(Part 2) Best air conditioning tools & equipment according to redditors

I recently helped a family member of mine extract one of his first successful grows and thought I’d share the process and pics with my fellow cannabis extractors.

My cousin has been open blasting to make his extractions but last month I finally convinced him to invest in a closed loop system like mine. He went with a Terpp Extractor and I set it up for him outside : http://i.imgur.com/J8ii0ln.jpg

We used a mixture of propane and n-butane, I like using a mix with some propane because it extracts better than pure n-butane in my experience.

First step: Get all the nugs off the plants. Here’s one of the plants: http://i.imgur.com/oLwtWBP.jpg

Second step: FREEZE the nugs, fresh off the plant. We used dry ice in a cooler for about 30 hours. Pic of the nugs : http://i.imgur.com/OWOSaX4.jpg

Third step: Pack column nice and tight with frozen buds and run the solvent through the system. Collect the oil when it’s ready (I like to gently scrape onto pyrex dish or PTFE sheets, try not to agitate it too much).

Fourth step: Put it on the heat. My friend uses this vacuum set up. It gets the job done. I like my vac oven because it provides heat in all directions, but I used a set up similar to this for a very long time, it’s a great budget way to purge your extracts.

This is the heating pad we use underneath the chamber. It stays at a fairly consistent temperature, we kept the heat at 95 degrees, bumping it up to 100 near the end.

Fifth step: Once the oil is melty and in a nice patty, put it at full vac and keep it on the heat for however long it needs. This is tricky, some strains are done in 24-30 hours. Some strains require a full 48 hours. I’ve gone even longer when there is a lot of moisture from fresh frozen or live resin runs. The reason it takes so long is because we are using very low temp’s to preserve the flavor and color of the oil.

At around 10 hours in I will “flip” the patty of oil, like a pancake. I’ll put a ptfe sheet on the top of the oil, flip it upside down, and continue purging on low heat at full vac, Flipping the patty will get the solvent out faster and more effectively.

Keep doing it every 10 hours or so until your oil is done.

This Durban Poison was in the chamber for 50 hours.

annnnnnnd boom : http://i.imgur.com/RmE8XAw.jpg

62 grams of fresh frozen nugs turned into 14 grams of fresh frozen oil.

As you can see, it stayed very sappy. Not very stable, but this happens a lot when dealing with fresh frozen or live resin oil. Maybe due to moisture or other factors like strain.

The taste is incredible, I’m a big big fan of Durban Poison. Very distinct flavor, super fruity and sweet. The effects are an amazing clear headed, sativa high. Good for day time smoking.

If you have any questions feel free to ask! I’ve helped a bunch of people here find and set up closed loop systems and with purging advice, I don’t mind PM’s at all :)

Side Can Tap.

Take a tube, hold it against a ear and block the other ear. This will make your hearing very directional and help you locate the noise.

You may look a little silly though.

Or you can buy one of these to be really precise.
https://www.amazon.com/Wekster-Stethoscope-Automotive-Diagnostic-Motorcycles/dp/B07C1WCB2Y

When someone mentions the word "vac" in regards to bho it is referring to a vacuum or the process of vacuum purging. Basically you have a vacuum pump that is attached to a chamber which you place your under purged oil in, then by gently heating(100-120) and maintaining a vacuum of 29hg your oil will begin to purge. Here is a link to an example of the vac I use, and one to the chamber I use with it(or one that's very similar by the same buy).

A standard AC service gauge set is $35 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/OrionMotorTech-Diagnostic-Manifold-Freon-Refrigerants/dp/B07JLQTK9C

Dyes are fine.

Fun fact, Nissan factory AC systems include leak-detect dye with their refrigerant oil. It's almost like Nissan feels sorry for their customers...

Had a similar problem, found out that the pump does not hold vacuum when shut off. Added a shut off valve to the yellow service hose, closed the valve before shutting off the pump when at 30 mmhg. Held vacuum after that. Not sure this is your solution is but thought I would share my experience.

Something like this. Attached the yellow valve to the end of the service hose and the other end to the pump port.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S8CCN1H/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_OeTFDbN39Z97M

Is your compressor turning on?

Also, please don't vent refrigerant into a rag. R134 is a major greenhouse gas about 1500 times worse than C02, venting into a rag does nothing and I believe it's illegal. Lastly, never use the ac pro hose thingy. It sucks. Get a proper set of ac hoses.

Hey guys, so two quick questions.

First, I tried to use a hand pump as recommended and the fucking thing wouldn't hold pressure even with tape around all seals and pressure put on top of the bottle top filter. After nothing worked I resorted to a 1.8 cfm OEM vacuum pump. https://www.amazon.com/1-8-Single-Stage-Vacuum-Pump/dp/B01BW39BZS this model specifically.

The result was that the plastic bottle top filter (I used a glass media bottle) cracked. Is there a way to safely use this vacuum pump or any recommendations? The instructions say to run pump until absolute vacuum is achieved and then leave it so I pulsed it trying to not damage the filter but I must have let it run too long.

Second, when mixed my test prop was clear. Post filtration it was cloudy similar to this http://imgur.com/a/acdrG (stolen from another post) Recipe was 2% ba, 18% bb with MCT oil and test prop @100mg/ml. Any ideas on what happened? I'm assuming it was something to do with the filter since it changed after coming out. I used a 500ml .2 pore pvdf membrane.

Any ideas?

Elitech WJL-6000 Freon Leak Detector Halogen Leak Detector Refrigerant Gas Leakage Tester HVAC Air Condition R22 R410A R134A CFCs HCFCs HFCs Detects High Accuracy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015FK1EH2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_FLVWDbSWK60M7

Similar type detectors are what we used to find leaks on our old perc machine. This also is useful to see if your end product has too much solvent left in it.

Yeah, then this is no problems. Just a ton of steps.

Before you go out and do all this, let's make sure your compressor is trying to start. Turn your car off. Plug in your bottle of AC pro. It should be in the red "overcharged" range. Have someone start the car, and then watch the value on the gauge, you should see the value drop into the green when the compressor turns on. That means you just need a proper recharge to fix your AC. Follow the directions below. If it doesn't do that, then you have something else wrong, and we need to fix that first.

Call a bunch of Autozones in your area. A couple of them rent out vacuum pumps + manifold gauges. Call enough of them and you'll find one that will rent you both. Look in the side of the vac pump, it should be full of oil to the fill line. If not, buy a bottle of vac pump oil, and fill it to the "Full" line.

Here's general information:

You need to buy a can tap, even if the gauges come with one. You'll want to save your bottles for later. https://www.amazon.com/Mastercool-85510-R134a-Valve-Screw-Model/dp/B000LQODJC They'll have them at autozone as well. To use a vampire tap, open the silver handle (CCW) all the way. Buy bottles of 134a, screw this onto the top of the bottle, get it handtight. Then close the silver handle all the way. The last few turns it will pierce the top of the top of the can. That'll let you pull the 134 out of the bottle.

Always operate the can with the valve at the top, right way up. Never turn it on it's side, bad things can happen.

When using a vac pump, do not turn the pump on or off while the yellow line is attached. Always turn the pump on, attach the yellow line, let the pump run, then detach the line, turn the pump off.

PPE! Wear leather gloves & safety glasses. Freon burns are not good. Eyes don't grow back.

Find the label on your car that says how much 134a your vehicle takes. It'll be listed by weight. You'll also need a small kitchen scale.

There's 3 different weights of AC oil. Find the correct weight for your car.

Buy a bottle of green or yellow dye, and a blacklight. Hunting for leaks at night/in the evening works much better then during the day. The darker you can get it, the more the dye stands out.

You need a dye/oil injector. https://www.amazon.com/DIY-UV-DYE-INJECTOR-CLAMSHELL/dp/B001DKP0ZG How to use: Unscrew the two parts from each other. Clean out any old oil. Fill up the small part with oil or dye. You must inject a full thing of oil/dye, no half-full, because you'll also be injecting a half-amount of air as well. Hold it level while you screw the other side back on. Tighten it to just past snug. Make sure both both knobs are closed. Take off the lowside (blue) connection. Connect the injector onto your car. Then connect the lineset to the injector. You now need to do something to force dye into the car. Either open the red valve if there's pressure on the red side & nothing is attached to the yellow cable or you can open the valve on can if there's no freon in the system. Then very slowly open the blue valve. You'll see the blue needle spike up, close it down a bit and figure out how to get some small amount of freon going through the lineset. You've now got freon flowing through your injector. Turn it so the black part is straight up and down, you're trying to force all the dye out of the injector and let it flow into your car.

Disconnecting your lineset: If your car is running, you want to try to get as much freon out of the lineset as possible. Make sure your gloves are on. Disconnect the yellow line if connected. Hold down the port on your car and pull up on the red connector's ring. It'll pack a bit of a punch. Put the dust cap back on immediately. Now we'll SLOWLY pull all the freon out of the lineset. Too much at once might damage your compressor. Open the blue knob slowly, watch the blue gauge, open the valve slowly, don't let it go above 60 or so range. Then slowly open the red VERY slowly, same thing, don't let the blue gauge over 60 or so. Once you've got as much freon out of the lineset as possible, disconnect the blue port, and put the dust cap back on. Keep your connectors out of the dust. Dust is your enemy.

Always make sure both knobs are closed before attaching or detaching anything from the lineset.

NEVER EVER EVER EVER open the red valve with anything attached to the yellow line & the car running. This could cause the freon can to explode. You will have a bad day. Check every step you do in here, and make sure you're not breaking this rule.

Steps:

Start by vaccing out the lineset. You need to get any crap out of it that was left by the previous guy. Turn on the pump, attach the lineset. Open both knobs all the way. Let the pump run for ~30 minutes. Disconnect the yellow line, shut off the pump.

Close both knobs. Take off both the dust caps. Pull the collars on the connector back, with your other hand, hold the fitting stable, you don't want to put stress on it. Press the connector in with a smooth motion. It's easier to do with the car off. AC OFF. Start up the car. Watch the values on the two gauges. They have different scales. Both values should be pretty close. Turn on the AC, while watching the gauges. If the needles move, that's the compressor trying to come on. If the pressure gets too high, or too low, the compressor will turn off to protect itself. You may see it cycling on and off as it tries to run. If it's cycling on and off, inject dye into into your system. Follow the directions above for disconnecting your lineset. Find your leak, and fix it.

When you're ready to properly refill your car: CAR OFF! Hook the lineset back up, turn on the vac pump, connect the yellow line to the vac pump. Open both knobs. Listen for the sound of the vac pump as it pulls air out of the system. Listen to the sound, and what the pump is telling you it's doing. At first it's pulling out a lot of air. Then it'll start pulling less and less. Then you'll hear it pulling little bubbles every few seconds, and those seconds will get more and more spread out. Wait for the sound to stabilize, then wait 30 more minutes. This chases all the moisture out of the AC. After 30 minutes, you shouldn't hear any of the sounds of air bubbles. Close both knobs. Wait ~10 minutes. Open the knobs. The sound shouldn't change if you open or close the knobs. If it does, you either didn't vac long enough, or you have a leak. Once you're sure you don't have a leak, disconnect the yellow line from the vac pump. Your system is now at a hard vac! You're in the home stretch.

As you start filling the AC (next paragraph), Inject an injector full of compressor oil. Being at a hard vac tends to boil some of the oil off... the pros have a gauge that measure how much oil that was pulled out, we have to guess. I normally inject 1/4 oz (one injection) or 1/2 (2 injections) of oil. On that large of a car, you might choose 3. Especially if you vacced for a long time. This is more guessing. If your compressor is making a terrible racket, add oil. We unfortunately have to guess on this part. Too little oil, and the compressor won't be lubricated, and will tear itself up. Too much oil, and the compressor will have problems with slugging, and tear itself up.

Connect the injector, and your lineset (Valves closed!), and get out your scale. Car still off. Most ACs will require 2-3 small bottles of freon. Figure out how many full bottles you need to put in, and how much out of the last bottle you'll need. Connect the first bottle. Open the valve on the first bottle. Open the blue knob a little bit for a few seconds to inject the oil into the low side.

This step will injure you if you do not follow directions CAR OFF Really, make sure the car is off, valves closed. Invert the can, valve side down (remember I said not to do this. This one time is an exception. Car off. seriously) Car off. Close the BLUE valve. Open the RED valve. This will dump liquid freon into the high side of the car, which is designed to take high pressure freon, the low side isn't. Let it take as much as quickly as it can. This will quickly dump most of the first can into your AC system, and have it part-way charged. When you stop hearing it flowing around, RED SIDE CLOSED.

These are much nicer tubes for about the same price. They come with a three pack of micron screens and a clamp. The one you linked to those are all extra.

I would not get anything cheaper or smaller than the provac you linked to. It's a great starter chamber and a good value.

That pump is not ideal. It is rated at 500u. Not enough for proper extracts. You really don't want to skimp out on the vac. It's extremely important to ensure properly purged oil. IMHO the minimum you want to be looking at is the Robinair 15300 but if it were me I'd spend a couple extra bucks and get the Robinair 15500. I own the 15550 and it works great! It's also probably the best value on the market right now at the price amazon is selling them.

I'd also advise picking up a roll of Oil Slick Sheet. You can blast right on to it. It works well for small runs.

As far as your tek, watch this video and do it just like shown and you'll be golden!

Its a bit pricier but for holding a deep vac on a 5 gallon ive never had a robinair fail me.
https://www.amazon.com/Robinair-15300-VacuMaster-Economy-Vacuum/dp/B000O1E5UQ

What is your elevation also? Neat perfect vacuum is hard to achieve much over sea level.

yes that works, but I figured free for a tool you'll use once is better than buying it :)

You'll also need to buy one of these to hook up the can of refrigerant to the gauges if you go the buying route https://www.amazon.com/Mastercool-85510-R134a-Valve-Screw-Model/dp/B000LQODJC/ref=pd_bxgy_263_img_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TMMEHPXN9MG3SEA09X5B

Here's some helpful videos on reading the gauges and using them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW1GDiOa0kE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lglPJuBXVeE

I thinj something like this could work

Joyway 8pcs A/C Car Air Condition Refrigeration Connector Adapter Hoses AC CH-138 Set Kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DH6553C/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_vAiPDbSRKZTP1

And this

Flexzion Car AC R134a Quick Connectors System Port Adapters Couplers Low High Set Conversion Kit for HVAC Auto Air conditioning with Manifold Hose Gauge https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018766NTA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_sBiPDbGX0YNK8

If you have an air compressor, you can purchase a small venturi pump to pull a vacuum on the system.

That'll let you test your conversion before paying the shop to do the charging with new coolant.

Kozyvacu R134a Refrigerant Self-Piercing Can Tap Valve with 1/4 Flare port for AUTO AC recharging, Easily connecting with Quick Coupler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073ZZSYWC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_UIEP31yzdf8t6

Your edit probably covers more than I could tell you. I use 409 or purple power, nothing special. I did mean rinse with water, just dry everything up as best you can and keep the water away from the alternator, battery and air filter. And you could use power tools. Power tools make everything more fun. For example a pump could be used to suck out the wells as you rinsed with degreaser / water. Sort of like getting your teeth cleaned at the dentist.

Cheap One

Good One

Nope. I used one of those ball valve dealies. It still had a partial charge when I swapped the valves. Only a little vented while I was changing the valve; not enough to reduce the system pressure more than a PSI or so.

So, I get that something can be water tight but not air tight. In this case, I've detached the hose from the pump, and immersed the manifold (from this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H72W8Z8), which contains the valve, along with the vacuum chamber. It's totally detached and not connected to the pump at all.

I will try pumping down and keeping the valve closed. IIRC the last time I did that, the pump doesn't have any effect on the chamber at that point.

I am using Buna-N (1/8") to seal the endcap. It's liberally smeared with vacuum grease. The end cap stays on the chamber purely by vacuum adherence- I don't have any screws keeping the endcap on tightly. Do you really think that makes a big difference?

The link to Terra Universal is interesting, because they show a similar vacuum leak that settles to level. They solve the problem by re-pumping once, then it stays at the final vacuum level achieved with the pump.

I take your point about the battery or arduino being an outgas source. I am trying to eliminate that but my previous attempts have failed. I tried various MEMS/chip based solutions but their ranges have not been as good as my BMP183.

I tried using a bulkhead union as a vacuum feedthrough but had trouble sealing it.

For analog gauges, do you mean like this:
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/micron-vacuum-gauge

I've been using this one: https://www.artmolds.com/vacuum-chamber.html with a vacuum pump I got off Amazon (they didn't have the bundle when I purchased, I got this one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XQ2S4M/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) and it works fine. It just fits a 10 qt bucket if you take the handle off, so that's nice. That is about half the size you're talking about, though...

That's why I bought one of these sucks all the air out of the system while you fill it with coolant so you don't need to worry about bleeding

So air pocket it is. I knew it'd be something pain in the ass like that.

I went ahead and got this earlier this week, should be on its way:

>https://www.amazon.com/Robinair-75260-Coolant-Refiller-Preventer/dp/B001QFDRS0

Any opinions? Now to borrow an air compressor...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015KH93K/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1