I just bought a rotovap set up , did my first run yesterday. Let’s just say it didn’t go as expected, after I separate most of the ethanol. I’m left with a dark oil, from the tutorial videos I was watching. They where all getting nothing but amber colored oil. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, is there a way to fix the coloring? After out of the rotovap do i have to put it into a oven vac? Or can I put it into a hot plate? I’m guessing extra purging is necessary because some ethanol is left over. My main concern would be the coloring, I have unlimited access to indoor trim. Pretty frustrating because I can’t figured this out. Thanks in advance
The rotovap shouldn’t really have an effect on color, unless you are leaving your oil in there, exposed to high heat, for a really long time.
Your starting material will usually determine the color of your oil, along with a couple other variables…
So basically, your oil was already dark before it went in there… Removing the solvent and reducing the volume just made it much more apparent, compared to when it was diluted.
There are also filter powders that will help with color, but then you are starting to get into some more complicated processes. This is called Color remediation. You can find lots of info about it on this site by using the search bar.
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How did you extract your indoor trim?
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How it was extracted and end goal are major factors?
you can do a colder extraction to pull less colors.
you can also adventure into the ethanol crc/adsorbents thread and find more color help in there.
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Mix of ethanol & hexane, not sure if mixing is the best idea. For the next run I’ll try to just stick to one
What end product are you trying to make?
I was looking to make some oil for carts. I had someone extract the oil for me before , but we would split 50/50 but im sure he was taking way more than 50%. So I decided to try & do my own extractions.
Here’s the before & after, I think I need to do a better job filtering the chlorophyll.
get your solvent and the trim colder and there wont be chlorophyll. Look up the bucket tek thread
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Okay will do, is it better to Decarb before or after? From your experience
decarb after extraction
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You need to do your extraction much colder. put dry ice in your solvent before you use it. soak for like 3-5 min tops.
try to get that down before we get crazy with powders.
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Got it, thank you all for the Info. I will be posting my progress. Hope you guys have a good rest of your day
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Read first. Ethanol Extraction White Paper
Then practice destroying cannabis…
Makes for better meds…
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Can I make cart oil with just a rotovap? Or is a short path distiller needed?
You can make the oil without an SPD set up. You just have to clean up your crude a little bit.
Extract it as cold as possible, run it through some silica and carbon powder to improve the color, winterize if you need to (if you don’t extract at -80C, you need to winterize), and then purge the solvent and decarb in the rotovap.
It won’t be as light colored and transparent as distillate, but you can surely still vape it.
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Etoh Crude will always be visibly dark in a bulk amount. I’ve gotten amber color in a cartridge at best. Other have done better but with quite of bit of knowledge. The color remedy with powders is a basically a lie. Carbon, celite or t5 is all you need with ethanol (IMO). It’s comes down to quality of trim and proper extraction, don’t expect to get gold from dog shit.
Color is a huge deal right now to the consumer(unfortunately). But I’ll tell you what my full spec carts smell/taste like a fat dab every hit. This is the closest I’ve got to “good” full spec Etoh washed color.
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Did you filter your bucket tek mixture using filter media and use a boiling point of 30°c? If you’re not using filter medias and using a boiling point of 70°c then you’re gonna end up with dark oil.
I use Celite & carbon to filter & then I put it straight into my rotovap
