I'm sorry for doing a new thread, very new.
One main question
I have a best value vac chamber and idk the size, it's tall and kinda fat but anyways .
I was wondering if I could use the oil slick paper, (ptfe) and line my chamber with it so I could blast straight in there, wait for it to stop reacting (cause it's on a heating pad) And then vacuum it.
I wanna know if the direct heat would ruin it, or if it absolutely needs a water bath.
Thank you
I recommend against it for safety and process reasons brother!
One of the primary reasons for using hot tap water, instead of electric heat, is that unless the electric heat system is rated NEMA 7, Class 1, Div 1 (explosion proof), it isn't safe for use in an explosive environment. Hot water out of the tap meets the requirements of NEMA 7, Class 1, Div 1, and is affordable to most people.
From a process standpoint:
Electric heat pads don't produce as even heat as a double boiler setup using water. Like candy and sensitive sauces, essential oils in carboxylic acid form don't tolerate much heat without changing into something else.
The boil off process is violent, so what you would really need is a liner, that had no seams for the mixture to find and flow into, ostensibly adding cleaning woes.
That liner would insulate the boiling mixture from the outside surfaces, and reduce the effectiveness of the process. One issue is that the boil off that occurs naturally because the LPG is above its boiling point of 31F or less if a mix, and that boiling produces refrigeration via the latent heat of vaporization, which lowers the temperature of the puddle until it reaches close to its boiling point and the boiling slows to a crawl. Good even heat transfer, not just on the bottom, but sides as well, is key to efficient boil off.
You lose control of your film thickness, unless you are running small amounts. You can't have any more oil present than makes a thin film on the bottom, for efficient post extraction purging.
In closed loop systems, we are able to inflate the puddle into cotton candy like foam before most of the butane is gone, and dry it in into shatter in that state, so that it is relatively easy to reduce to powder with a whisk, and pour out/spread into a thin film on a sheet of PTFE.
Sadly, once most of the butane is gone, the puddle will no longer inflate to the cotton candy level under vacuum, so the puddle takes more heat and time to purge it to the same level in a chamber or oven, than the gossamer thin walls of the cotton candy bubbles in the extractor.
You also need a pump that rated for the purpose, so trying to use your chambers rotary vane vacuum pump for that inflation, brings us back to its lack of NEMA 7, Class 1, Div 1 ratings and safety.
