cbd oil cannabis tincture white laboratory desk concept medical marijuana alternative medicine 296062 105 1 auto x2 1

cbd oil cannabis tincture white laboratory desk concept medical marijuana alternative medicine 296062 105 1 auto x2 1

How To Purge BHO – The Most Effective Ways

Byking_adm on January 13, 2021

In order to make the best butane hash oil (BHO), it needs to be purged properly. Learning how to purge BHO requires some time and experience because there’s some science behind the different methods that can be used. Vacuum purging BHO will increase a dab’s taste, purity, and even texture. It’ll remove all of the unwanted solvents so that it can be consumed safely and enjoyably.

One of the simplest ways that you can get rid of a solvent in your oil is to just boil it away. The issue with boiling BHO is that once it reaches a certain heat, decarboxylation occurs and the oil will get dark. In order to avoid that from happening, a vacuum chamber can be used so the solvent can still boil effectively at much lower temperatures.

Science Behind The Vacuum Purging Process

In high school chemistry or physics class, there’s a good chance you learned the science behind a vacuum and its effects on the temperatures of boiling points. When atmospheric pressure is reduced, volatility begins to occur and things can boil at lower temperatures. As a result of the science, you can use vacuum purging to get rid of the unwanted butane from the oil without actually lowering the quality of the butane hash oil itself.

There’s a variety of different boiling points of different solvents at various atmospheric pressures. It’s good to familiarize yourself with the different levels because you’re using butane to make the BHO.

Measurement Of The Different Pressure Levels

When BHO is purged, the majority of the vacuums out there will use an “inches of mercury” measurement. This is also typically referred to as “HB”. The “inches of mercury” measurement has some history to it, and if you want to look at the chemistry of it, the mercury will rise up to 29.92 inches in the tube at 1 atmosphere. Depending on the altitude you’re currently at, this is the environmental pressure you’re currently living in.

When you’re going about purging BHO, you want to get as near to -29.92inHG levels as you possibly can. Once you do reach -29.92inHG, then a vacuum has been produced with no atmosphere inside of it. While it’s extremely difficult to achieve a perfect vacuum, the goal is to get as close to it as possible. Efficiently getting there will depend on a couple of things, with the most important one being what type of equipment you’re using.

Equipment For Vacuum Purging

If you have decent equipment for vacuum purging, you’ll be able to get a better dabbing experience once you get to that point. A couple of things that are required for vacuum purging are the vacuum, the vacuum chamber, and any silicone mat so that the chamber inside your vacuum remains nice and tidy.

Different Vacuums For Purging

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

If you’re going to be doing just basic vacuum purging, a FoodSaver vacuum sealer will work just fine. Many people have these types of vacuum sealers in their kitchens for food storage. You’ll still have to create a vacuum chamber, though. If you’re going the food saver route, the lowest amount of pressure that you’ll be able to reach is around -20 inHG. Not only will this pressure level assist in raising the quality of the BHO, but it’ll be fairly accessible, as well. If you’re out looking for a vacuum sealing strictly for the purpose of vacuum purging, getting one that has a hose attachment is recommended.

Hand Pump Brake Bleeder Purge

Another basic piece of equipment you can look into is a regular hand pump that’s designed for doing a brake line bleed on your vehicle. You can reach around a -27 inHG pressure level with a brake bleeding kit, which is a decent level of pressure seeing that it’s coming from just a basic hand pump. This method will work well for smaller batches and tiny chambers. If you’re trying to use this method for a big batch, it would take a very long time.

Vacuum Chamber Equipment For Vacuum Purging

Homemade Vacuum Chamber Purge

At this point, you’ll need to make a vacuum chamber. For the do-it-yourself type of people out there, this can be a satisfying experience in knowing you’re saving a lot of money by doing this independently of expensive equipment. If you have some machine experience, this process will be much easier.

Pre-Made Vacuum Chambers

For those that aren’t super experienced in machinery, getting a pre-made vacuum chamber works well. There are companies out there that sell Pyrex glass chambers. Some people don’t like these ones because if a tiny crack occurs, it could result in a bigger one once it’s under the pressure of the vacuum. Going with a metal chamber is recommended, and if you’re going this root, find one that’s a big enough size for whatever size of batch that you have in mind. You’ll want to keep some room leftover on it for the solvent to boil off. Sometimes, BHO will bubble and form kind of a cookie-looking appearance. This is an ideal method for those wanting bigger batches.

2 Stage Vacuum Pumps

After you’ve got the vacuum chamber set up and ready to go, you have to find a pump to be able to get it up and running. A 2 stage electric vacuum pump will work just fine for this. If you’re wanting to put in a little more money, you’ll have decent outcomes with this approach. As your skill levels progress, you might want to migrate to an oilless vacuum pump down the road. Using one of these will reduce the chances of oil being drawn back into your dab. Ensure that you look at the description carefully so that it can result in the most effective vacuum.

Helpful Tip About Silicone

When you’re using silicone in a vacuum chamber, it’s highly recommended to use very good quality silicone. The lesser expensive silicone tends to have plasticizers inside of it. Unfortunately, this can sometimes find its way into the oil and it’ll result in a rubbery taste. There’s an effective method to find out if the silicone has plasticizers inside of it. All you have to do is give the silicone a good twist. As you twist the silicone, take a close look and see if it’s turning white in color. If it is, then it’s not good to use in a vacuum.

A company called Silicone Alley designs fairly nice silicone mats, containers, accessories, and other useful kits that can make for a much more user-friendly dabbing experience. The high-quality mats work perfectly in purging chambers, even for large batches.

Safety During BHO Purging

The purging process can sometimes be dangerous, and for that reason, it’s recommended to take the necessary safety precautions to prevent things like explosions from occurring in the first place. One of the first and foremost things to keep in mind is the levels of ventilation throughout the area that you’re working in. You don’t want butane to get inside the area you’re working in. Also, be aware of anything that can lead to sparks, flames, or excess heat. If any small type of flame occurs in the area, the place will ignite quicker than you’ll be able to safely react to. Severe injuries have occurred in individuals who haven’t taken the necessary safety precautions when purging BHO.

How Do You Vacuum Purge BHO?

Once you’ve successfully extracted all of the butane hash oil, you can now move onto the vacuum purging process if you’ve got all of the right equipment to do the job.

Pre-Vacuum Purging

Grab your THC and butane and place it into a Pyrex dish. After that, lower it inside a tub of hot water. Ensure that the hot water is just under 140 degrees, similar to what a hot cup of coffee or tea would be. After the butane has been boiled off in the water, you’ll only have the BHO leftover in the Pyrex dish. It should be reaching kind of a syrup-like consistency by that point, and you can simply just scrape it off the dish with a razor blade. Grab your silicone mat, and then place the dab on the mat. Ensure that the dab piles will be thin ones if you want to achieve the best outcome.

Vacuuming

Now comes the vacuuming process. Grab your silicone mat again and then put it in your vacuum chamber. If you happen to be using a container that’s on the smaller side, you can make do with parchment paper instead. After the dab is in the vacuum chamber, you can seal it and then begin the pumping process. The pump should run continuously until the gauge on it refrains from moving around. This should typically be anywhere between -27 and -29.92 inHG. If you can get a stronger vacuum than that, then the outcome will be even better. After it has gotten to the pressure level, you can leave your vacuum chamber in a warm area. Some people like to leave it near a heating pad that’s set to around 110 degrees.

Ensure that you don’t do this process in a rush, as that can lead to unpleasant results. By this point, you should have a properly sealed container of oil that’s sitting on a silicone mat that’s heated up to around 110 degrees inside the vacuum chamber.

If you took a look inside the vacuum chamber, you would see the oil and butane boiling. You’ll also see the water in the dab being boiled off, only leaving remnants of pure BHO. Leave that sit for a few minutes and then let some of the atmospheric pressure back into it. After that, you can create another vacuum. Doing this will give the solvent a chance to be pulled out as opposed to creating a layer of vapor in the vacuum chamber.

You can do this process again until you see your dab slightly bubbling. After the process is complete,  you can take it and place it on a heating pad and leave it there for about a minimum of one full day. If you start getting anxious or bored, sometimes you might want to re-vacuum the chamber, and it usually won’t cause any negative consequences. Ensure that you’re doing so in a slow and methodical approach, because you’re opening the atmosphere back into it.

After about a day of the dab sitting by the heat, you can now take out the mat, put the dab in one single pile, squish it up, spread it nice and thinly, and then pre-vacuum it for a couple of more hours. Once that is done, you can take out the dab and pop it inside the freezer for about two minutes so that it can harden a bit. Take it out of the freezer, and it should be ready to go.

Learning how to purge BHO can be a process that will take some time and effort to get just right. Just like most things in life, the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it.