While sat in my kitchen the other day pondering nothing in particular, my eyes drifted across to the washing machine when I received a sudden flash of inspiration: this could be the answer to someone's (not mine!) high-bulk, low-yield plant extraction quandaries.

Outline idea:

*Make sure washing machine is clean - run it without detergent a couple of times, maybe with just a clean, lint-free cloth in.

*Ensure drainage outlet pipe is discharging into a suitably large collection container. Check the machine's instuctions to get an idea of water volume per wash.

*Note that most washing machines (IME) have three compartments for washing powder, treatments etc. Each of these could be dosed with citric acid. (Select pre-wash though.)

*Place plant material in a pillowcase (or more, as required) and sew it shut.

*Place pouch of plant matter into washing machine, select "pre-wash, boil wash".

*Check collection container is definitely large enough and securely attached to outlet hose.

*Switch on and await arrival of large amounts of acidic plant soup.

*Proceed as 'normal' with the rest of whatever was going to be done with the soup.


It sounds maybe a bit daft but I reckon it should work. Some grasses have such a low alkaloid content, this method might save a fair amount of time and effort.

Please feel free to move this thread to another category if felt necessary!

I'm glad to see that everyone seems to find this unspeakably daft...

I don't think it would work to be honest. Boil option on a washing machine????!!?!? Hahaha. Never heard of that.

What? My washing machine doesn't have any 'boil' button. Any plans on boiling down 50 gallons of slightly soap contaminated water? Maybe we could use a turbine or something? Yeah! And we can take the truckload of soapy dmt water to an oil refinery for a defattening ^.^

Seriously though. I have seen counter top washers that may work. But phalaris may be wasteful and volume reduction is a real issue.

OK, it only goes up to 90degrees.

1ce, I covered cleaning out the detergent residue in the first step. If your washing machine uses 50 gallons per cycle, you might need to get a more efficient washing machine.

Now, where did I leave my washing machine's instruction manual?...

Yeah man, you should seriously consider writing a washing machine tek. It would certainly be new. Just replace the agitator with sonicator probe and oush the 'extact' button. I read about this on WiKHAL (washing machines I've known and loved).

A scaled down version of this might appeal to some members though. It beats 'defatting' at the local gas station >.<

I'm almost tempted to try. 3 months to the spring phalaris flush, after all! Plenty of time to syphon petrol from the whole neighbourhood for the defat.

I think you could. Phalaris and washing machines are both widely available.

For the masses....

Though my concern would be how much liquid you're left over with.
Would you not still have to perform boil-downs?

"New ENERGY STAR qualified clothes washers use advanced technology to dramatically reduce water use. Full-sized washers that have earned the ENERGY STAR use 15 gallons of water per load, compared to the 23 gallons used by a standard machine."

I just think it would be way too much water to work with. You'd have to have a giant cauldron to boil it down to a workable level afterwards. And there isn't a collection tank for them. They drain back into the water disposal pipes. If you're in the city it goes to the sewer I'm pretty sure. I guess you could hook it up to a big 25 gallon tank in your back yard, but then again I'd rather do normal boils or use a sonicator on them.

Hey man, it's his idea let's not rob him of it. Also the washing machine has the attractive bonus of looking like a clothes dying machine if ysing say.. MHRB. And you can always do super small loads. Simply replace the 'load size' dial with one that says '125g, 250g, 375g,.. etc'.

Also, another thing I thought about is a washing machine extractor happens to look identacle to a clothes washing machine. Nobody would ever know. It's literally so incognito you can run it in your front lawn.

Instead of dealing with 3 tanker trucks full wwater to the nearest ocean liner full of petrol for a defat, one could run a hose through a chemical scrubber that pushes the water up through a solvent DMT is highly soluble in, and then into a waste bucket.

Like DCM, simply slowly bubble water up through it, water rises to the top and runs out a side arm hose. You distill down most the DCM, and refill for the next few gallons to pass through it. That way you capture all the alkaloids.

Problem, officer?

You could make all sorts of modifications to it. Maybe equip it to run like an ultrasonic bath, with an acid/base dispenser. You can also have it run on a timer, it adds acid, then drains. Then adds base, and extracts. Acid line runs out a waste line.