Equipment advice

Thinking about pulling the trigger on this. I know the water pump is a joke but overall the price seems decent…

Thoughts?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/203046231736

I’ve looked at this for 10 mintues and am so confused.
It seems that second blue pump thing is a “water vaccum pump”
So what is it? a diaphram pump? A circular pump that uses water instead of oil?

Anyways a few things.

I tried to buy a mispriced $3400 50L motorized lift Rotary evaporator from this guy and when he realized he mispriced it he told me it 'Fell off the truck and all the glass broke and he refunded me the money".

Secondly, if you are doing ethanol evaporation from crude, this type of volume (5L evap flask) gets thick quick and you have to break vacuum to empty the alcohol from the reciiveing flask and it gets tricky pulling full vac again with those volumes without frothing out the crude into the vapor paths and fouling the and having to dissassemble and clean.

Third. Look at. every glass barb connection, and any other glass connection that will break on chinese glass and with those you have to replace the whole glass piece. With Across/bvv style rotary evaporators they separate the breaky glass stuff with screw on or press connections.

$1800 aint bad but I’d just evaporate the alcohol and buy new at that price.

I’d suggest a 10L from BVV/Across with a diaphram pump from eBay and a bucket of water ice/dry ice and a aquarium pump to cool the evaporators.

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That is a “water aspirator”. Similar to the style commonly used in academic labs off the faucet.

OP: I always recommend looking around for used options from higher quality sources as they are often both cheaper and more efficient/durable. Can’t comment on the price because I haven’t shopped for a 5l in a little while now

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I’ve ran 500+ gallons thru my old re-501 with out breaking anything.

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It’s the shittiest roto made. I had one years ago. Lasted about a week. Mine came from BVV so they let me return it and upgrade. They also stopped selling them because of the failure rate.

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Do you want a fire in your lab. Because this is how you invite fires in your lab.

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No of course not. Just trying to find a way to recycle my solvent…

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it.

I appreciate the feedback. Trying to piece together a better quality used one is kind of a nightmare for me. That was the way I wanna go preferably…
Might be processing once a month.

Thanks for the insight I appreciate it.

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Thanks again to all who’ve replied. Just trying to recycle some solvent 10-20 gallons once a month. I’ve always done closed loop BHO so far but wanted to go a different route. I have practically unlimited access to alcohols and various other extraction Solvents…

Did you change out the vac gauge on it?

I would not chose this unit the fact that you have to place the flask on the motor with a large plastic but ( don t know the name )
Is a bitch really
As for the water aspirator a work horse and a mighty fine instrument for solvent recovery
Some tweaking with a watercooler and an aquarium pump makes a great vac/chiller reservoir in one and cooling the vacuum water makes it pull deeper vacuum
You might want to place a liquid trap in the line
Shutting the pump but not bleeding the line can have all that water be sucked into the rotavape

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I never used it. I use the gauge on my diaphram pump

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Was wondering I didn’t figure most of us speak Chinese…
LOL!!!
Still haven’t decided. Just seemed like a decent price…

Thanks for sharing your insight. Was wondering if you would need a check-valve on the water aspirator? You mentioning it definitely answers my curiosity about it.

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That aspirator is a joke. The only way it pulls a decent vac, is to keep that water COLD. Once it warms up, bam loses vac.

Find a used welch wobl diaphram vacuum pump. I had 3, down to 1 personal. We have 6 or 7 at the lab we use.

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Thanks for the heads up on the water aspirator.