Heat bath/ naptha question

[Diamondtiger]

Hi, everyone :thumb_up: I've got a good couple extractions under my belt. Just simple stb ones, I always use way more naptha than I need to because I'm really crappy at drawing up small amounts.

So I always do some evaperation in a hot water bath before freeze precipitation. Typically I heat my water up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit and then just repeat that when the water goes cold until I get to my desired remaining naphtha.

But this time I guess once I heated my water up and put my measuring cup full of naphtha in I forgot to turn the burner off, I go sit down and a couple minutes later I hear water boiling over. I run back and see the burners on I immediately turned it off and stuck a food thermometer in my cup and after the temperature got to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

For reference when I do my water bath the right way my naptha barely gets to a hundred Fahrenheit
So my question is how much of my spice do you guys think I accidentally oxidized/vaporized? or conversely can the naptha get over 140 Fahrenheit? I believe I read spice vaporizes at 160 Celsius but I just wanted to make sure.

 

[coAsTal]

Welcome, Diamondtiger.

You didn't likely affect your spice in the solvent at those temps-- it's fine.

Also, I offer you to consider using a coffee cup heater (AKA candle warmer pad) to heat your solvent instead. Water heating is inefficient, messy, and...well...wet.

It's a ~$5 heat pad/puck that you warm coffee mugs on -- no water mess, stove BS, just plug it in, set it on there, have a fan off-set to scatter the fumes outside appropriately.

It works extremely efficiently to heat the glass, vapor off the excess solvent.

Test liquid in them with yours first, as they can get a little hotter than you might want for solvent-- but if yours does, you just put a couple of pieces of cloth/paper between your glass bottom and the heat element to dial down the heat and you're good to go.
(This depends on the cup heater brand/type--some don't get too hot, but I mention this to reduce potential fire risk-- while I've never had an issue, you should test the max temp the heat pad gets liquid to with water before using, that way if it's ~140 degrees you know you're fine, if it's 170 then you might place some thin paper or cloth sheet to move the heat away a touch to get it where you want it)

I tried this 14 years ago, and I've never gone back-- good luck, and I hope it helps you become a more efficient extractor.