Hello everyone! I’m new to the forum and english is not my first language, so forgive any mistakes please!
Anyway, I bought a pressurized column earlier this year and I have done quite a few runs with it, with different strains and also different types of butane (isobutane and n-butane). So far, only one of the strains kept the aroma after purging, and it wasn’t that strong.
In my latest attempt I used dry ice around the column and fresh flower (one of the runs was with frozen material and the others I straight up cut the buds from the plant and added to the column right away). The smell is amazing when it evaporates, but after purging it’s mostly gone…I didn’t even use a heat pad this time, barely opened the pot, and left the pump running for about 48 hours. It formed a beautiful shatter consistency, and kinda smells when I light it up, but I heard a lot of people say BHO is the extraction that keeps most terpenes in it, so I’m kinda confused…did I do something wrong?
What are you purging with? Are you leaving it in the extraction system and pulling on it with a vacuum pump, or are you removing the extract and purging in a vacuum chamber or vacuum oven? If you are using a vacuum oven, you can try pulling a vacuum, and then closing all valves and turning your pump off. The system will still be under vacuum, leaving the pump on the whole time is overkill.
You might want to try making a different consistency if you are having trouble with the vacuum. You can try to make a badder by whipping your extract. Pour your extract into a pyrex/glass dish, and use a silicone spatula to stir/whip the extract. The solvent will evaporate out as you whip. Once the extract thickens up (meaning most of the solvent is out) you can put the pyrex onto a hot plate to warm up while you continue whipping. eventually your extract will become opaque, lighten up a little bit and change consistency. If done properly, your butane levels should be low enough for consumption.
You will still be removing some terps while you evaporate off the butane, but this method will allow you to avoid the long vac times.
Otherwise you are going to have to dial in your vacuum temps and time to limit time under vacuum as much as possible.
In my country not many people do BHO so its damn hard to find anything about it, and the few people that claim to know what they’re doing say to leave the pump on continuosly, so the butane is removed and doesn’t merge back with the extract. Is that bro science or actually happens?
I use a reptile heating pad under the chamber, and measure the temps with a laser thermometer. This time I let it sit on room temp because it was like 86F.
I pull vacuum to -28 mmHg usually, but I can get it to -29 too.
So i run a vacuum oven which in theory is pretty much the same thing I think. I would definitely run your temperature hotter than 86°F when purging. I run 5-10° hotter when purging. You also want to see the muffin effect when purging. And release pressure before the muffin sides slump over the rim of your pirex dish. I will also pull vacuum to -30inHg for long periods of pans that have started to sugar. Sometimes you have to look from the underside of a prex dish cuz the sugar may still be under a honey still at start. Try a very kold butane. If feasible submerse your butane vessel in dri ice for an hour or so before extraction. And definitely us dri ice around your material columns. I also keep all my material kold before extraction. Run the liquefied butane into material column & submerge, your material for at max thirty minutes. You can always do a second or third drench if needed. The better the material the longer the butane can sit on it. If you leave the butane on subpar material too long, you’ll end up picking up a bunch of unwanteds. Once you to your collection vessel different temps and times will determine your final product; once againthis is “in theory”. I hope this help.
