New distillate maker, occasional cloudiness

Hash and Stuff Distillation
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First time poster, long time reader. Long time large scale BHO maker, new to distillate and have some questions regarding some cloudiness.

I’m starting with bho crude. Dissolving 10:1 in ethanol. Winterizing, then a charcoal and bleaching clay wash before filtering over bennonite clay. Roto vape, de carb, distille, First few runs, no problems.

Then I had a issue with carts slowly becoming cloudy 3-5 days after filling them. At this time I was using a PG cutting agent with added terps for flavor. Reheat and they cleared up, but got cloudy again over time. Did a bunch of reading on here and narrowed it down to poor winterization. I keep my main batch of Distillate in a jar and pluck out 100ML at a time to mix.Considering both my diluted jar, and my 100% distillate jar turned cloudy, this is why I assumed it was due to poor winterization.

Buckled down and doubled up on my winterizing procedures and problem seemed to go away. I rewinterized the cloudy batch and distilled again and no more cloudiness.

All these articles about vape carts killing kids… I wanted to get away from the PG, so I switched to Floraplex terps. 95% and 5% terps. Flavor is fire, and the carts have never looked better

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Until my last batch! The cloudiness came back. Pretty sure it isn’t my winterization because my main jar of distillate is still crystal clear. But my jar I added my 5% terps to is cloudy as well as my filling syringe.

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The only thing I can think of now is moisture. Initially when I would warm the oil to add the terps, I was using a mason jar straight on my hot plate, and I shattered a jar. Since then I have a pot of water on my heat plate with the jar in the water and this seemed to work. I was still using a fairly large 16oz jar.

Well I ordered a beaker set to get some pyrex glass and now I’m using a tiny 25ml or 50ml beaker, but out of habit, I was still using the pot of water (1/2 inch of water)on the heat plate. couple times pulling the beaker out of the water, I’d notice moisture on the glass. Usually just on the outside, but I’m thinking maybe now that moisture was getting to the oil and causing my cloudiness. Again, only oil that has been heated in this manner of in a pot of hot water has displayed these problems. Main jar of distillate is still clear, and I made another batch with 5% floraplex terps straight on the hot plate in a beaker and loaded it into an all glass syringe and it’s remaining clear.

So was that it? Do you think this is just water in my sauce?

Thanks for your time! I’ve probably logged 100+ hrs of reading on this forum and feel like I know 1-3% of what I need to know. lol

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Hi @Redwood12 and welcome. Kudos for taking the time to study and work through the winterization problem. You are probably correct in your hypothesis about water if the cloudiness only occurs after adding the terps. If it is water it is likely creating a hydrosol which would explain the cloudiness. Of course to remove that you can try boiling it off along with the terps or just redistill. You could also do an LLE extraction but it may not be worth it for such small amounts. Definitely move away from the water bath. It isn’t necessary with good borosilicate glass beakers.

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Hey, thanks for the quick reply! Ok, good to know. Water bath is out!

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Looks like the problem is coming back. This still look like a winterizing issue, or is just the way it is?

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Ot
What’s with the bubbles? I’ve made over 1k carts, I’ve never seen bubbles…

Cloudiness could be caused by slight vac grease. Kinda doubt it, but plausible.

I dont see how it could be from.not winterizing enough. That would distill green and not look the nice yellow.

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It bubbles as you smoke it. They come outta the holes by the coil. They travel up and don’t always pop. It’s thick. 95% distillate 5% floraplex terps.

This cloudiness is only happening after adding terps. Main jar stored under vac is crystal clear

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Also don’t use vac grease. Distillate on all joints

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Using a glass pipette to add the terps. Heating oil on a heat plate in a small beaker now, and stirring with a glass rod

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Even on bf to head?

I’m stumped. But I’ve never seen bubbles like that before.

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I’ve seen them before in super thick oil when you cold fill. A small airpocket remains and gets released when heated up for the first time and will come up and not want to pop at first.

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I’ve had this happen before from BHO extraction. There are a few things this could be. Can you check on the farmer and ask if this biomass was sprayed with pesticides/mildew during the hardening phase to finish? Did you dry run the fresh solvent in your CLS when filling the recovery tank? What was your temperature during the recovery in your collection vessel for this process?

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For anyone trying to learn from this, it was a winterizing issue. Deep freezer wasn’t cutting it. Dry ice was the ticket. No issues since.

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This happens a lot with disposable plastic medical syringes. A small droplet of silicone oil is commonly applied to the rubber plungers. If it’s clear up until it hits a syringe then this is the answer for most people. Good to see you got it sorted out.

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How could that be if it’s for med use and injections? Wouldnt that cause huge issues in the bloodstream?

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I use all glass syringes with no rubber stopper, but I agree with Demon, wouldn’t an oiled stopper in medical situations cause problems?

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I’ll admit, I use plastic bd medical plastic syringes to draw Terps, mix carts, fill carts, and my darts have a rubber tip. So far I’ve went thru 400 plastic bd syringes, and 150 darts. Zero cloudiness

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I’ve seen the cloudiness from the silicone oil on the rubber plunger leak out into disty. It makes some nasty looking white whisps by the plunger but I haven’t noticed much effect from it. Kinda gross but it’s whatever. It’s safe enough to be injected into the bloodstream so I don’t think the tiny amount will land anyone in the hospital.

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Some people apparently get slight irritation/redness at the injection site but for the most part it is harmless. Quick search result:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2474126417735963?journalCode=vrda

Many brands have silicone-free disposable versions but at that point you are better off using a solvent resistant or glass syringe without a rubber plunger.

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I had the thought while reading this thread that maybe it could be the terpenes trying to escape from the solution and a little bit of nucleation cloudiness as a result.

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He gave you the answer already @alextoastman

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