Joel P.’s bittersweet farewell to his first Apeks system

Joel P. from SJR Labs LLC of Maine (who operates the cleanest system we’ve ever seen – photo above!) mentioned that upgrading to a new Apeks system would be bittersweet. We asked him about it. 

What part of the country are you in? 
We are located just outside of Portland, Maine. SJR Labs was the first company on the east coast to purchase an Apeks extractor.

What system do you have? 
In July of 2014 we Purchased the 5 Liter 1500psi gas booster system. We later upgrade to a second 5L vessel. This machine was the first piece of extraction equipment SJR acquired, and was the foundation for our growth and continued success. 

We’ve recently sold the gas booster system to upgrade to the 20L 2000psi system with diaphragm pump. We really enjoy operating the Apeks extractors for the benefits of the cold separation extraction technology, and we look forward to the increased flow rates and production capacity of the 2000psi system.

How many hours do you have on it?
I didn’t get a chance to check the hours prior to selling the used extractor… however we ran it for 12 hours a day 7 days a week for more than 2.5 years!

You recently purchased an upgrade and said that parting with your previous system was “bittersweet”. Can you elaborate? 
It was bittersweet to sell our original gas booster system for a few reasons. First, it’s continued to run very reliably. We always performed the suggested maintenance at the recommended intervals, and the system always proved to be a work horse for us. 

SJR Labs processes for state licensed growers, and the demand for our services has grown rapidly and it’s been critical for our company to have an extractor that continues to run reliably and consistently. 

It’s also bittersweet because it was the first piece of lab equipment our company had acquired. To see it get shipped away from our facility closed one of the first chapters of our company’s story! 

It’s also very exciting because we’ve successfully grown our processing services to the point where demand warrants a new extractor with greater extraction capacity.

Do you have any tips/tricks for anyone else?
Have customers use a strong pair of scissors/snips to cut jagged teeth into the bottom of the shop vac plastic attachment. You can turn the hose while vacuuming out the rafinite plant material and the jagged teeth will make this process much quicker.

Also, follow all recommend service intervals on the machine. Make sure your technician is extremely thorough when cleaning/loading the machine daily. This will minimize clogs and other operational issues.

Finally, for customers in colder climates – always make sure CO2 tanks are up to room temperature before connecting them to the extraction system.

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