hello everyone and thank you for the help that the site gave me. I am French and the information or training here is non-existent and no tolerance for cannabis. I have been doing open circuit bho for 10 years. the volumes of plant matter as well as the size of the extraction tubes are increasingly high and I start to be afraid when I move my 5 liter beaker filled with butane. So I took advantage of the fact that a friend of mine put his closed loop system up for sale. I spent many hours here to understand how it works as best as possible and to ask for as little help as possible. I therefore started by inspecting any possible leaks in the circuit by putting each part in water after putting pressure on it with a compressor. 4 bar. I discovered many leaks. The Sight glass has several leaks. I let it dismantle, clean and re-tighten. no more leaks. I also had leaks on the valves of my solvent tank. the valves were double on it and the black valves were both broken. I attach the photo.
every black valve had a problem. the one on the left was cracked. I changed it. The one on the right also has a leak but the leak was at the ball. but the blue valve above has no leaks. I therefore left the valve in place, telling myself that the whole thing was watertight thanks to the blue valve. I then wanted to fill the tank. after numerous readings on 4200 I understood that the tank had to be filled to 80%. I therefore filled the tank with water to know its capacity. 20 liter. so I decided to meter 16 liters of isobutane. 54 x 300ml. I put the tank in dry ice with acetone then once it cooled I evacuated the inside. then I put my cans one by one in the tank. but can of isobutane was in the freezer for 48 hours.
I put 51 cans in the tank but I realized that gas was coming out through the handle of the black valve. small drops fell from the handle of the black valve. so I stopped filling the tank and stored them in my garden. The leak stopped when the tank returned to outside temperature.
Tighten the packing nut behind the handles a 1/8 of a turn.
When it gets cold. The gasket in the valve shrinks. Allowing it to leak. When itās cold. Remove the handle. Tighten the nut behind it. Should solve that problem.
ok thank you very much I will do that when I can put the tank in a dry ice bath again. I have a chest freezer at home which is -20Ā°C cold. Iām afraid to put the solvent tank in (which no longer leaks at room temperature) because I plan to extract with the cold solvent. Do you think the cold in the freezer could cause the leak to start again and release butane into the freezer in preparation for an explosion?
Yes. Do not put your Solvent tank ever in a freezer not rated for solvents and explosion proof.
No amount of oil or money is worth the problem
That could come from that.
thanks killa. I put it in the freezer two hours ago and Iām checking to see if thereās a smell of butane. but Iām going to take it off right away and never do it again.
Reading, reading, and more reading, isnāt a bad place to startā¦unfortunately this place really doesnāt have much in the way of info for beginnersā¦and much of the info that was available on the web 10 years ago has been removed.
Pressure testing is a solid first move. However, I recommend to hydro testing rather than using compressed gas.
See eg @Killa12345ās recent account: Safety Lesson: How being lazy nearly cost me my life! Extractor Accident
There are almost certainly links or descriptions of hydrotesting there.
4bar isnāt an unreasonable working pressure, and your system probably wonāt see more than that in use. However, testing the pressure relief valves (prv) is also important, so taking it up to 10bar (or wherever they are set to pop) is advisable.
I donāt see a prv on your solvent tank, but there is a port we canāt see, and Iām hopeful that the pressure gauge is obscuring it. If not, you need to install one.
As @Killa12345 mentioned, solvent in the freezer is one of those Bad IdeaTMāsā¦butane is heavier than air and will fill your freezer from the bottom. If there is a vent at the bottom (fairly standard, to let water out), it will find its way to a source of ignition (closest being the compressor).
Yep, those Chinese valves are horrible, they may not even have adjustable packing nuts. Paying a little more for decent replacements is probably your next step.
Not sure you really have much in the way of options for salvaging the solvent youāve loaded into your tank, you may need to vent that to atmosphere
Thanks a lot cyclopath
I actually donāt have a pressure relief valve. but Iām going to buy one. Do you think I shouldnāt work with a problem like this on my tank?
Without a PRV that thing is a pipe bomb!! Do NOT let that tank get warm/hot while filled. Also i would not depend on āsmellingā gas. The gas should be odorless and if yours has a smell then its the wrong gas
Good point.
certainly, once itās been recovered a couple of times it does have a detectable odor.
In my early outdoor cls days, anytime I saw a bee or wasp investigate the system, there was always a leak.
No.
But venting isnāt ideal either. So letās explore a little.
Iām willing to bet your ābutaneā isnāt actually butane, and has up to 30% propane, and possibly isobutane in there.
See how temp and pressure compare to this graph (maybe check the whole thread).
Then we need to know exactly how much you loaded in there, and what the rest of the system looks like, and what volumes we have to play with.
thanks guys for your help
Salut,
This particular brand of gas is smelly. It smells like ether or something. I personally dislike it and stopped using it.
Check out Amazon for collibri it will be cheaper than at your local growshop.
Are you sure your gaskets can handle acetone slurry?
Thanks a lot
There IS in ptfe .
May or may not be pure isobutane. But that does make the propane/butane graph shown above irrelevant.
There is one for isobutane posted around here somewhere.(Isobutane vs Nbutane - #9 by cyclopath)
Re-reading your initial post, I see youāve already done the initial volumetrics, and know youāve got 16liters of solvent in there (good on ya!).
Now we need to figure out if there is room to put all that solvent elsewhere in your system so you can repair your solvent tank and get that prv installed
Filling with water is a solid solution. I generally use a tape measure and ask the googles to do the maths.
In your case (metric) itās easierā¦cm3 being equivalent to mls and all.
my recovery tank at the end of the column is in ā8ā. It has a height of 25 cm. I also used the water to judge its container. I put 8 liters in it
What are the dimensions of your material column?
That sight glass looks like a hazard.
I also am never comfortable with large site glasses like that, but that ball valve handle is bad ass. Mad props bro on being safe and asking questions the way you have. Seems to me like you are doing your homework and you are being safe. By the looks of it you may be able to fit all that solvent in the CLS while you work on the Supply Tank. Keep it cold and work safe. I wish i was as smart as cyclo because i know he would have said the same thing but way smarter with links attached. ill get to his level 1 day