Typical numbers for main body (I have 2nd pass numbers in front of me so lets go with those)
mantle temperature - 200C
vapor temperature - 162-167C
Vac depth - 120-140 micron
Condenser temperature - 91C
Stir bar speed - maxed out
Currently distilling ~100g of 1st pass distillate in a 1L flask. Main body started collecting probably 4 or 5 hours ago, and it’s still not quite finished (expect it to be in 30 mins to an hour based on volume remaining in boiling flask). This has been the case pretty much every distillation I’ve done. I know something is not right.
My 2nd pass distillate looks nice I think. Pale yellow and gold when jarred up in bulk. Tests around 88-95% total cannabinoids generally.
The time it takes is driving me crazy. I know my condenser could be hotter, but at the moment I have 50% ethylene glycol in the circulator and I don’t know if I can take it too much hotter. Boiling point at this concentration is around 105C I think. I plan to switch over to a setup that will allow me to run the condenser hotter, but right now I’m stuck with what I have. And even with current set up this seems to be taking way longer than normal.
What am I doing wrong? How do I finish distillations quicker? Is it simply that my mantle temp is too low? I’ve been afraid of cranking it too much higher than the temp required for the the main body to start flowing initially. Do I just need to crank it up bit by bit as the fraction depletes? What would that look like? Thank you for reading and for any help you can provide!
10-12 hours usually. A large part of that is temperature ramping. I don’t know if it’s my temp controller or probe or or what but I have to set my JKEM model 250’s power output way higher than the setting calls for to get it to climb temperature at a reasonable rate. Since I’ve been doing this the time it takes to get up to 140C vapor temp has been significantly reduced. But even then it slows down and I’ll have to increase a power setting. The power settings are by volume in boiling flask. I have maybe 100mL but had to set the output to 1L to get it to increase more than 0.1C every few minutes. Once I collect my first fraction the average time is 3-5 hours till I shut it off depending on amount to distill which is usually between 100-300g.
The ZNCL series from China have always been solid for my SPD uses
@spdking will probably try to sell you one of his techno heat mantles at some what is your bottom dollar one more yuppp oh yeah right now and I met with her union party nightmare are you in involved in the lot number than one dollar is not appearing in my lower is it here is the minutes from the top down I have adult Southampton idea who is on the tram at fucking anything else goodbye
I wouldn’t be surprised if the 1L one I’m currently using sucks. The 2L which gives me the same issue (can be seen not being used at the moment in the second pic) should be good tho, it’s from LS and has a top mantle as well.
The 2L LS one is nice tho and shouldn’t have that issue right? It’s been awhile since I’ve used it b/c I haven’t had much to distill. But I think I remember it also being slow as balls.
Also going full bore really helps. But back before that was a thing i ran my 2L from start to finish in less then 8 hrs. I’m assuming your “mantle” is the issue
Only reason I haven’t is b/c I have not had large volumes to distill. I figured the 1L set up would be better, but next time I’ll try the 1L flask in the 2L mantle with fiberglass rope. Actually I just did an extraction that should give me enough oil to fill the 2L flask so hopefully that will be a lot quicker. Been months since I’ve used it.
