Our plant packages DME. We found many warnings of DEE, diethyl ether forming peroxides when exposed to O2 / air over periods of time, but nothing about DME doing that same. Not sure why that’s the case, but it is.
While cheap rubber gaskets will fail with exposure to DME, both nylon and PTFE gaskets / gaskets encapsulated with these materials are resistant.
It may be because the primary carbon, the methyl, isn’t stable enough to form a peroxide; pretty much all other peroxide warnings are with secondary carbons, still do test with peroxide strips if possible.
Since this is also handled in tanks and can’t be exposed to air, it’s not a real issue since there isn’t much contact with air.
The biomass has zero smell, even tried breaking some up for curiosity’s sake. I don’t pack very tight though, only 1.5g/in³.
No soak, just running straight through. 66 grams per tube, 875 grams of solvent or about 2.5 cans.
I’m at a pretty high elevation, 6k feet, so vacuum chambers are a little different. My vac chamber method is to close off all air to the chamber and let it pull until the muffin gets close to the same size as the initial DME solution on the teflon sheet. Then continue to make big muffins until it won’t swell up much. After those first (usually 3) muffins I will draw max vacuum and let it sit at 85 for an hour, then burp and draw max vac again and let it sit for 2 hours, then 3, then 4, then I usually let it sit at max vac until I wake up in the morning. The next day I will burp and draw 2 times, then another time before bed, at which point I switch to every 12 hours until the end of day 3.
Mine has been very stable shatter, but I can post process into a very snappy wax using a seedling heat mat. One batch came out a little crumbly but I’m not sure why.
I just noticed that on my first response there appears to only be a video? Do you see a link to the whole imgur gallery or is it just that muffin video?
That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.
Have you ever considered terpene extraction before?
I have not, but I don’t get along with pure terpenes very well. Sensory processing disorder effects my sense of smell, and smells of that magnitude make me disoriented or straight up light headed. It feels like my consciousness or thought process is being overwhelmed with stimulation, it’s not a pleasant sensation.
Did you extract the green smell too? Using the dme.
Not at all, it even brought out some smells that were so subtle in the flower you couldn’t taste them. One of the kushmints crosses has a light cherry vanilla note that doesn’t come through when smoked, but you could taste it really well in the extract.
I think that’s enough information for me to want to do some testing. Sounds like DME is gonna be the clear winner for solvent steam tek.