First, thanks to all who make this forum so valuable. This is my first post but I’ve already learned much here.
I bought a unit from TerppExtractors and I have a couple of questions that I know some of you can help with.
My unit is the MK mini but I bought a 400g de-waxing column which they replaced the standard column with. My first question (I have read the thread on here about this) is about the effectiveness of dewaxing without a soak in a column specifically for coagulation. My unit does not have a valve after the material column (again de-waxing in my case) so my runs will be completed without any soaking period. Obviously, my efficiency will suffer but I may be ok with that as long as I don’t need additional de-waxing steps.
My column is a 4-inch column which is joined to the collection chamber with a conical reducer. I’ve thought about building a D.E. and charcoal bed in the reducer to pull out any chlorophyll and perhaps some lipids and waxes if any are in solution. Thoughts on that?
Lastly, I have not completed a run on the system yet but I did do a distillation run. I started with a full vacuum on the system and recovery tank, used dry ice with some ISO added and used a fresh tank from EcoGreen as the supply. It took nearly 2 hours to transfer 5 lb of butane. Is that normal? It took only about 30mins to recover it to the recovery tank. Then, there was no mystery oil at all in the unit upon completion. Does EcoGreen pre-distill?
I know that’s a cross-section of questions but any help will be greatly appreciated!
I find if I don’t use a little warm water the coldness of the collection tank takes time to go from ± - 30 to +10. But I then keep the water only at ±27.
2hrs for 5lbs of butane is definitely slow. I recover that much in around 45 minutes with no dry ice at all, just regular ice, salt, and water.
Personally I like a valve between collection and the column. My system didn’t come with one but I had extra parts lying around and was able to rig one up. I don’t soak when I run, but I do close the valve off to allow the column to soak for like 30s to 1min on the initial injection, then crack the valve, let it go to collection. I’ll do this over and over until I’ve run all my solvent though - helps prevent any bad effects if you have channeling.
I also recover through the liquid port on my recovery tank. This forces the gas through the liquid in there and will help it condense back to a liquid faster.
I also found recovery speeds would slow if the collection pot was not fully submerged in water, and same with the recovery tank, if there was some of it outside the cold bath, it would slow recovery down. The space that was not heated/cooled will allow vapor to hang out there and not move to your destination.
Regarding your gas, I’m not aware of many or any providers that distill it beforehand, some may be cleaner than others, but you got some good stuff if there was nothing left behind. I distilled 4 cans recently and was blown away by the amount of crap left over.
eh I can’t tell you the exact ratios, I just take a cooler, dump about half a container of salt in there, fill with as much ice as I can fit, then top it off with water, stir it a bunch, then put the collection and solvent tank in there to chill for about an hr before doing the run.
My IR gun reads around 5-10F usually. It gets the job done, but it’s no substitute for dry ice. My recovery definitely slows down towards the end due to my recovery tank being around 25-30psi. Dry ice would solve this entirely though. I just close the valves toward the end for a minute or two and the recovery tank drops to around 10psi and the collection rises to around 35psi, then I open the valves so it equalizes, then repeat until the last has recovered.
I pour at around 10psi too, so once I hit that mark I put the collection back in the ice water until the pressure drops to 0, then open the system for the pour.