Anyone ever use microwave to decarb Thca ? Any risks or techniques ?
I’ve often microwaved liters to get them loose, use to decarb cbd isolate a lot with microwave. Always worked well.
Any thoughts on if this is good or bad for the concentrate compared to direct heat or oven?
Saves alot of time which I’m guessing has some benefits too in terms of duration under heat. Interested in others thoughts on this.
Hmm interesting idea
Decarboxilation is a reaction indices by temperature
Often preformed at the temps of 90-140C
I think by placing a volume of oil in the microwave after a few minutes the temperature will rise over 150C wich in my experience the oxidation and side reaction s also speed up
The hotter it gets the faster those processes happen make the microwave innert should help
If you’re willing to run a dang microwave for the amount of time it will take to decarb you’ll likely burn out the microwave a lot faster than it’s worth. The moisture content within the liter being super boiled like that will make it degrade and oxidize as said, & be a quite literal hot bottle of oil that will scold the fuck out of you with 3rd degree burns if you spill it onto your body. This can happen after just 6-8 minutes in a microwave. Decarb on the other hand absolutely will take much more time. No matter what it’s gonna take more to decarb than a microwave is possible of doing safely.
You’re def getting it way hotter, but for like 30-60 seconds, unlike an oven or chamber where it is sitting at the temp for much longer.
I tried it once small scale and had trouble melting the diamonds. I’m guessing you would have good results if you melted the thca first and then microwaved in short bursts.
Do you know the difference between melting and decarbing? Cause you would be melting within that time frame. NOT decarbing.
You will not be able to decarb ESPECIALLY diamonds within seconds… it takes hours to properly decarboxylate.
Microwaves catalyze decarboxylation
Actually “catalyze” is probably the wrong word but microwaves are generally much more efficient at shooting energy at molecules then regular heat is. An example is the decarboxylation of tryptophan to tryptamine which takes hours or even days depending on the solvent and catalyst used, but takes just 3-4 minutes in the microwave: Microwave-assisted Tryptophan decarboxylation into Tryptamine - Advanced/Enhanced chemistry - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus
I agree. First you’ll break your microwave. Second, I don’t think you’d be able to fully decarb and you may have undesirable byproducts. In my experience much more plasticization of compounds after extended microwave exposure. Plasticized Cannabinoids have no psychoactive properties and cause a bunch of problems for hardware. I’m curious if using a solvent may mitigate the issues, but the whole thing screams bad idea.
@Hempzotics Why not use traditional decarb methods(hot oven)? Seems like you are trying to fix a problem that isn’t there.
I can assure it doesn’t affect psychoactiveness, if it does it doesn’t appear to be perceivable. It doesn’t break the microwave either, we’re talking about 30-60 seconds at a time with total being maybe 3-4 minutes.
I was doing it with a small amount of concentrate but in the past have done liters worth of cbd isolate. Never a/b tested to see potency effect.
I do wonder if you don’t risk isomers you wouldn’t get from classic decarb tech that’s why I was posting in here.
Had a guy that was making carts tell me he would microwave disty to heat it up and it was way quicker and did it for years without any complaints of potency. But again never really run it longer than 30-60 seconds at a time.
The lab I get diamonds from said they never seen there diamonds decarb that clear before and I told them I microwaved them to decarb and was wondering if maybe that was why it didn’t oxidize as much. Figured I’d share here and get feedback from the chemist
Definitely decarbs, I would say start with 1 minute and then 30 sec burst after that. It’s def possible to decarb in under 10 minutes where you’d need hours to do under constant heat at decarb temp.
That’s what’s interesting, the difference between intense heat for short period of time vs hours at minimum heat to decarb.
Ur heating through out also instead of radiating heat from the outside and having to wait for that heat to penetrate through the concentrate.
You can’t compare the time to regular decarb, it happeneds within minutes not hours, and it will continue decarbing inbetween bursts in the microwave. I would say try it with 20-30g of Thca and see for yourself. I’m not hypothesizing on if it works or not I’ve done it
What do you consider decarbed if you haven’t actually tested whether or not your thca is decarboxylating into D9? Is it just being of liquid state or do you physically know the compound has changed by observation of relative & or visual testing?
When it’s stops visually bubbling/boiling it’s decarbed, and if it doesn’t re crystallize afterwards I’m confident it’s majority decarbed.
If you could melt it and not decarb it that would be awesome for thca vapes. Not sure that’s a thing tho.
That photo is giving me PTSD flashbacks to water-clear d9/vacuum pump oil troll.
Ok I’m doing it now, started with 30 sec, wasn’t really doing much, hit it with 1 minute, with 20-30 seconds inbetween. Did 1 minute, and then 30 sec each time after, I’ve done 30 seconds about 4 times now.
You can flip the microwave on its side for warming larger jars. I wouldn’t attempt to actually decarb a large amount though. Also, it will eventually kill the microwave.
Decarb seems to be slowing down at 10-12 30 sec burst
