It’s good to be us when people send us peachy keen equipment to test, and we were recently smiled on by Extract Craft, who submitted their new Source Turbo to our lab for testing. Check out their site for more information about their featured unit, as well as other interesting articles:  https://extractcrafter.com/

The Extract Craft Turbo is a handy sized vacuum assisted ethanol recovery system, utilizing vacuum to lower boiling points, so we can distill off and recover the ethanol after extracting or winterizing at lower temperatures.  The perfect size for ma and pa and a small circle of friends. 

Carla and I ran a 150 ml mixed solution of winterized ethanol and cannabis Absolute from mixed strain flowers.  The test went well, the Source Turbo worked slick and we posted the results on our Skunk Pharm Research site. 

Because the device impressed us, we’ve elected to share those test on our new site as well, and recommend that ya’ll give it serious consideration.

Below in the front row are the four of the five pieces as received.  The fifth is an aluminum pan, which I forgot to include, but you will see later.

The goodies

The first thing that Carla did, was wipe down all the contact surfaces with fresh ethanol.  She used Clear Springs 190 proof for that purpose.

Preparing to wipe down all contact surfaces with 190 proof Ethanol

Wiping down all contact surfaces with 190 proof Ethanol

Cleaning all contact surfaces with 190 proof Ethanol

Next we weighed the center pot to determine tare:

Establishing collection cup tare

Followed by assembly:

Assembly

Installing collection cup

And filtering out the waxes from winterized solution:

Filtering winterized BHO extraction

Pouring the filtrate into the center cup:

Adding filtered solution of 190 proof EtOH and cannabis essential oil

Installing the lid:

Install lid

Turn on, add aluminum pan full of ice water, and let the magic begin.  This is the aluminum pan I forgot in the first photo:

Install chilled head

We closed the vacuum valve and began the process at 1:20 PM.

Start time

A simple programing step necessary to adjust if for your local altitude, but duh,  I dis-misread the destruction manual, and used it as delivered, instead of programing it for the correct altitude, and luckily everything else was automatic, because it worked anyway.  

Solution boiling under vacuum and low heat

Down to the short strokes!

Nearing completion

Carla stopped the process at 1:59 PM. and decanted 9.9 grams of Absolute, and the alcohol has been refluxed and collected for recycle:

Stop time

Collection

Yield

Vaporization test reveals the light sweet taste of residual ethanol, but unfortunately we didn’t run it through the GS for empirical numbers.

Residual EtOH is predictable without finishing in a thin film, but FDA considers Ethanol GRAS, or Generally Regarded As Safe, and sets the limits for Class III solvents like Ethanol at 5000 ppm, or 50 mg per day.

If lower residual ethanol is desired, I suggest finishing in a vacuum in a thin film at around 125F and 10,000 microns/-29.5, or smear in a thin film and let air.

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