So as I poke around at dif A/B teks I notice that not all of them require heat. So I am wondering regardless of what tek I use would it be ok if the heating was avioded?

It would be ok but heating makes things faster. Plus if you use heptane/naptha you need it quite warm to pick up much of the actives. I usually boil a big pot of water with a washclothe at the bottom(not too much water or when you put in your bottle/jar/whatever it'll overflow) then TAKE THE POT OFF THE HEAT and put my liquid extractions in there. I repeat this until the glass is moderately hot the put room temp naptha in and mix. This way I don't have to heat naptha and deal with the fumes. The hot liquid will boil the naptha as its mixed in. I then let the layers settle in boiled water(removed from heat) to keep the liquid phase hot.

This is also a question that intrigues me.

Take for example q21q21 tek: the final tek, except for a small observation, does not mention heating at any time. However, in previous posts q21q21 recommends hot vinegar. Another post suggests that basification will be more efficient if the mixture is kept warm. And finally there are several posts that inform that DMT dissolves better in hot naphtha. So it seems that the extraction works best if the mixture is kept warm during all preparation. This requires a great effort and commitment because the water cools relatively quickly and often needs to be reheated to keep the mixture hot.

SWIM followed the recommendation to keep everything warm and spent two whole days taking care of the extraction. It was very tiring, and the result did not impress SWIM as much as the previous extractions that were done without much care. But this is not a conclusive comment. SWIM still prefers to take every care and effort to get the best result, rather than just relying on a hasty observation.

It would be very interesting and rich to hear the opnion of more experienced members.

I also haven't got great results with q21's tek and naptha, but as I understood it the heating was only needed in the acid phase, to help break down the bark, and after adding naptha, to keep it warm and dissolve more spice. Heating during basifying wouldn't be necessary. Just give it enough time to fully freebase all the spice. I used stainless steel bowls to conduct heat easier. Or try limonine then no heat is needed. But if you get better results with other teks then stick with it. Once you master your routine the big yields follow.

You will definitely want to keep your naptha for extraction at ~50C to extract a good percentage of whats there. The pot of hot water method is tried and true.

Heat MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE with respect to the final step of the extraction. You should always heat your naphtha in a hot water bath (safest way). This will increase the solubility for the naphtha = you will get a lot more out of your bark with each pull. SWIM has tested both ways - room temp naphtha vs water bath heated naphtha and the yields are usually 2-3x more with the heated. Yields on SWIM's end have been consistent 1.1-1.5% using the q21q21 tek.

Basically, it all depends on how quickly you want to reach your final yield. Either do 10 pulls with room temp naptha (and a lot of it), or 5 pulls with heated naphtha, using less of it in the process. YOu seem to be waiting too long with your bark, you dont need to wait 2 days. With 100gr of bark, SWIM will usually pull ~400mg of spice in the FIRST day of extraction, pop in freezer and it's ready for him the next morning. However, this is all dependent on how much naphtha you use. If you use around 300ml of naphtha, you could probably extract around 1g of spice in your first pull. We're talking the purest white .... stuff that doesn't need to be re-x'd!

I tried to find the post/thread that mentions the need to keep the mixture heated during basification but I did not found it. So, maybe you should ignore this recommendation.

Just to clarify the process. Suppose I let the mixture immersed in naphta for 2 hours. Should I keep this naphtha heated at 50° throughout this time?

Suppose I let the mixture immersed in naphtha for several hours (8 hours, for example) to try to extract every bit of the mix. Even then, should I keep the mix heated all this time?

Finally, about the acid phase. How hot must be the vinegar and the water? In his extractions SWIM just heated it. It was really hot to the touch but not boiled.

Thanks for all clarification.

DON'T HEAT THE NAPTHA DIRECTLY EVEN IN A WATER BATH. ALWAYS REMOVE THE BATH FROM THE HEAT FIRST. You probably already knew that but its important. When the water bath cools remove the top bowl and reboil. If you heat it like this with the naptha in the top bowl already you will want to cover it or else *poof* no more naptha

For sure. It is also advisable to work with naphtha far away from heat (away from the stove, for example) and outdoors. I particularly use a mask too. Next day after dealing with naphta, even my shit smells like naphtha.

AHAHA!! I almost shit when I read that! Those fumes are nasty enough before digestion!

My definition of a water bath = Boil some water, put it in a pot...then have your jar of naptha sitting in that pot. Far away from any heat sources and/or flames.

Thats what I do as well. With q21's tek theres no need to heat the naptha separately tho. I just used 2 stainless steel bowls, one smaller to have the bark/lime mud in and a larger on for the water bath. I don't really use this tek however. I do straight up a/b's so I don't ever have to worry about heating naptha. I just get my solution nice and hot before adding the naptha and it heats up while I mix it.

The most efficient way it to add your NP to your HDPE vessel, let it heat up in the hotwater bath to 50+ then shake/mechanically stir, leave it to settle in the hot water bath for 10ish mins then remove the NP layer. This way you will see precip right after you remove the NP and expose it to a room temp bench, the first extraction will crash out or cloud right before your eyes its that loaded with alkaloids.

Edit: I should add that depending on your NP it may be nearly boiling at that point, so only give it one or two shakes at a time unless you want to see it forced o9ut of the lid by pressure. Mechanically stirring it is a much easier method.