Curious what everyone’s average yields are/with what type of material? Also how you prep/pack your columns? Been getting roughly %15-%18 returns with pretty decent larf/smalls that are lightly packed scoop by scoop. Do y’all gently or tightly pack your tubes? Do you grind your buds for a more efficient extraction? I feel like I’m not being entirely efficient with my extractions. The material always still seems to smell terpy when pinching it after extraction. Any thoughts or input appreciated!
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This is how I ball park my yeilds. Weight the material before and after the extraction, with some basic math you can find the yeild.
Start a notebook, and record your results. You can experment with how much you are packing and how tight.
Also you will soon know who has the best biomass in town!
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you should be aiming for 90+ % extraction efficiency.
ie aiming to remove 90% (or 95%) of the cannabinoids that were in your starting material.
there are a number of things effecting “yield”, but the primary ones are the potency of your input, and the skill of the operator (time, temps, grind, packing). Comparing input weight to output weight only gives you part of the picture. if you really want to know how you’re doing, you’ll need 3rd party testing.
eg, Imagine you started with 1kg of 10% THC trim, and you end up with an extract that is 75% THC. how much would you expect that to weigh?
There were 100g of THC in your starting material, and you’re aiming for at least 90g in your end product. so you’re aiming for 90g / 0.75 => 120g of product.
without actual analytical testing to confirm the starting potency, and the ending potency, you are in fact just guessing.
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I am already doing those things. Guess I was more just curious about other people approach. Mainly whether people are grinding up material or not to get more efficiency? I feel that grinding produces a darker color but possibly better efficiency?
so what is your extraction efficiency?
grinding allows for more cannabis in the tube.
which means more extract in the bucket.
without testing the biomass and the extract, the only way of knowing if grinding increased extraction efficiency is to always use the same biomass.
you are correct that grinding tends to darken extract. the cannabinoids are in the trichomes. grinding opens cells. if you get more mass back from ground input, but it is lower potency (that color you pulled weighs something right?), was that a win? you can’t tell without 3rd party testing…(or In House analytics)
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You really couldn’t have been more generalistic in your response, could you? It’s like you were trying to squeeze a longer word count by being vague.
nope. being as specific as possible given the constraints.
I suspect you’re just missing the point.
without knowing the input potency & output potency, pissing around with all the variables gets you nothing (actionable).
potency of biomass is primary determinant of “yield”.
specific grind determines amount in extractor, and effects quality & total efficiency.
packing also affects amount in extractor, and possibly solvent to biomass ratio, which may effect extraction efficiency or even extraction profile.
given the differences in material vessel geometry and volume of provided solvent tanks, optimizing any given extractor is an exercise for the operator. one that requires analytical testing of some sort to achieve.
edit: @Rusty_Shackleford here is a more wordy version which might get the concept across: Trim to distillate - #6 by cyclopath
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The variability of all things related to extraction does not allow for generic one size fits all answers. Most people only look at yield from a % of starting mass which is okay but if you are looking for a true yield you need to know the total amount of canns, terps, flavonoids etc. pre and post extraction. This is a much clearer picture of yield vs efficiency. The problem isn’t that @cyclopath was being “generalistic” its that he was being realistic and for those without the knowledge and experience that can be frustrating.
If you or others want specific advise you should pay for the time it takes to come up with very detailed and specific responses that require a lot of very specific skills, knowledge and experience. Or ASK BETTER QUESTIONS (there is nothing wrong with the question posted). Otherwise shut up and enjoy the free ride. Remember the folks on here are spending their valuable time giving away their hard earned experience and knowledge. Given that no one has to respond to any questions here and that when someone does its usually out of a desire to help, your response was pretty disrespectful. Besides what have you added to the conversation?
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In general, for cryogenic extractions, a 10% of starting mass yield is reasonable to expect with decent quality trim 12-14+% from high quality up to 20% of nug runs and 8% for lower quality crude quality material. This is just based on % mass which says very little about efficiency. After post processing I usually see 9-10% total yield from starting mass with oils 70-80% total canns and around 8% for oils in the 60% range. My company has not been testing material pre and post extraction (it is on the list) and as such these numbers are pretty useless other than giving the CEO and investors something to chew on. No matter how many times I try to tell them they think that total yield from starting mass is some sort of holly grail. Id much rather get a 5% yield at 95% efficacy as apposed to 10% at 75-80% since most people are paying for THC. % yield of starting mass dose not help me hone in on my process much. Knowing how many canns/terps are left behind for sure will help improve the process.
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you’re right, it’s all about word count…
https://future4200.com/u?period=all
much like @soxhlet & @future, I’m only here to misdirect the competition.
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Ahhh man… that was a fast one you pulled!
the ol’ reverse psychology trick! 
yes…ahem… don’t listen to this man…cough…
@cyclopath… whoosh I think I threw him off the trail… you gotta chill with that truth serum…I dont think thats recreational!
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I’m the FNG so all those fancy back and fourth words I don’t understand. I’m getting 16.5% yield from total mass on my diamonds(lab says 95% on the HP). I’m not sure if that’s what your looking for. I get a little higher yield on shatter but lower HP numbers.
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HP numbers?