Don’t use PG as an oil bath fluid shit will vaporize and coat everything ask me how I know LOL. But I have experiment it now with avocado oil and safflower oil this is the cheapest heating oil you can probably find that will work in your roto bath. After I’m done collecting my ethanol I crank my bath up to about 140c and let it run until all of the bubbling and vapors stop.
2 Likes
As long as you let it cool a bit first. I hear 130c oil doesn’t have a great “mouth-feel”. 
3 Likes
Yeah I’ve used straight up grocery store veggie oil in a pinch. It just kept making me hungry because it smelled like french fries in the lab.
4 Likes
The easiest way is to use hotplate, heatgun, and overhead stirrer.
Ive been decarbing in the roto for 5 yrs with rhe same roto, if tou have an across call and ask how to reprogram it to go hotter, if its a non ai Chinese one it should go that hot anyway. Its the best way steips volitales and decarbs fast under vac
3 Likes
what media are you using for thermal?
1 Like
Can you elaborate a bit on your process - time and temp - of decarb in the roto? We are kind of noobs, but we have our lab up and running and would love to take care of this step while our crude is still in the rotos. Thanks!
A reason to decarb prior is you will be flooding your vacuum oil with volatiles right before your more sensitive fraction ranges if you decarb and distill back to back.
3 Likes
plus, wouldnt you be dirtying up your vapor path with fart juices and shitty volatiles before hitting your keeper fraction?
3 Likes
Duratherm S
I run the roto til about 65-70c then i empty it, and dont keep anymore alcohol it will be full of terps. I turn my roto to 145c and by the rime it reaches that temp it’s usually done or very close.
2 Likes
Ah ok. Thanks, that makes perfect sense.
Better vacuum, less stench and junk in your pump, faster distillation times.
so I’m thinking that less things will be destroyed (cannabinoids) under vacuum and such in the roto than on a hot plate or mantle in atmospheric conditions ? anyone done both and noted yields from crude?
1 Like
when your loaded into spd after this are you still running a cold condenser up to 160 ?
I dont run a cold condenser at all, i just dont turn my oil heater up until i start to get to flavanoids. My setup is a lil different then most i use multiple cold trap, my lieberger condenser is the first piece in series that is cold m.
Ive been using the same 10 gallons of suratherm S for a few years, back when it was cheap and no one knew about it and they would sell directly to the public. Dont have any experience with any other thermal fluids, its what we used in the wiped films so i just went with what i know
totally used the safflower oil as lab supply in town had no duratherm worked awesome after I got over putting cooking oil in a 2000 dollar piece of scientific equipment 
thank you sir
3 Likes