How confident can you be with Cold Water Extraction results?
- Thread starter Karma05
- Start date
That's a difficult question because it depends entirely on how well the CWE was performed. Ideally it should be basically clear with no white specks - white specks are paracetamol and would require another filtration because it's a sign the filter didn't work. A real filter like a coffee filter, filtered twice, will do a much better job than a shirt or jeans in my experience.
dankhead88
Bluelighter
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- Oct 19, 2005
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- 918
should be clear. Water soluable drugs tend to be clear most of the time. Never CWE'd codiene. CWE'd hydrocodone is basically clear. Not sure about cheese cloth. Try a google search. That's what I do, if I can't find an answer.
dankhead88
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2005
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I'm sure it could be slightly soluable. If you're going to drink it, a little paracetamol is better than a bunch right?
revolve
Bluelighter
the color of the solution can depend on what brand you're using. some have white dyes in them that will make the solution appear milky white. if your filter looks like its collected a decent amount of insolubles, then it's likely safe to drink.
Swimmingdancer
Bluelight Crew
A little paracetamol will get through. You should always assume that a bit will get through when performing a CWE, APAP is not completely insoluble.
Cheesecloth is not the best choice, it's a pretty losse weave and there are like 7 different grades of cheesecloth anyway. The finest cheesecloth is likely about as porous or more porous than a typical t-shirt. Coffee filters would be better.
Coffee filters definitely a better choice than cheesecloth because of the weave. The solution should be clear and taste bitter, it won't be milky. It's more of an opium-bitter taste than the nasty chemical bitterness of something like APAP.. I find the two way to close in taste to really judge based on that until you've had it way too many times - still tastes horrendous though either way.
AminoAcid
Bluelighter
When I used to do CWE I found that a lot of a cloudiness was actually the buffers in the pills, and that different brands would give various levels of clearness.
I honestly think the best way to know a CWE is working well is to look at the amount of white powder you filter out, if it's roughly equivalent to the amount of APAP you put in, then you know you're at least doing something right.
But yeah if you're stressing about it, double filter it. Hell, have a party and triple filter the sucker.
Cornishman
Bluelighter
Keep water levels to a minimum.
150mls is plenty enough and theoretically impossible to contain large/dangerous amounts of APAP.
<Mod note: the above statement is disputed - it's not impossible, please see posts later in the thread here and here>
Fwiw I use a food blender for extra speed (just chuck in the pills and water and away you go).
One quick 'squeeze through' an old shirt or cloth to rid the bulk of the pill binder and APAP.
Then use the coffee filter or kitchen towel for the final stage.
Good luck!
150mls is plenty enough and theoretically impossible to contain large/dangerous amounts of APAP.
<Mod note: the above statement is disputed - it's not impossible, please see posts later in the thread here and here>
Fwiw I use a food blender for extra speed (just chuck in the pills and water and away you go).
One quick 'squeeze through' an old shirt or cloth to rid the bulk of the pill binder and APAP.
Then use the coffee filter or kitchen towel for the final stage.
Good luck!
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi, I've been CWEing co-codamol for a few years and always resulted in a clear water and a decent buzz. Today, due to worrying that my technique was flawed and thinking a bit too much paracetamol was getting through, I did it slightly different and have ended up with a more cloudy than usual water :-/ which I'm worried about chugging. There is no obvious solid but it just looks too cloudy to me. This is a CWE I pulled off of another site which involves cooling using a freezer rather than a fridge, so obviously the solution has got colder than what I originally used to do, is that why the filtered stuff is so cloudy? Using coffee filters btw. Think I'll just go back to my old way of doing it lol!
Swimmingdancer
Bluelight Crew
^You would have to evaporate off the water and use a very sensitive scale. And it might still be unclear, because there are so many binders and fillers in the pills and some might be soluble in cold water and therefore get through, adding to the weight.
Yes there are starting from less than $10, ebay is your friend.
I would weigh the paracetamol that i extract, if it reads close to 500mg thats good enough.
Captain Brewster
Bluelight Crew
Just weigh your pills at the start and the dried gunk at the end, that will give you an idea about how much apap your getting out.
I've heard of people having problems with evaporating cwe. You'll probably loose potency as well.
I've heard of people having problems with evaporating cwe. You'll probably loose potency as well.
Swimmingdancer
Bluelight Crew
That wouldn't work, the paracetamol will have most of the binders and fillers in it too which will add to the weight. You would need to weigh the pills before you start, then subtract the total weight of codeine that was supposed to be in the pills in order to determine how much the paracetamol/inactives should weigh if only the codeine were removed. Then you would need to completely dry the paracetamol/inactives gunk, then weigh it. And even then it will just give you a rough idea because you don't know if some of the inactives went through into your codeine solution.