I was curious how you guys pre-heat your distillate for filling or homogenizing? I have cascade ovens and a vape-jet.
I’d prefer to heat it outside the vape-jet and pour it in in the morning.
I talked to Cascade and they said their ovens and be “hacked” to bypass the auto-switch on but they wouldn’t give me more information than that.
I have been recommended to pour the oil in the vape-jet and then set a macro on the computer, which can connect to the VJ, and have it automatically turn itself on. That’s an option.
Pre-heating distillate is a good idea. If you have terpenes mixed into your distillate, make sure you pre-heat in a sealed container with ample head-space(50%).
I used a cascade force air oven, which I LOVED. Its very energy inefficient, but boy does it work fast and heat everything evenly.
Bead-baths work great too, although they typically max out at 80C. That should be enough for pre-heat, but some thicker solutions may need to go up to 90 or 100c to flow.
Microwaves work well too, but you got to be very careful and know what you are doing to avoid a big mess. I recommend 600w with short(<30s) heating cycles. Allow the oil rest between microwave heating cycles to avoid hot spots.
There has been a lot of negative news surrounding VJ, so I would not expect to get a lot of support from them.
I think bead baths plugged into a (smart) timer, would work well.
Find out how long it takes for it to heat your stuff from a cold start.
Find out when u want to start mixing/filling.
Set ur timer to turn on at the middle of the night or early morning, so that it gets to the perfect point when u want to start mixing.
Not really. They work on the same principle(resistance heater->conduction). Technically, aluminum beads have higher conductivity than water but I believe its a moot point due to the low thermal conductivity of glass and oil.
The real selling point of bead baths are that you never need to replace the water(bacteria in old warm water is gross).
They also have Peltier bead baths, which use Thermal electric cooling chips to allow both heating and cooling(although all the ones I’ve seen limit heating to 70C). I never tried the cooling function.
