I have a cryo freezer that can hold 4 5 gallon buckets of ethanol (20gal total) at a time. So far the most weed I’ve extracted at one time is 10lb. And I do 2 soaks. 10lb in 10 gallons for soak one. And then same 10lb in 10 gallons of different ethanol for soak two.
I hear people say 1 gallon of ethanol per pound, but I wonder, is this per soak? What I’d like to do is soak 20lb in 10 gallons of ethanol (in batches) and then soak the same 20lb in 10 gallons of fresh ethanol for a second soak. Does this seem reasonable?
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I do 1:1. Theres are a select few who do 3:1 (bio:etoh) iirc.
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1 gallon per pound? Is that in a single wash or separated in multiple?
do you have a centrifuge of any sort?
1lb/gal comes from the amount of solvent required to cover the material. you can get a little more in there if it’s milled rather than pushed through 1/4" screen to break it up.
if you don’t have a fuge, getting the next 10lb’s in there is going to be more difficult, because of the amount of solvent you leave behind (15% or more)… going a third time will be even harder.
there are at least some folks who are having trouble getting 20lb into 10gal even with a fuge.
I haven’t really had the opportunity to routinely throw high THC material into a fuge in a couple of years, I mostly deal with 10-14% hemp biomass. There I can get 50lb into 15 gal extracting 10lb at a time (so going 5 times) and maintain the same (85%) extraction efficiency for all 5. the 6th & (certainly) the 7th were not as efficient. So I stopped at 5. that’s at -40C
going warmer, you can get more cannabinoids in to the same amount of solvent. I’ve seen good data on 1lb per liter using 20% THC material at about 5C, and may have pushed it a little further than that while helping out in a buddy a couple of months back.
I do however calculate how much solvent I’m losing to the biomass, and have a “make up” tank on hand to chase the last of the (increasingly saturated) solvent out of the biomass.
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I have 2 pandas, 1 of which is currently working (other needs new spout).
The way I envisioned it, 5lb could be a bit less requiring more “batches” depending on how much biomass I can fit in 1 5 gal bucket, is something like this:
Soak 5lb(a) in bucket 1
Soak 5lb(b) in bucket 2
Spin both and add solvent back to each bucket
Soak a fresh 5lb(c) in bucket 1
Soak a fresh 5lb(d) in bucket 2
Spin both and add solvent back to each bucket
While Buckets 1 and 2 are being filtered,
Soak previously extracted 5lb(a) in bucket 3
Soak previously extracted 5lb(b) in bucket 4
Spin and add solvent back to each bucket
Soak previously extracted 5lb(c) in bucket 3
Soak previously extracted 5lb(d) in bucket 4
Maybe after extraction the weed will be extracted again with room temp or hot ethanol to pick up any remaining cannabinoids.
Will pretty much only be extracting trim and ethanol will be -80C.
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Someone on here mades replacement spouts for that panda.
Ive posted tidbits of my washes.
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rock steady innovations iirc
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@RockSteady for the replacement spout. I highly recommend them. We put about 100lb/day through each panda.
I run THC biomass. Solvent to biomass ratio is obviously dependent on your biomass’s resin content .
We are running shitty leaf and are able to get 80-100lb of biomass into 10 gal of Solvent.
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That sounds like a nightmare
1 man. 2 pandas. 200lb. 8 hours. 
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Yeah it’s expensive as shit. Go for butane if you want cost effective, imo.
You run it like an assembly line like on a factory floor? This is how I do mine. It’s a smooth running operation.
Can you make butane at home from sugar? Or fruit your neighbors don’t want?!?
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That’s why Cyclo-fuges are a necessity, ain’t running an ACE without electrickery! Unless you live where it’s sunny or windy 
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No. But the cost of buying etoh is outrageous. The cheapest I’ve seen is 250$/5 gal from ecogreen.
@cyclopath what would you suggest for ideal temperature?
I’m about to bring a big ol etho extractor online. At first I was worried about winterization, but realized it won’t pull a ton of fats, mainly chlorophyll. We have a tcw lenticular filter to handle color remediation.
I know @Demontrich runs -80 but I doubt we’ll get that from our current set up.
I realize it’s a game of "the colder the better " but wondering whata solid temp to shoot for would be. Will -20c suffice? I get that I can run room temp successfully with tons of backend work but I would like to find that nice happy medium. I’m happy to dial things in (already had to re build the entire system) just looking for a temperature to shoot for initially and adjust from there.
Holy shit. What kind of yields do you typically get?
Bosses spent a bunch of money renovating a building for a manufacturing lab but didn’t make it c1d1 so I’m stuck with ethanol for now.
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They’re prob running a recirc. Or just soaking multiple bags in the same bucket fuging and readding the juice from the spun bags
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from 100lb of shitty leaf?
at say 3% cannabinoids?
assuming 80% extraction efficiency and 60% cannabionoids crude?
seems a lot “about 4lb”.
@TheMadDabber: “ideal” temp really depends on what you’ve got, what you’re feeding it, and what you’re hoping to make with it. I aim at -40C when possible, but would prefer to ran at rm temp if I had the correct gear.
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