pretty dangerous but never had a problem. Went through 2 washing machines and never had an issue.
So here’s the thing-
I haven’t seen a washing machine hit the RPMs a panda can. Therefore, you won’t recover as much of your tincture as you will from a panda, but you will get higher throughput.
We would use 3 bubble bags at a time in the washer. You have to make sure the load is even in there to prevent it from shaking. Gotta have the whole machine raised up so the drain hose can just dump into a bucket.
Shits still gonna take years off your life but you will be able to hit higher throughput lol
Also go with something that has “less tech” I bought a fancy Samsung one for this exact purpose and the fucking Bluetooth connectivity for custom cycles was a PITA. I’d look into modifications that will allow you to just turn it on full blast and back off as needed
Yeah exactly. I didn’t want the ethanol tincture fucking up the pump to try to keep the machine running longer. And I second the advice on getting the most basic one you can get. No digital no buttons other than just the stop start.
Are you looking for stainless tub or anything like that, or will the ceramic lined ones work.
Also I’m only finding things in the 700 rpm range, would that be enough speed? I found some speed queens that hit 820-850 rpm but they’re like 1200 bucks. Is it worth the extra speed to get one of those?
Me personally I wouldn’t run a washing machine. First issues that come to mind are it’s not designed to be spark free, seals may or may not be rated for an alcohol/terps and lastly contamination of the extract due to coating deterioration.
I would build a loadable colum and vacuum dry the biomass way before I ever ran a washing machine.
They can come much bigger than a mere panda but I agree that the rpms are a bit low… 85% return in alchohol. I like Jeds idea of vacuum but I have no idea how much would you actually pull. Centrifigal force>vacc imo
TBH I couldn’t even tell you what RPM’s ours were. We would just buy them from the mom and pop appliance spot. They were older for sure. Probably rebuilt lol. Pretty sure the inside was stainless on both the ones we had. Maybe nickel plated? I mean we were just trying to crank through material. Here’s another thing too- the more full your bubble bags are of biomass, the less tincture you recover. So we had to find a sweet spot where it was getting just dry enough you’ll have to experiment.
I’ve seen hundreds up to thousand pounds processing capabilities per day easily with a rack full of pandas. Set them all up with modded lids and @RockSteady spouts and they are super simple to operate. If you mod them right you don’t have to fight bubble bags packed with material too much they go in and out easily. The ethanol doesn’t touch seals so you don’t have to worry about voc’s leaching but they are certainly not c1d1 or c1d2 lol. Washing machines are fine I’ve water bubble machine but pumping ethanol through them? Are you trying to create cancer causing product with petrochemical byproducts leached into them?
Bucket Tek, methanol room temp winterization and pandas are really hard to beat for the $$$ and equipment startup costs.
A quick dirtmix drop and sturdy mix foe abput 10min and filtering afterwards actully took most of my waxes away… And went from green to gold much to my surprise.
Being a wee bit more expensive than methanol…
I winterized a portion and next to no pwrcipitaton after 48h…
but I agree that the rpms are a bit low… 85% return in alchohol. I like Jeds idea of vacuum but I have no idea how much would you actually pull. Centrifigal force>vacc imo