Long story short - I’m getting rid of my Co2 extractor and have put a deposit down on one of Delta Separation’s Cup Series. Unfortunately, that also means I need to look for an alternative method for extracting terps which has lead me here…
Most of my resources have directed me to looking into a Terpene Distillation Kit but am having a difficult time finding folks currently utilizing a kit. Trying my luck on here to see if anyone can provide feedback.
I’ve listed some of the kits I’ve looked at and am leaning more towards the Lab Society kit just based off quality, simplicity and minimal thermal degradation but am open to suggestions:
I’m trying to understand all this, isn’t that just tower distiller, and the terps cook off at earlier temperature, you need a fractional distiller, then you get terps in first bulb, next mix, next THC,… I’m trying to understand isn’t this how it works…
Trying to get into myself or just find cheap under table supplier of terps and distalites
By the time my material is ready for distillation, many terpenes have been lost in the process. Extracting terpenes directly from fresh cured material has not only been the most effective but also the best quality in my experience
Ok definitely starting to make since now, was wondering how they made it through the harsh distaliting… So the different fractions and different colors when they run is just different Grades of THC?
Looking at how folks are visiting the 3 links above might be telling in and of itself.
or they might just see the first one and get bored… dunno.
Looking at all three kits, they’re clearly designed for the same trick. I like the shape of the biomass chamber on the Summit more than the other two, and wonder if the second condenser they’re using adds anything special. I like that the Lab Society comes with a steam generator.
All three look tiny when compared to the 100-200lbs one can extract in an 8hr day in the CUP, or the 200-400lb one can spin dry in that same period.
Does the correct solution have a 100lb biomass chamber? Or is even that too small?
If you’re planning on capturing terps before => CUP, avoiding getting the material wet would seem to have advantages.
I may be wrong, but I think we are slightly mixing up (or maybe I am) what he is trying to accomplish and the differences between the methods and/or goals of this form of distillation. It sounds to me like @TerpFiend is trying to do a terpene only steam distillation prior to the main extraction run in the Delta Separations CUP system because Ethanol is not great for the terpenes. It sounds like, @StoneD, is referencing short path distillation which would be a step later down the extraction chain. I just wanted to mention this because I was getting a little confused while reading the first few comments.
I would also like to add this beast to this list, a form of microwave (steam) distillation. This is allegedly very fast, precise, and programmable (thinking SOP’s). I have not spoken with anyone who has used one for cannabis yet but I would LOVE to hear from anyone with experience operating one. In principal it sounds very legit, I met with them to discuss a while back but at the time they had no real cannabis data or cannabis customers I could contact for reach out to.
Yeah I believe he already enlightened me on this one though, I was definitely confused why I was asking so would make sense to myself, not everyone as enlightened as the rest, just trying to join the path myself
The small unit I believe was around 30k, I had priced it with the 12 Liter flask, they also had a 5L and 2L. That price included everything you needed, chiller, glass, all that good stuff. They deliver and installed with a technician onsite and did a day of training and running it with you… at least that is what I recall. Things change.
I remember being most impressed with the really low energy use, speed of extraction, and the fact that it had a drying mode you could run after terp extraction. No idea if the “Flavors” configuration would be useful in cannabis or not I was only pricing the essential oils configuration.
the potential hangups mentioned by @cyclopath… small batch size and wet material were part of what led me towards the Ethos X being a potentially viable alternative. They do have large scaled up models, reduce run times, and a drying cycle all incorporated… BUT AGAIN, I have not run one or seen on used in cannabis yet so this is a lot of untested and unproven variables for a large investment, IMO.
Going to look into this and see if i can find someone using it for cannabis. if you find someone with raw data with cannabis, let me know - i’ll do the same
As you can see on my IG im selling my Ethos X 12L for $40k(less if someone picks up), I was horribly fascinated with MHD, got to play with it for the last 2-3 months, and don’t need it anymore. It was $45k landed and “installed”.
@TerpFiend I’ve used it on both hemp and cannabis with excellent results. I’ve programmed the run manager with a cannabis terp method. Just wet material, fill vessel, press play and collect terps in about an hour. The 12L holds about 3# of sugar trim and a similar amount of broken up flower. Ive ran dry, fresh cut, and fresh frozen.
I’m going to talk to my boss about possibly taking that machine off your hands. Especially if you already have it programmed and ready for cannabis terps.
Fingers crossed.
definitely perks my interest!