Clean Plate Test - How to check your solvents purity +Latest test results

As many of you know, a clean plate test is the ultimate test of any solvent, and should be done when testing a new brand of solvent. For butane, it is even more important. Many brands are manufactured by the same company, and different batches from the same brand can often vary in purity. Moreover, butane frequently has toxic industrial lubricants added to the butane to help with the workings of refillable lighters. For this reason, if you are making BHO, you must test every batch of butane you purchase, even if its from a trusted brand!

The clean plate test is very simple, and 100% effective in determining if there are any contaminants in your solvent that will not evaporate and remain in your oil. Just take a plate, pour a small amount of solvent into it, and leave it outdoors in the sun or on a double boiler until everything that can evaporate off does so. If you see a greasy puddle where the solvent was, or if you run your finger across the plate and feel any slickness, your solvent is impure. With butane, just press the nozzle agaisnt the plate upside down so a bit puddles in the middle. Because of the cold, it will pull h20 from the atmosphere, wait until these condensation droplets evaporate and the plate is room temp before you run your finger across. A good sniff of the plate can determine if there are mercaptans, which are not oil based and thus dont feel greasy; they are added to butane so you can smell leaks, but if it gets into your hash oil it is the foulest smelling substance and will ruin your batch.

The following brands are those whose most recent batches I have tested in the last week, I will update with dates as new tests are added:
Neon 5x - CLEAN
Colibri - CLEAN
Mega 5x - CLEAN
Powerlite - DIRTY - Mercaptans*
Neon - DIRTY - Lubricants
Vector 5x, 3x, and 0x - DIRTY, Lubricants, most lubricants Ive ever seen, all qualities the same
Mega 3x - DIRTY - Lubricants
Mega - DIRTY - Lubricants, Mercaptans

*Note: Until this batch this brand was clean, goes to show why you must test *every* batch.

This is one again fantastic knowledge to bestow upon the cannabis community.

I've used Vector for many, many of my runs when first learning to extract via butane per column extraction.

Fortunately, one day I went to my usual Vector store and they were out.

Found a cigar store that sold Lucienne, made in England, only 4x refined, but passed mirror/plate test with flying colors.

I noticed the Lucienne produced a significantly lower yield, baffled, I went to research and heard about the lubricants added to the higher priced brands of butane, to retain the lighters they also manufacture.(Vector)

I emptied an entire can of Vector into a glass dish (as suggested by the brilliant Vlad)
sure enough, a milky white, oily residue remained.

My favorite brands
1) Lucienne
2) Colibri
3) Neon
4) Newport
5) Xikar

I've also noted that often times the more refining done over 3-5 times refined, leads to a dirtier solvent. The reason behind this is simple; the filtration system involved in the refining, the filters accumulate impurities and essentially add MORE contaminants to the butane.

Anything over 5x, please do mirror/plate test

Just because it's expensive does NOT ensure it's safe to utilize as a solvent to make medicine.

I really like this thread and wish more people would post results. I recently got a few cans of Vector 14X and that shit was very dirty. I use a mirror test but it is essentially the same as the plate test and there was some white powdery residue left from the Vector. I just got a couple cans of NEON 5X which I see as clean on this thread but the post is 2+ years old so I'm gonna test it myself and see what I come up with. The more I read about butane the more I believe that every batch needs to be tested. Too many variations to take a chance.

THANK YOU!! I will be doing a test on American made Puff butane tonight. This thread NEEDS to be seen.