I am trying to see what kind of settings people are using on their chillers for ets mep. Also would like to create this thread for users of this machine to come and get information on troubleshooting the machine. We are currently running our julabo fp-50 at -35/-40 on a good day. We keep our shatter pot set to 25C is that too hot or too cold? A lot of our shatters come out amber, some gold but were not seeing much consistency with the gold. We can do the crc tek, but wed like to make the gold without using compounds.
Alot of the color has to do with the input material, and the level of filtration you are using. Particulate matter will always make something look darker or less translucent. Let me ask you this, do the lighter colored slabs consistently come from the same material?You might be comparing apples to oranges with the variation in material.Plants taken later in the season tend to exhibit darker tricombs,
they can make darker colored oils when compared to plants taken early.
I used to say you can’t polish a turd but I was wrong. Just crc it. I’m assuming u asked about chiller temps because it’s on your injection coil.
I run a MiniMEP with the TAEVO chiller (would like to add a Julabo FP50 to the injection coil and column). We have noticed no noticeable difference with the material color and collection vessel temp. I keep the TAEVO as cold as it will go (-10C in the winter, 7c is the best I can get in the summer), and I keep the collection vessel at a fairly aggressive 38c. With quality material I can pour gold all day long. Your solvent blend will have an effect on this as well. I run a 70/30 Propane/nButane mix most of the time. The MEPs were designed to handle 100% propane, so don’t be afraid to play around with your solvent mix.
It would be nice to have a thread here with more MEP/mMEP info. I see more and more MEP users on here lately.
Only speaking from personal preference but i have yet to try any strictly PHO or propane heavy mix regardless of solvent temp that was comparable, for flavor or effect wise to the same material run with butane. I have processed on the prototype MEP before it was put into full production, and have ran various gas mixes through it…50/50 or 70/30 both butane and propane heavy, to 100% of both gasses.
we were running the collection vessel at 38c before as well and I would sometimes get gold and sometimes not from good growers, ive heard too much propane can prevent the shatter from setting up in “shatter/glass form.” we just got a nitrogen tank to experiment with. Do you soak your material? we usually load about 10lbs of gas into 2-2.5 lbs of dry trim and soak for 5 mins.
We rarely soak any material, unless we are processing material for distillate. I found that I don’t see any major increase in yield from soaking, without a major decrease in color quality. However you also have a much colder chiller than I am running, so the soak times for your setup might be right. We will usually fill the extraction column above the material sock(12 lbs), then immediately dump to collection with nitrogen.
It might be worth doing some experiments on your soak time vs yield. Just make sure you use the same material for your experiments. This is what we did to get a better idea of our setup.
I usually use nitrogen to push from the top port on the extraction column. This will help you control the soak times by reducing the time it takes to dump. Another plus to nitrogen on these systems, is that if you get a collection that muffins up past the collection pot(very common on propane), you can pressurize the collection vessel and push it back down.
Do you keep your FP-50 on the injection coil only, or do you have it looped in with your extraction column jacket? I have been trying to talk the boss into getting an FP-50, as we mainly run fresh frozen material. Since he’s seen me make diamonds without it, he’s not too keen on the idea now.
We have an ETS jacketed column that only gets down to -40 because of the chiller, if we are lucky. We are looking at buying a super chiller for our solvent. We are waiting on the engineer to certify it. Dont get an FP-50. It states that it can get down to -60. We called JULABO and the person we spoke with says its rated -60 but wont reach it. We even bought the $1000 chiller fluid.
Hi there. I have a question for someone regarding the consistancy of injection temperature. I much prefer to talk on the phone compared to messaging. If a more expirienced tech is willing to field these questions/concerns it would be much appreciated. Thank you to anyone in advance.
Always assume every vessel has positive pressure before you start opening any clamps, the system is rated for up to 350psi I believe. Do a proper vacuum test making sure it will hold for a few minutes at temp. I also slowly open the solvent release when working with any propane heavy mix so that you’re able to make sure there are no leaks when the system reaches positive pressure.
I had the opportunity to test the PRV’s on a live run… My first week with the MEP.
Being new to the machine, and extraction operations in general… I closed the ball valve on the return line to the tank from the recovery pump on a 100% propane run. It was totally a nervous mistake, over thinking and fully undertrained. All of a sudden “WHPPPSHHHH!” went the PRV and my heart about stopped, I thought for sure I was fucked.
I was steady ready to shit my pants at a moments notice for a few weeks until i was fully confident on the machine.
Long story short, make sure you have checked, double checked, and consistently monitor your guages across the machine. Stay safe.
It could had stopped the pumps in that moment,that part is a bit foggy. Its been a minute and i don’t remember all the details. Best I can recall they were both still running, but they might had cut out. We ran twin TRS pumps for recovery at that point, which were almost brand new when i started using the machine.
