Clogged up issues with our CLS

Our experience:
Personally, I've been a hash maker since 2009, but early last year I teamed up with another much larger medical grower and then shit kinda got serious as we Invested in some more lab grade instruments like our new extractors from BVV and the Ai Vacuum ovens.


This is Our set up:
We have a custom built system from BVV.
We basically have two 5 lb closed column extractors but we also purchased all the parts to make it a closed loop with true de-wax. So we have the 12" base with splatter platter 2 ball valves and a few #30 reclaim tanks, and all the bits to put it all together as either a 10 lb CLS or a 5 Lb CLS with true de-wax.
We have it set up so one 5lb column is the material spool and the other is the de-wax.
But both 5 lb spools have the de-wax sleeve. And in the passed we filled both of the spool sleeves with dry ice.

Here is our problem:
When we open the Valve after the Soak, the BHO starts to pour out but then just stops coming out when there should be like 2 or 3 more lbs of butane left in there. It's getting stuck in there, my best guess is the fresh frozen material is freezing up causing blockage issues. Even when we use bone dry material it's still clogging up but not nearly as bad.
We are using Dry Ice in both, the material column and the de-wax column but.....
On our next run we will NOT be filling the material column's sleeve with dry ice, instead I'm thinking a 90°F water bath in the material colum sleeve but after the soak and the valve has been opened to help push all the residual butane down the line into the de-wax that has dry ice in its sleeve. The butane will always chase the cold.

Here are my questions:
1- Have any of you guys experienced a issue with your material colum getting clogged up? My assumption is that it's more of an issue with the BIG extractors like the 5lb ones we are using. What is happening and what can I do about it?
2- I'm seeing stainless steel ball bearings being sold with the tru-dewax Cloosed loop systems. What are they used for? My best guess is to fill up the lower reducer with them and they would add filtration for the de-wax sleeve assuming the solidified Waxes would get stuck between the ball bearings but still leaves gaps for the Liquid to flow passed. I'm just trying to understand it better.
3- Are the Waxes causing my clogging issues?
maybe a shorter soak in sub Zero...

How cold is your system exactly?? Are u pulling a large enough vacuum to start your reaction? Are u using recovery pumps? Are u trying to blow up!? Thats a large system

Is your sleeve around spool a lower temp then your base perhaps not allowing ur gas to flow down thru ur system

Are you running passive?

dabbindylan said:

Is your sleeve around spool a lower temp then your base perhaps not allowing ur gas to flow down thru ur system

Click to expand...

Yes. This is most likely my problem.
Our base was at room temp wile the Dewax and material column were both packed with dry ice. I'm thinking that putting dry ice in the material colum is redundant at this point since we have true Dewax in line.

dabbindylan said:

How cold is your system exactly?? Are u pulling a large enough vacuum to start your reaction? Are u using recovery pumps? Are u trying to blow up!? Thats a large system

Click to expand...

The system is frickin cold. Packed with dry ice. I'll record a reading in a couple weeks when we do our next run and update you.
The whole system is getting a full vac -29.9hg, we have a 13.5 CFM two stage pump.
We are not using a recovery pump yet, however I do have one. We just used the dry ice and warm water bath for recovery and that method works great for us. The problem is liquid is getting stuck in the material column. When we disassembled the system it then pours right out onto the ground.
Do I wanna blow myself up?? WTF kind of question is that? I clearly don't wanna blow myself up, I'm here asking you a question about my problem and in the original post I tryed to discribe as much as I can about us and our process as I could to prevent irrelevant questions from being asked. Safety measures are the FIRST priority and are never taken lightly.

Fadedawg said:

Are you running passive?

Click to expand...

Passive closed loop not active. But we do have a recovery pump, I just haven't tryed using it yet. We seem to be recovering just fine with temperature differential.

I'm going to simply asked to two qwestions again.

Have you experienced this clogging issue?

What are the ball bearings for?

The reason i asked if it was passive or active, was your clogging problem. Sounds like vapor, so you might try drilling a vent hole in the down tube about halfway up, opposite the pump port.

A passive system typically doesn't have a down tube.

The ball bearings go in your filter for waxes to adhere to.

Mustaine4prez said:

The system is frickin cold. Packed with dry ice. I'll record a reading in a couple weeks when we do our next run and update you.
The whole system is getting a full vac -29.9hg, we have a 13.5 CFM two stage pump.
We are not using a recovery pump yet, however I do have one. We just used the dry ice and warm water bath for recovery and that method works great for us. The problem is liquid is getting stuck in the material column. When we disassembled the system it then pours right out onto the ground.
Do I wanna blow myself up?? WTF kind of question is that? I clearly don't wanna blow myself up, I'm here asking you a question about my problem and in the original post I tryed to discribe as much as I can about us and our process as I could to prevent irrelevant questions from being asked. Safety measures are the FIRST priority and are never taken lightly.

Click to expand...

Are your recovery tanks big enough to extract that invite load. Maybe tandem another recovery on the end and see. Also reduce time from when you originally put the dry ice in sleeve to when you inject. Also i think it is redundant considering you have a try dewax. Hope this is helpful good luck.

I know this is old but I think it is a temp issue. Sleeve is colder or just as cold as the splatter platter. It's kind of hard to tip over you're rig to get the dry ice out or Ice to let the dewax column temp rise. If I do a ice run I'll try to just drwin it and add warm water.

Or drill a hole in your down pipe add a tap spicket or somthin and always listen to @Fadedawg

cookie master said:

I dont understand what you mean by a passive system doesnt have a downtube?

Click to expand...

The column and return tube don't pass through the lid and reach to within a couple inches of the bottom of the pot. There is no return tube and the column stops flush with the lid on a passive system.

i just finally bought my stuff. 12 inch tank but the hemi lid has a short tube out the bottom. Even though it wont apply to me, were you suggesting a hole in the tube inside the collection pot?

Im presuming ill avoid all these issues by not filling the dewax chamber with material. It should go down into the empty/vacuumed dewax chamber. And then the only thing holding it back is the filters. But the vac on the base should handle that.

cookie master said:

i just finally bought my stuff. 12 inch tank but the hemi lid has a short tube out the bottom. Even though it wont apply to me, were you suggesting a hole in the tube inside the collection pot?

Click to expand...

No, just one with a down tube.l

cookie master said:

Im presuming ill avoid all these issues by not filling the dewax chamber with material. It should go down into the empty/vacuumed dewax chamber. And then the only thing holding it back is the filters. But the vac on the base should handle that.

Click to expand...

If they don't clog. We use a 1 micron sock filter, which has more surface area.

I was gonna buy filter plates, where do you have the sock filter?

Face filters blind rapidly as their pores plug doing their job. A sock filter not only has more surface area, but it is a polyester felt, which makes it a body filter, increasing the area further still.

The sock filter housing goes between the column dump valve and the collection chamber. Check with Sweetleaf for theirs using a 4" X 8" sock filter.