Much appreciate all the comments here. You really made me think about things I wasn’t particularly open to.
So we sourced lots of biomass today and I shipped out the hash pump. (I’m in Miami and have no lab.)
Hash will be extracted and freeze-dried to be sure weights are exact and the sample is homogenous and quartered correctly.
We will test the 3 pumps at the same temperature and flow rate.
Additionally, we will test water temperature from start to finish to analyze how much heat these put into the system.
The water volume will be low to simulate longer use, probably 5 or 20 gallons. Most hash water is half a percent solids and we will run at 5.2% or perhaps 1.3%.
But does it matter if it’s replaces or repaired according to their warranty process! Again, in my opinion.
People are tripping over white labeling… Doesn’t matter if it’s cannabis hemp or actual pumps. It happened and as long as the company follows through with what the company says they will do I don’t see anything wrong with it.
Though we are running tests with 3 pumps with the hash (will post results on YouTube), I decided to make the Boba video again.
This video uses a 1" Debem pump which uses the traditional ball and cage system. We ran this pump very slowly, but the video is 2x speed so it wouldn’t be so boring.
As expected, the pump shreds the balls.
Full disclosure, this is not the same test as we did with the Hash pump since we are using Blueberry Boba and not Strawberry as before.
I was expecting them to get minced by the way he said “shreds”. Seems like trichs wouldn’t be much of a problem seeing how in tact those boba balls came through a regular 1" AODD - but looking forward to his tests with hash and seeing through a microscope.
I should add this should be freshly made hash because if it’s left to sit around and degrade that won’t be representative of what the pump is actually marketed for and will be MUCH more likely to damage trichs - which no hashmaker worth his weight would be doing.
You pump the hash, you pull the bags, you scoop it on the tray, you freeze dry it.
Once you freeze dry it then your results will have real-world applications - otherwise you are cherrypicking parts of the process you want to take part in when no company compartmentalizes the hash making process. I.e. companies may take FF from other farms, but they’re not washing hash then passing it down the line to the next company to process it then having another person FD it then another person press it…this is all done in-house and so is the washing otherwise the whole point is moot.
We are washing on Monday to begin real world tests. It will be freshly extracted hash, but obviously not high quality like a Kalya or 710Labs. Should have results in a few weeks since we need to freeze dry and get lab results as well. To be impartial we are not doing the tests ourselves nor are we using a Mesclatore as the pump will work with any system.
Great food for thought!
A peristaltic pump would crush trichomes as the tube is squeezed.
A venturi pump is an option or even a fish pump. In the end, it comes down to price and convenience.
A centrifugal pump seem like it would be a better choice since the impellers don’t make contact with the wall. As long as you keep the rotation gentle enough, (maybe a pneumatic one with a controller) it may be better than a diaphragm pump.
Shear is proportional to the velocity gradient. Since centrifugal pumps must spin very fast in order to pump, even a slow gpm pump will have a fast moving impeller. The high speed of the blades will either cut the trichomes or trichomes will slam on the blade or pump walls and pop or get damaged. This can be solved by designing an impeller that really reduces shear as much as possible. This type of impeller exists and we are testing this type of impeller on this current test.
Exactly how much any of these pumps damage trichomes is unknown. I have not seen any study or attempt to quantify this. Our efforts are by no means worthy of a research paper, but would prove a point. I would be happy with a 1% reduction of loss as over time that adds up.
Has anyone seen any data supporting pump performance on trichomes one way or another?
