Air tight storage

I have been storing my cannabis in vacuum-sealed 1-pint glass Mason jars in a cooler. Several days after putting them into the cooler I went to check on them and as soon as I opened the cooler lid I could smell the weed. This signals to me that the jars could not be completely air tight even though they seem like they're on tight because it takes some effort to pry the lids off when I open them. How could that be? I vacuum sealed them again and made sure I screwed the rings on as tight as I could. A few weeks later I opened the cooler and could smell weed again. I'm wondering if I should be using the teflon tape that plumbers use to wrap threaded connections to create a better seal. I will at some point in the near future have to give up my apartment and won't be able to grow anymore so I want to get my legal supply into long term storage but am concerned that any oxygen getting into the jars will deplete the THC over time. Anybody have any similar experiences and how did you over come it? Any ideas will be most welcome. Thanks and have a great day.

I wouldn't use the screw top jars if i were you, rather use 'Kilner' jars with a lever that shuts them closed. You can also get these from Ikea and they are much cheaper than original 'Kilner' jars. This is from my own experience but i have never had any issues with the lever close jars. Also, you can periodically (every 6 months to a year) change the rubber gaskets on the lip of the jars. This really is going OTT though, i just wash mine and reuse them every crop.

Also, don't forget that unless you have been using gloves, and changing them regularly throughout the jarring process, there will be residue from the plants on the outside of the jars from your hands. You may not notice this smell when you close your cool storage unit, but after not being exposed to it for a while, it becomes a lot more obvious when opening the unit.

Cleaning the outside of the jars with washing liquid etc won't get rid of the residue, you need a product like 'Sticky Stuff Remover' or Isopropyl Alcohol. Wear gloves, wet a rag and wipe the jars thoroughly, and the smell in the unit will probably dissipate over time.

don't tighten em that much, messes up the seal. i store all my same way, i jar it then into a cooler.

I vacuum seal Mason jars. This has given me the longest shelf life of any method I have tried.

OP it's unlikely that your jars are leaking if the seal is tight and you hear the air suck back in when you break the seal. It's probably just that there are residual molecules on the outside of the jar from handling. Like Moody Shoes mentioned, just be sure to clean off the jars well before putting them into the cooler.

One thing I have been kicking around the idea of doing (but haven't tried it yet) is to vacuum seal the jars as I normally do, but then adding a small flake of dry ice in the jar before I start the vacuum sealing process. That way the dry ice will sublimate and the CO2 (inert) gas will expand inside the jar after all the air has been sucked out -thus leaving only the inert CO2 inside the jar.

The trick is to ad only the tiniest bit of dry ice (I'm imagining shaving some off with a razor blade) so that you don't create an overly-pressurized and potentially-explosive situation. It might take some experimentation, but I think that would really increase the shelf-life.

I agree with Moodyshoes, that is my storage method and I have no problems with the snap jars.

Just get some oxygen absorbers and throw one into it instead of dry ice. They can be had for cheap and won't cause any issues they just get rid of the oxygen inside of the jar. Just make sure to store all of your extra ones in a spare mason jar because if they are left out in the open after being opened they won't be any good.

It is quite possible that it is the residue you are smelling. Or it is also quite possible that it is the weed smell that has seaped out and it will do this with anything you put it into. I watched a video once from a former agent that worked to get rid of weed that was showing people how not to get busted with pot since he changed his outlook on life and weed. He did a great demonstration and explained that if you put rotten fish in a plastic bag and wear gloves you will not smell that rotten fish right away. But a couple hours later the smell will seep out of the bag and into the room and really stink. The point is everything is porous, just somethings more then others. This is why you can use rubber gloves and not touch anything related to weed.. vaccum seal it in plastic. Put that weed into a mason jar that is airtight... and more then likely no dog will smell that weed for a few hours. But after a few hours the weed smells will begin to seep out of the jar enough for the dog to smell even if we can't. So perhaps that is what is happening, and the smells are just combining in that cooler the same as they do the mason jar since they are both sealed.

Meaning if you put that cooler in something else that is sealed like another larger cooler then eventually even it would smell like weed. You just aren't as likely to smell it out in the open since it would be such fine particles of air that actually do escape. But a dog can smell it from a long ways. Hope that makes sense.

If the lids are on tight and you hear the vacuum seal break when you pry off the top, the smell is not coming from 'inside' the jar.

I agree with tstick above. Wash out the cooler with soapy water and bleach, then wipe down the sealed jars. Let everything dry thoroughly, then put the jars back in the cooler and wait a few days to check.

If you still have smell, inspect the rings on the tops. The only way you could have smell coming from inside the jar would be a leaky seal which would obviously negate the vacuum seal.

tstick said:

I vacuum seal Mason jars. This has given me the longest shelf life of any method I have tried.

OP it's unlikely that your jars are leaking if the seal is tight and you hear the air suck back in when you break the seal. It's probably just that there are residual molecules on the outside of the jar from handling. Like Moody Shoes mentioned, just be sure to clean off the jars well before putting them into the cooler.

One thing I have been kicking around the idea of doing (but haven't tried it yet) is to vacuum seal the jars as I normally do, but then adding a small flake of dry ice in the jar before I start the vacuum sealing process. That way the dry ice will sublimate and the CO2 (inert) gas will expand inside the jar after all the air has been sucked out -thus leaving only the inert CO2 inside the jar.

The trick is to ad only the tiniest bit of dry ice (I'm imagining shaving some off with a razor blade) so that you don't create an overly-pressurized and potentially-explosive situation. It might take some experimentation, but I think that would really increase the shelf-life.

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If you want to fill the jar with co2 you could also just run a hose from a co2 tank and fill the jar. Since co2 is heavier than oxygen and nitrogen, it will fill from the bottom, pushing the ambient air out of the jar.

jeroly said:

If you want to fill the jar with co2 you could also just run a hose from a co2 tank and fill the jar. Since co2 is heavier than oxygen and nitrogen, it will fill from the bottom, pushing the ambient air out of the jar.

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Yes, I thought about that, but I don't have a CO2 tank. I can get dry ice at the corner store. I also thought that I could just put a chunk of dry ice at the top of the jar and let it sit there for awhile as it sublimates into the jar...but I wouldn't be able to know if the jar was filled or not.

If I shaved some solid dry ice into jar, vacuum sealed it and waited for the dry ice to sublimate in the absence of air, then it should entirely fill up the jar with CO2 gas....but the trick is to not put too much dry ice into the jar to create a an overly-pressurized situation that might cause the lid to come rocketing off the jar -or possibly for the jar to explode. But if I managed to get just the right amount of dry ice into the jar, vac seal it and wait, then the result should be a CO2-only atmosphere inside the jar and an extremely good shelf life.

Long-term storage of flower is always a problem for me because I am particular about the flavor. Yes, I can always make hash and store that for a longer time, but I do still like smoking flower....and when I happen to grow the occasional exceptionally good phenotype, I want to savor it for as long as possible. That's why I'm going to some trouble to find better ways for long term storage.

What about those white buckets with the screw on lids. Anyone know what those are called?

Youre not smelling the weed on the inside of the jar. Youre smelling the resin that is smeared on the outside of the jar...

When you put the jars in the cooler that resin smells more concentrated for a few moments...