In my years of extract making, and experimentation, I have found one thing to be true across the board. The HIGHER your evap temps, the CRAPPIER your extracts will be. You want to COLD BOIL off your solvents. At over 200*, there is nothing "cold" about that, and all you are doing, is baking off your teroenes, ruining your potency, smell, taste, everything about what you are trying to make, will be poop. That's the main reason behind using a vacuum oven. If you do not have a vacuum oven to vacuum purge your products, you are not having a good product, you are not having a clean product, in the end you are having an inferior product that can be purchased from skinny and Ray Ray Down on the Corner for $10 a gram because it's crap, and tastes like rotten asshole. I have found any heat ABOVE 120* bakes away about 65% of your
terpenes. How did I figure this out? By churning out qp's of oil at a time, from ONE PLANT, and using different temps to vac purge it, a half oz at a time. Those COLD BOILED, at 120* and below, under VACUUM, had a super ass floral taste and smell, people preferred to smoke that, as opposed to the ones done between 120* and 200*. Those done above 120* the general consensus was that it was inferior, didn't taste as good, and people asked if it came off of the street corner.....Generally speaking, lower cooking temperatures are better. THC is COMPLETELY DEGRADED at temperatures in excess of 392 degrees F, but it starts to BREAK DOWN way before that, avtually long before that, at about 185* The
terpenes degrade at different temps, LOWER than that of your THC. So vacing at 200* may be perfectly fine to preserve THC, it is NOT fine to preserve your
terpenes profile, causing in the loss of much good aroma, taste, and overall potency. Boiling water never gets above 212 degrees F, a good rule of thumb is, if water is BOILING during vac purge, your temp is WAAAAY too high. The water should not boil, ever. After all, what is the point of rushing your extracts by boiling them, and ruining the quality? The point in making our own, is for a SURPERIOR product than one could buy on the street, not an INFERIOR one, easily found on ghetto street corner. Just saying. Buy a vacume oven. If you cant afgord the $800-$1000 for a decent one, make one for yourself, it is child's play an infant can do. My first one was made out of a large ass glass mason jar, a small vacuum pump, a piece of plexiglass, a vacuum gauge, 2 ball valves, an industrial vacuum seal, and some hosing, and was able to pull over 30mmHg!!! Which is 30 millimeters of mercury, and well enough to make most extracts. I now have one that pulls over 150mmHg ;) make one of these, actually do the extraction process, and rendering processes correctly, COLD BOIL off your solvents, and experiment like I have done. You will be glad you did, as your extracts will be way better.
