Hi!
This is Tim with Waxtractor. I just wanted to drop a line and thank everyone for the feedback, and address some of the concerns that folks are having. We're aware of some of the valve issues ftwendy had and we've switched to a slightly different style. The original ones we were using just weren't up to snuff and the second valve that ftwendy received will be the style that we use from now on. The original valve supplier must have been cutting corners somewhere, because they just weren't the quality they should have been.
As far as safety goes, we hand coat each unit with a specialty coating designed for glass lab-ware. Like the film on a windshield that allows it to break, but reduces the amount of fragment dispersion. Of the many advantages of going with glass, it can be fragile if miss-used and we take that very seriously. The coating is a labor-intensive add-on that we put on each unit before it ships. The majority of high-quality canned butane on the market is a mixture of butane, iso-butane, and propane (as a propellant). Butane, by itself, becomes a liquid at about 15 psi, hence the need for the propellant. The highest psi in a can we've seen is around 40psi, with the average being around 30-35psi. These pressure ratings are a fraction of what the wall thickness of tubes we've selected can handle. I get the feeling that squiggly has some knowledge about those types of issues and can probably verify the ratios better than I. If you google search "technical information glassware bibby" , the first result will be a .pdf page. The second page of that contains a chart that shows the pressure ratings of different glass tubes.
I also don't feel that chilling your butane will add any benefit in this type of setup. Quite the opposite actually. Butane boils/evaporates at room temperature, so it is only in liquid state in a can due to pressurization. With a Waxtractor, you're taking it from liquid, to gas, and back into liquid with no loss during the initial soak. As long as you purge any oxygen from the chamber properly, you won't have any issues filling. Case in point, the chamber doesn't get cold when filling. Only the tip of the valve gets cold, and that, only when releasing. The butane valves we use are designed for standard butane pressures and temperatures. If you chill the butane you're using for a Waxtractor, you may have problems getting it to fill correctly.
As far as cleaning goes, we're considering supplying some brushes with these in the future, to help dislodge stuck material on the top of the frit/filter. The possibility of some sort of pre-filter is something we are also looking into. When it comes to cleaning solvents, we recommend a number of options. First, you can run an empty chamber with butane and it will loosen up and clean a lot of any debris. Alternatively, you can use denatured alcohol or mineral spirits. With either of these, you should let it soak for an hour or so and then rinse with warm water, leave the cap and valve off and allow to COMPLETELY dry before using again. We don't put that option into print, as we prefer to only suggest it to skilled users who understand the importance of doing things thoroughly. (I.E. rinsing, letting dry, and you know... patience). H202 isn't something we've looked into yet. But as long as whatever you are extracting is solute in H202, then it most likely would work very well.
As far as pricing goes, there is a lot of work that goes into production/manufacturing and sourcing of materials. Actually producing a product for market is quite different than producing something on a torch and selling a few to your friends. In addition purchasing the materials for unit, you also have to pay for shipping to receive all of them and all of the normal overhead incurred with any type of business. With that being said, as a thanks, here's a coupon code for 10% off forum users that will last till the end of the month. 0A8017672836AD0
Thanks for the feeback and let us know if you have any questions!
Tim
