Experiment: Vacuum Drying with Desiccant

[GoodLuck]

Experiment: Old Vacuum Purge chamber, colour change desiccant in the bottom with bud in mason jar with hygrometer in 25 inches of vacuum.

Happy Valentines

Found this old Vacuum purge chamber in storage and thought I would try a vacuum desiccant experiment, since I have a ton of Desiccant it was a no brainer.

The interesting part:

I am no scientist but I was very curious to see the Hygrometer register a 40% drop in humidity after the vacuum had been pulled on the chamber. I am going to give it 24 hours under vacuum then I will re seal the mason jar and see how much moisture we lost.

If it is sufficient for a cure, I will cure it and see what affect it had on quality.

 

[GoodLuck]

I can now see that the hygrometer is now climbed to 60%, and the colour change desiccant is turning pink so we are absorbing moisture. I guess technically I can take it out of the vacuum chamber and put it in a jar for a cure at 60%. It has been 8 hours a few inches of vacuum has been lost so I am pretty happy with the chamber given how old it is.

I am going to release the vacuum and jar it with the hygrometer after I calibrate it, who knows what the vacuum will do to it.

 

[GoodLuck]

Okay the hygrometer tests okay and the buds are definitely drier for sure. So round #2 I am weighing the buds to see how much moisture I can lose on an hour in the chamber.

Hee hee

 

[Antics]

Interesting idea. I'll be watching

 

[GoodLuck]

So I lost a gram of weight in one hour, I am jarring them overnight and I will check again in the morning.

 

[Dutty Panty]

Man speed processing. I'm very curious.

 

[GoodLuck]

I am going to do some reading about the more volatile essential oils I could potentially lose under vacuum. I know you can boil water at room temp under a negative pressure I am guessing the same for the essential oils. But if you are drying for oil or something other than flowers I would imagine it really wouldn't matter.

another bonus of the vacuum chamber is Marinating steaks, you can do in ten minutes with a vacuum chamber what usually takes many hours.

 

[GoodLuck]

well the latest reading on the scale is 19 grams originally we had started with 23 so we are down about 20% in weight, I have sped the cycle up to a weigh in every 30 minutes followed by another cycle in the vacuum chamber. I will do another weigh in in 30 inutes and see how fast I can dehydrate this bud.

 

[GoodLuck]

Down to 18 grams after a 30 minute pull going to do the next cycle for 15 minutes.

 

[GoodLuck]

So I sealed everything in a Jar with the hygrometer, we are down to 65% humidity, almost cure time, one more cycle then I am going to weigh it, then it will be sealed for a 2 week cure, then the jar will be opened to check the smell and do a smoke report.

 

[Dutty Panty]

Very interesting canal. How much that system run ya?

 

[GoodLuck]

Vacuum pump 6 cfm Cole Parmer about $220 on Amazon. Vacuum chamber was about $150 I believe. Purged a fair bit of BHO, prolly marinated the equivalent of a cow and a 100 chickens in it. My buddy dried out his ol ladies cell phone after she dropped it in the toilet.

 

[Dutty Panty]

Hmm I may get one.

 

[GoodLuck]

If you get one large enough you can vacuum seal your mason jars in them as well, just put the jar in there with the lid on loose and when you suck the air out and then bleed the pressure back that mason jar seals under the weight of the atmosphere, pretty cool.