Loveall, remind me again what was the results when you tried a chemical dry?

I just went over some of my old notes chemical dry didn't change the result with the microwave method (minor difference). But it might if a large amount of excess water is present. I have also noted previously excess water stopped citrate crashing out. This was noted on my first run when i added water to the paste because it absorbed too much EA and I thought i was over dry. Citrate didn't crash out until after excess water was removed.

But there might be a decent margin of error to work within here. As in some water is fine excess may not be. However this does not seem to be quite inline with what you're reporting.

I would also like to add in my test run, warmer pulls with french press and EA in a hot water bath yields a bit more but from my experience yielded dark crystals (this was also preformed with a microwave step and more citric acid was used 15-20mg for memory). I had a quick look on some old posts and I don't think I posted that observation up.

I think if you are using passive salting (5)mg then the crystal color may be corrected for warm pulls. Keen to hear your findings if you use a warm bath.

I looked at some early posts and you mentioned something similar crystals very a darker color with warm pulls and didn't form larger crystals but I couldn't find if you recorded yield difference.