hey everybody it's a me for girly here
and today we're back with another best
value of ex demo this time we'll be
testing out the 2-liter rotary
evaporator or rotovap from best value of
ex the purpose of a roll of app is to
recover the ethanol from your winterize
cannabis or organic material extract
while a series of heat fans or vacuum
ovens can achieve this simply
evaporating your ethanol can become
costly very quick and a rotovap can
recover nearly all of the ethanol left
over in your dissolved extraction there
are eight basic components to a rotovap
the control unit the rotary drive the
lift jack the hot water bath the
condenser the receiving flask the vacuum
valve and as you see here the
evaporation flask the control unit
allows you to adjust the temperature of
the water bath and speed of the rotation
of the evaporation flask best value of x
recommends you set the heat bath to 113
degrees Fahrenheit or 40 degrees Celsius
and the RPM of your evaporation flash
should be right around 100 the rotary
drive is a system that controls the
physical rotation of your evaporation
flask the lift jack raises and lowers
your evaporation flask in and out of the
hot water bath the hot water bath keeps
your flask and extract at the desired
temperature the condenser recondense is
your evaporated solvent into a liquid
the receiving flask collects all of the
recondense solve it for you to reuse the
vacuum valve allows you to manually
adjust the vacuum level in the system
although you could purchase a vacuum
regulator to do this automatically and
the evaporation flask which will contain
your finished and unfinished extract in
addition to this basic rotovap setup you
will need a way to chill the liquid
inside of your condensing tubes as well
as a safe way to pull a vacuum special
pumps are made for situations like this
but the most inexpensive way i've found
to efficiently run on rotovap without a
chiller and the expensive pump is a
simple water aspirator this water
aspirator not only pulls a small vacuum
but it also recirculates cold water
through the condenser one thing I should
note about the aspirator how
is that after a half-hour or so of use
the water will begin to heat up so you
can either swap the warm water with cold
water or occasionally add ice cubes to
the water either will work fine and keep
you well within your budget if you do
have the budget however a Welch
diaphragm pump and a poly science cello
would be the way to go you should also
include a cold trap if you want to be
safe and save your pump and assemble
glass one should do the trick if you
have dry ice handy
check out my Buchner funnel
winterization video for more information
on that now that you know what the parts
of the world of EV are and what other
items you might need let's take a look
at my process first and foremost always
make sure you clean your unit in between
runs just as you should with any
extraction equipment if you do not
sterilize your equipment you could
potentially pull over contaminants from
previous runs including unseen chemicals
like pesticides or molds once you have a
clean system fill your hot water bath an
aspirator or chiller with water I prefer
to use reverse osmosis in both make sure
your water is as cold as possible in the
aspirator or set your chiller to 32
degrees Fahrenheit turn on your hot
water bath to your desired temperature
and it should be just about ready by the
time you are ready to turn on the
rotator make sure all of your
connections are tight and in the right
place your condensers should be filled
from the top down so push water from
your aspirator or chiller outlet to the
top of the condenser and the bottom of
the condenser to the inlet line lastly
connect the vacuum hose to your vacuum
port and ensure you have the vacuum
valve installed and closed some vacuum
ports have elongated tubes that allow
you to add more material directly to
your evaporating flask while still using
the Machine pretty nice if you have too
much material or too small of a rotovap
ensure your receiving flask is connected
properly using the provided clamp then
fill up your evaporation flask with the
winterize material keep in mind that you
should only fill your flask to half of
its capacity for example with this 2
liter rotovap setup i should only be
running about 1 liter of material at a
time this is a good time to have a
funnel handy and best value of X makes a
120 milliliter glass funnel that fits
perfectly just don't pour your extract
too fast or it will bubble up all over
the place and cause quite the sticky
mess carefully connect your evaporation
flash the receiving end of the rotary
drive and carefully secure it with the
provided
double check and make sure your clip is
securely attached before lowering or
turning on the motor to ensure you do
not break your flask and ruin your
material once you are certain everything
is securely in place turn on your water
aspirator or chiller and pump and begin
to recirculate the cold water through
the condenser and pull a slight vacuum
most vacuum pumps will be overkill for a
rotovap so make sure you either pay
attention and manually adjust your
vacuum or purchase a vacuum regulator
you should never pull a full back and
most will keep their vac below 15 hg now
that the cold water is recirculating and
your vacuum has been pulled you're now
ready to lower the evaporation flask
into the hot water bath and slowly turn
the motor dial as previously mentioned
you want it to run at around 100 rpms
but it does not have to be precise the
best way to learn is to try different
specs out so see what suits your process
best after a few minutes you will notice
drops of ethanol begin to collect on
your condensing coils and drop into your
receiving flask not only is this a sign
that you have begun your solvent
evaporation and collection but its
inverse is the sign that you are done
once your coils have stopped dripping
you'll be near completion this process
can take anywhere from a few minutes to
a few hours depending on your setup but
I have been recovering over a liter of
solvent in under an hour with this setup
once you're confident in the vast
majority of solvent has been recovered
from your extract turn off the rotary
drive and raise your evaporation flask
out of the hot water bath carefully
remove the clip and gently remove your
evaporation flask remember that you have
pulled a vacuum on the system and this
will cause the glass to momentarily hold
together you can use vacuum grease to
help with this problem but it is vital
that you clean all of the grease off
before pouring your extract to avoid
contamination
once the glass has been cleaned
carefully tilt your flask upside down
with the collection vessel under it to
begin collecting your extract it will
pour much slower now that most of the
ethanol has been removed and its
viscosity significantly reduced and it
would be wise to invest in a tripod
stand and three finger clamp to do this
for you otherwise you'll be sitting
there holding it for quite some time
once all the extract has been removed
from the evaporation flask your ethanol
recovery is complete from here you will
want to purge the extract in your vacuum
oven for a short period of time to
remove the last of the solvent left in
your extra
as there will still be thousands of
PPM's contained within the alternative
is to decarboxylate the extract which
will ultimately vaporize the rest of the
remaining solvent convert the THC a into
THC and unfortunately destroy many of
the terpenes however this is the next
step in the extracting your extract
series one that is required for the
short path distillation of cannabis and
that's what we'll get into in the next
video in this series I'm excited to
bring you the next level of cannabis
extraction and purification until then
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and let me know what you think about
this process so far and share your
experiences if you have them until next
time good luck and grow big