Hello nexians, I as many of you sometimes don't have enough time or just don't feel like taking a whole weekend for doing multiple boils and reducing over and over while stinking your whole place.

So I put together this setup to have my bark sitting in an acid bath at high temperatures for an unlimited amout of time. Now, I this setup is not designed to reach boiling temperatures because it would require constant attention and refiling of water thus rendering eliminating the unnatended part.

The setup is very simple and can be put together easily, it needs the following, the most expensive part is the cooler but most of us have one already:

40lt or higher capacity cooler - $20 - $50
Digital temperature controller - $12.50 (ebay)
Immersion water heater (bucket water heater) - $1.50 (hardware store)
Mischelaneous Cables and plugs - $10 (electric parts store)
Power Outlet

All you have to do is put your shreded/powdered bark in a large glass jar with lid and add your acidified water to it, close the lid and just put it in the cooler that has been filled with water and with the water heater and temperature sensor already installed. The temperature controller will take care of turning on and off the water heater to maintain the programmed temperature, I programmed mine to keep it 65-75ºC, I wouldn't recommend getting near 80ºC because the water alreay starts to boil above 80ºC and you don't want any accidents with over-pressure even though the cooler is not sealed it can still acumulate pressure.

I will let it sit for a few days or maybe a week or two and let you know how it went. If you need detailed instructions or have questions on how to put it together let me know and I can post a more detailed guide.

Here are pictures of my setup:




You can see here the jar with the bark floating around, the water heater and the temperature sensor:

The way I do it is just leave it in a rice cooker that never boils for a day or two (or longer). I think this would accomplish the same thing.

It is definetly a good idea but seems a bit excessive to set that up. Just my 2 cents =) Thanks for sharing, let us know how it works!

Another fantastic route for a boil is to use a pressure cooker. you can do long boils of moderate heat and pressure, or short periods of real high pressure and high temp, or use both settings and switch between low and high pressures, you can leave it unattended for hours, if you use the lower, longer cook setting, and its produced amazingly good results for me. Incredibly good lysing, its clean, easy, and you don't have to refill at all during long boils because no vapor or steam escapes the cooking apparatus. The higher pressure cooking allows water to reach higher temperatures without boiling and is real effective at getting those precious alkaloids out.

I like the ingenuity of your set up, and its a bit cheaper, but i am a very very big fan of the pressure cooker ever since my first use, and it was only about $80 for the cooker, there were cheaper models and cheaper options online, but i liked the one i picked. Your idea is a good one forsure. The pressure cooker i have allows for about 6 hours of unattended active cooking, then just maintains heat (though from what 'ive seen it does this very well), Your method has a good advantage of unlimited inattentiveness.

But if others are lazier or don't need to worry about periods of absence past 6-8 hours, i would recommend getting a pressure cooker. Seriously one of the best decisions in extraction i have made.

Great post and idea ymer!