Tips on increasing BHO Yield

Hello all. I recently finished my first marijuana grow and attempted to make BHO out of the trim. It was not incredibly successful. I'm going to go through step by step what I did and if anybody has any suggestions that could help me increase my yield that would be great! So first I got everything I needed to run BHO, 80 gram extraction tube, 120 micron silkscreen, pancake griddle, pyrex dish, parchment paper, newport butane, infrared thermometer, 3 gallon vacuum chamber, and a vacuum pump. At harvest I set aside all leaf and trim from the plant to save for BHO. After I let it dry for a week I crushed it up by hand and started to run it. I ran it at a rate of two cans of butane per 80 gram tube. I heat purged it in the pyrex dish at 145 degrees until it was mostly purged, then I put it in the vacuum chamber at 125 degrees for 12 hours. After running 18 tubes and vacuum purging I ended up with about 7 grams of oil. Any ideas on how to increase my yield would be greatly appreciated

Hey man I don't think that's even possible to yield that little from 1440 grams of trim. Something isn't adding up with your math I think. Are you sure you're not thinking of wet weight of trim?

Are you talking about bud trim and sugar leaves or did you collect regular fan leaves and other leaves from the plant to run? You only want to use bud trim and sugar leaves that have decent amount of resin on them.
Doing fan leaves and leaves farther away from flowers will not produce worthy starting material to run for oil.

Keep your temps lower too. 145 is pretty high if you just want to purge to get the tane out and make oil, taffy, shatter etc..if your are trying to make wax you can increase your temps a bit but you should be down more around 100 max if you aren't looking for wax IMO. But I'm sure others will chime in here soon to help..

Are you watching your tane come out the end of your tube to make sure it runs clear at the end of your blasting? if there is still color to it then you are still blasting oil and need to keep using more tane till it comes out clear. A good approximation of how much to use is around a can for every ounce of dry product.

I ran 56 grams of straight bud 4 cans vector 9 grams so yeah something ain't right I'm trying to do a scrape like knotty check his you tube that boy is bad!

56 grams into 9 is about 16%.....pretty respectable in my opinion unless your running nugs, dank ones at that

qwizoking said:

56 grams into 9 is about 16%.....pretty respectable in my opinion unless your running nugs, dank ones at that

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Read the OP's post. Something ain't right with that

Yea 80 into 7 is pretty bad..like 9%

qwizoking said:

Yea 80 into 7 is pretty bad..like 9%

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Not 80 grams he says he ran 18 tubes x 80 grams=1440 grams and got 7 grams yield. That would equal .5 of one percent. Impossible. Something is wrong with what he wrote or did.

See I thought about that but just figured no way..idk I was hoping he reran the material....

I call bs....I get that yield off a plant in veg

did your grow male plants???

It was a mix of bud trim and fan leaves. And yeah when the butane was coming out of of the tube it ran clear. I think I figured out my problem from talking to a buddy of mine who runs bho. I think the trim wasn't dry enough when i ran it because even after 18 tubes and 36 cans of newport it was only 7 grams.

ummm i think a few guys have ran fresh off the plant trim.....

yeah bud i get about10% of the super clear with fresh material . can blow more like 16 with really dry run thru a food processor . i let mine soak in the tube for a few seconds.
higher than 50% humidty IMO has proved to be a waste unless avoiding winterizin.......
avoid tainting your good trim with fan leaves , the fan leaves will RUIN a batch IMO the leaves attract the oil an soak it up as they soak up 'TANE not releasing it till agitation occurs .

Joedank said:

yeah bud i get about10% of the super clear with fresh material . can blow more like 16 with really dry run thru a food processor . i let mine soak in the tube for a few seconds.
higher than 50% humidty IMO has proved to be a waste unless avoiding winterizin.......
avoid tainting your good trim with fan leaves , the fan leaves will RUIN a batch IMO the leaves attract the oil an soak it up as they soak up 'TANE not releasing it till agitation occurs .

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Thanks I'm about to harvest again and this time I'm going to make sure to keep the fan leaves out

u wana use atleast 3 cans for that 80 gram tube.. and yes.. i bet all that material u have.. will have oil remaining.. so u could re run . but check material with a scope to check for remaining heads..

but ya that sucks alot.. i ran a 20 gram tube of larf and got 3.9 grams of amazing oil with just a bout 3/4ths a can of tane.. i just actually got all my trim ready to blow. soon enough ill be running a nice run .

JointOperation said:

u wana use atleast 3 cans for that 80 gram tube.

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When blowing through tubes you need one that will be small enough to only take one can of butane. When you pump multiple cans into one tube in the process of changing cans you'll depressurize and lose like 1/4 of the butane already in the tube. It's easier to use big tubes, but certainly not as efficient. It is also super important that the trim be packed enough to retain enough pressure for the butane to do its job. When you have a big tube it becomes much harder to guarantee no loose pockets in there. When there is not enough pressure the extraction is extremely limited. I'd put money on that being your problem. Repack your stuff much tighter and try again.

ya the best thing for extractions that arent closed loops are smaller tubes.. 1 can tubes get you the most from the material for sure.. my turkey baster gives me a tiny better yield.. but some of the new glass tubes have a thing on the top so u can turn it off.. and then take the can off without pressure being lost.. put a new can on. turn the valve.. and go.. those work great..

I use a tube the size of a cop maglight, and do a case at a time one can to one load.. Almost always get about 2 0z. out of a run of nugs, and smalls. I have done a bunch of sativas this year about a half a pound at a time, and am pleased with the output of the jack hare, real dark and mean as hell. You get out what ya put in no free lunch here. Keep at it with all the info on here it will come together for ya------Mike

Does anybody pack the tube before freezing? Im about to do my second run and I felt like I was warming the trim back up when I packed the tube. Its dried out trim, I keep the sugar leaves on my bud and collect slowly as I go through the buds. Just wondering if anyone packs then freezes.

i just did a nug run.. did a test... frozen packed tube.. and frozen butane.. vs room temp everything.. and the frozen run is twice as light..

ill never go back to room temp.. ill be freezing from now on.. also.. with the frozen... i didnt see any milky / cloudy butane coming out the tube when it gets to the end of the extraction.. but with room temp.. u could actually SEE the waxs and crap mixing into the batch....

frozen came out lighter and clearer.. havent scraped them up yet.. 12 hour water bath at 100-110. and then ill put in the chamber today..

bud nugbong said:

Does anybody pack the tube before freezing? Im about to do my second run and I felt like I was warming the trim back up when I packed the tube. Its dried out trim, I keep the sugar leaves on my bud and collect slowly as I go through the buds. Just wondering if anyone packs then freezes.

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I always pack before freezing. It helps keep atmospheric humidity from coating the trichomes with ice.