problems with clogging! PLEASE HELP!

any advice, tips and tricks, and all the like would be sincerely appreciated…

I work with a “Rainier” from OSS and recently i have ran into a pickle with what i think to be are clogged lines. For years prior to 2018 i ran a upright standing Terp style extractor with the material columns sitting on top of collection base, a MKIII to be exact. During my time w/ that system i never ran into issues regarding clogging but, after i made the upgrade and switch over to the Rainier w/ dual columns connecting the 12" collection with 3/8" lines, up until recently in the last 3-4 months i haven’t had any issues.

a brief description of my problem → with having the system vac’d down and ready for injection, i open the tank and begin to flood columns with bottom valves closed. the columns fill up and as expected i open valves and dump into collection as it should happen… my recent issue, and my problem tonight… when i opened valves after flooding, nothing came out but tiny loogie sized portions…thankfully tonight i had only flooded 1 of the 2 columns so i was able to warm up column with jacket using warm water and move solvent up into the other column passively to be recovered…

i would think i could clean out the lines and polish off the interior by shooting clean solvent through and recovering as i normally would, which i have done once before and usually do when i fill the RC tank bi-weekly… BUT if a full columns worth of solvent (~11#) won’t dump into the collection; aside from taking apart the lines to soak overnight and clean with iso which i have already done this evening… how else would you deeter this problem in the future? how would i correct this issue?

regular weekly flushes with clean solvent? N2 assist to push lingering gas/oil from columns/lines into collection?

i have also be struggling to find a method to keep my pour spout clean after pours, as well as the ease of using a pour spout… i understand if you leave more solvent in the solution you will have less “left overs” but inevitably there is still oil left… is it just me being new and unfamiliar to the system or are there just some obstacles that will never be excused?

im in dire need of some advice and some help to push me in the right direction… anyone who has worked with, or currently works with the rainier or other like systems with lines connecting multiple spools who have any useful and beneficial pointers would be a saint to me.

i greatly appreciate the good looks!

Gracias Amigos!

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how often are you drying your gas and regenerating your molecular sieve? How big is your sieve?..How much live material you running? You always running the exact lines in the exact spots every run?

Kinda sounds like ice in your solvent hence in your lines>

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This could be ice, or frozen hash in your lines.
Do you ever run the system empty to clean?

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This sounds like something that happened to me before. How cold is your solvent?

Are you soaking your material then? Otherwise curious why you’d have your valve on bottom turned off and not just leave open and have tank pressure push solvent through material into collection pot? Also are you using the dry ice sleeve?

you can buy 5ft x 3/8" or 1/4" tube brushes from your local brew store, if you think your lines need cleaning, then go ahead and clean them…

However, I’m betting @Killa12345 & @Soxhlet have it right. You’ve got ice.

search for “Molecular Sieves” for more info.

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You’re running a mol sieve correct? Water in the lines at cold temperatures can cause not so awesomeness.

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Yes! Mol. Sieve is used (3x12).

@Killa12345 I switch/regenerate my beads every 20lbs of material, give or take. What’s your guys recommendation on replacing beads? How much material do you go they before you replace… obviously the size of sieve will change that as expected. Any thoughts? Or am I on the right track? no live material that I’ve ran yet, bummer I know. But I’m pretty sure water isn’t my problem… atleast I hope. I’m pretty confident that isn’t the issue. Definitely a possibility but I’ve very skeptical with that so I’m leaning on it not being frozen water.
Also I’m alittle confused as to what is meant by “running the exact lines in the exact spots every time.” Could you clear that up? Much thanks❤️

@Soxhlet yes! Biweekly actually. We have very strict cleaning/maintenance/ PT procedures. I thought that was my problem at first but looking back at how extensive I am with keeping system clean inside and out, again… I’m leaning to clogged lines not being the issue… again, again, atleast I hope not…

(Sheesh, talk about redundancy…)

@CrescentFreshExtract I have my RC tank chilled with ice water pumped from a freezer. I have a pre-inject coil submerged in a slurry of dry ice and alcohol so as to cut out the sleeve…
To answer your question…cold… really cold i’d say.

@Thirdfracture no I am not using the sleeve due to the method I have in place using pre inject coils in a slurry… no I am not soaking. Just shooting hard and cold and quick.


I hope I answered and responded back to everyone’s reply’s. I greatly appreciate you guys chiming in! Thankyou!

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I received some tips from a fellow friend and she corrected me on a few things!.. one of them was to not have my jacketed collection heated before dump to help prevent with what we both came to the conclusion as a vapor lock, and to isolate my collection from my columns after the system is down to a full vac. Doing so will use the vacuum in the collection to help pull the solution from the columns? So far… those two tips have seemed to help me get back on the rails and rockin!

I will definitely switch out my beads yet again and replace with some fresh stuff and clean/dry my gas just Incase frozen H2O is part of the issue…

Thankyou again to all those that helped!
Much love!:globe_with_meridians::cherries:

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What i was trying to say was something like this scenario…

Lets call line a the line from your gas source to your material column. Line b is from your material column to your collection. So line b is going to have some residue oil mixture in the line…Now if you take that line and accidentally place in where line a is suppose to go…well now you can freeze hash in your lines preventing flow.

You cleaning protocol makes me think none of this is your problem.

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Ah. Yes. I see!.. yes i don’t take the lines apart. They stay the same.

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Thats the way to run! :sunglasses::+1:
My shits all hardline.

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Yeah that will do it. Dumping into a hot pot is a no no!

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i want to upgrade to hardline one day. that compression costs dollars tho. its a goal!!!

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whoops… i was tried to put heart eyes… lol

let it be noted that the lesson was learned… never again

What is hardline?

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Geek speak: Compression fittings and solid stainless tube,

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Pipe fittings and piping? Sounds like taking that apart and putting together can be a pain. Lol

tube fittings and tube.
similar but not the same.

not really.

It requires the same two wrenches that should be used to disassemble a stainless over-braided teflon line connected via JIC.

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