The Nova FX by Ardent

[shredder]

I'm in the process of decarbing some older cherry pie buds. I'm going to run it twice on thc decarb setting to try to make some cbn. I'll use the oil in canna caps for sleep.

 

[shredder]

Well so far my experiment seems to have worked.

I twice decarbed some older buds, infused with coconut oil and lecithin in my nova fx.

I got back a little over 3 oz of oil. I just capped 4, in size 00 gel capsules. I figured roughly 40 something mg each.

I took one last night. After a hour I got heavy eyelids and was yawning. The buzz itself was weaker than I expected, but I did sleep very well.

Not sure where I'm going with this. I may just cap the rest of the oil, and use it as is, or I may add a little lavender oil and cap, or maybe add thc oil and cap.

This did seem to work. And I did weaken the buzz by degrading thc. Next time I'll probably use sift hash because I forgot how much I dislike straining hot oily weed, lol. And I'm thinking about using the cbd decarb mode to maybe degrade less thc for a stronger buzz, but still have some cbn for sleep.

 

[scratchmade]

What's the consensus overall, is the Ardent FX worth it? I'm considering the bundle. I like the idea of simple, set it & forget decarb/infusion that is fairly discreet. My biggest concern overall is build quality for cost and are they really as efficient as they claim with the decarb?

 

[shredder]

What's the consensus overall, is the Ardent FX worth it? I'm considering the bundle. I like the idea of simple, set it & forget decarb/infusion that is fairly discreet. My biggest concern overall is build quality for cost and are they really as efficient as they claim with the decarb?

If you make a lot of edibles and if little to no smell is important, I'd say, yes it's worth it for me. It's pricey, for sure, but worth it for you? Depends.

I think most people would see an increase in potency, because the decarb is consistent. And it's a one appliance does everything (decarb, infuse) tool.

 

[scratchmade]

If you make a lot of edibles and if little to no smell is important, I'd say, yes it's worth it for me. It's pricey, for sure, but worth it for you? Depends.

I think most people would see an increase in potency, because the decarb is consistent. And it's a one appliance does everything (decarb, infuse) tool.

Thank you. I think I'll go ahead and pull the trigger on the bundle while it's still on sale!

 

[Hippie Dickie]

is the Ardent FX worth it?

it is worth it for me and spouse. i like the strainer gadget - looks like a french coffee press thingy - makes draining infused oil very easy by holding back the herb.

 

[Robert Paulson]

Thank you. I think I'll go ahead and pull the trigger on the bundle while it's still on sale!

If you're thinking at all about buying it, then definitely buy it now! It is a overpriced piece of hardware especially at a standalone $350 unit. I hope it's all high-end electronics and heater for the price. I'm impressed with how steady the temperature stays.

I know the smaller ardent they sell has mixed reviews of it failing rather soon. Time will tell with this one.

it is worth it for me and spouse. i like the strainer gadget - looks like a french coffee press thingy - makes draining infused oil very easy by holding back the herb.

I'm assuming you're talking about the infusion press. Not sure if I'll ever use mine or not. If it's easy to clean I'll probably end up using it once in a while.
If you're starting with high end material I wouldn't strain any thing out of oil. Unless you get nauseous or upset from it. Depends on what a person wants to make too. Usually oil is noticeably stronger if you leave everything together. Just make sure you use a little extra amount of butter/oil in your recipes since there's actually less oil in it.

The funnel strainer that ardent sells I would stay away from. Looks to be fdm 3D printed. Most of those prints are porous and would be hard to sanitize. Go to Amazon and find a stainless steel funnel with strainer. Specialty wine store would have something like that too.

 

[Hippie Dickie]

I'm assuming you're talking about the infusion press.

yes, that's it. The top and bottom unscrew so it can be cleaned - be careful - don't lose the two small pieces down the sink.

 

[shredder]

On the infusion press, I used ours for first time yesterday. It worked reasonably well, but there still was a lot of oil in the herb. Maybe I should have busted up the buds better.

To get the rest of the oil I used a mesh nut bag and squeezed out as much as I could get, then dipped the bag/herb in hot water not quite boiling and squeezed again.

Then I put the pot with the hot water in our unheated garage. A freezer works quicker. ( 28°F here. )

The valuable oil rises to the top and coagulates and is easy to get with a slotted spoon. Then just pat it dry on a paper towel and it's ready to use.

 

[shredder]

Well so far my experiment seems to have worked.

I twice decarbed some older buds, infused with coconut oil and lecithin in my nova fx.

I got back a little over 3 oz of oil. I just capped 4, in size 00 gel capsules. I figured roughly 40 something mg each.

I took one last night. After a hour I got heavy eyelids and was yawning. The buzz itself was weaker than I expected, but I did sleep very well.

Not sure where I'm going with this. I may just cap the rest of the oil, and use it as is, or I may add a little lavender oil and cap, or maybe add thc oil and cap.

This did seem to work. And I did weaken the buzz by degrading thc. Next time I'll probably use sift hash because I forgot how much I dislike straining hot oily weed, lol. And I'm thinking about using the cbd decarb mode to maybe degrade less thc for a stronger buzz, but still have some cbn for sleep.

Just to finish this little experiment. The twice decarbed herb oil lost a lot of potency, but did help for sleep without much of a buzz.

So I decarbed a mid grade but a nice relaxing indica and infused that into the same oil to up the potency.

I made 4 capsules of the new improved oil and they did improve buzz wise, and seemed to really help with sleep, so now I'll cap the rest of the oil.

I doubt I will do a double decarb in the future. It just degraded the THC too much. Although it eventually worked after using more herb.

When these capsules run out, and next time I make some more capsules for sleep I'll use an indica, probably as a concentrate, and I think I'll decarb it in the CBD setting on our nova fx hoping that I will still get some CBN without degrading all the THC.

Has anyone used the CBD decarb setting on THC herb in their nova fx and could share?

 

[Robert Paulson]

Next run I'm going to preheat to 210° with the silicone sleeve in it. Then I'll put herb in and restart unit. This should give it a good 15 minutes of higher temperature.

I'm curious about those capsules. Is there a simple to follow instructions posted? Where and what capsules to buy, all that good stuff. Do they have to be consumed right away? Not sure if the pill dissolves after being in contact with oil or butter.

 

[shredder]

Next run I'm going to preheat to 210° with the silicone sleeve in it. Then I'll put herb in and restart unit. This should give it a good 15 minutes of higher temperature.

I'm curious about those capsules. Is there a simple to follow instructions posted? Where and what capsules to buy, all that good stuff. Do they have to be consumed right away? Not sure if the pill dissolves after being in contact with oil or butter.

I'm sure there's some detailed instructions on canna capsule making on the net but briefly I use size 00 gel capsules from amazon. And I use coconut oil and lecithin. To fill the caps I use pipettes, also from amazon.

I figure dosage based on one fluid ounce of the infused oil.

One fluid ounce will fill approximately 30 caps, and I use 1/2tsp of lecithin per ounce.

So if I'm working with say 120 mg of cannabinoids in 1 ounce that would make each cap 40mg.

An average gram of herb (15%) should be roughly 150mg. Rosin 750mg, hash 450-650mg.

For active ingredients you can use buds, shake or concentrates. Just be sure it's been decarbed. 40 minutes at 240°F will decarb.

 

[Robert Paulson]

Thanks! I'll order some of those caps.

I'm curious does your ardent get to 240°? Mine is about 30° shy of that. I don't think anybody has measured these things but me.
If mine is running a lot cooler than normal I'd like to send it back for replacement before the 30 days is up.

I should try running a different cycle on mine. Maybe try baking something later on

 

[shredder]

Thanks! I'll order some of those caps.

I'm curious does your ardent get to 240°? Mine is about 30° shy of that. I don't think anybody has measured these things but me.
If mine is running a lot cooler than normal I'd like to send it back for replacement before the 30 days is up.

I should try running a different cycle on mine. Maybe try baking something later on

I haven't measured the temperature. As long as it works, I'm good with it. Remember it's temp and time, not just temperature

I did however get oil under the black plastic on the bottom. I wasn't careful pouring oil and some dribbled down the side.

Then I noticed a little seeped out while running it. So now it's in the dishwasher and I have my fingers crossed, lol. I know they say dishwasher safe but....

 

[Robert Paulson]

I just ran my bake mode for 30 minutes. Temperature only reached 214° Fahrenheit. I was expecting 325 or 350. I suppose only way to tell if it works is to bake something

 

[shredder]

I just ran my bake mode for 30 minutes. Temperature only reached 214° Fahrenheit. I was expecting 325 or 350. I suppose only way to tell if it works is to bake something

Have you ran all this by ardent yet?

I ran mine today with sift hash, about half a silicone sleeve full. It was right out of the freezer. I didn't wait for it to warm up. The decarb cycle took a full 2 hours. A lot longer than normal. No doubt because the sensors detected the cold hash. That assures me it works as it should, at least mine does.

I don't know what running it empty shows. Maybe ardent does.

 

[Robert Paulson]

I haven't run anything by ardent yet. Just found out hour or two ago.

I did run it empty on my first bake cycle. I'll let it do a full cooldown and try to bake a cake mix with some normal oil. Maybe it will detect and adjust accordingly. If that doesn't work I'll contact Ardent.

My last two runs were kief which I'm not as familiar with. Seem to work good.

Edit: I just tried baking a cake. Took an hour and 40 minutes. Had about a inch of cake on top of liquid batter. I sent Ardent support an email. Seeing if anything can be done or do I need to send it in to get working properly.

 

[scratchmade]

Looks like my Nova will be arriving today, can't wait to try it out! I may look to decarb some kief & old school hash I have. Anything different about decarbing vs flower?

 

[Stooper]

i bought the nova flex and i must say apart from the extremely long shipping time to the uk, about 10 weeks and the shafting i got from UK customs this bit of kit is absolutely superb. very little mess and as the nova doesn't chop up the weed like the MBM it doesn't seem to transfer as much of the chlorophyll as the MBM and gives a much better taste, i take 5ml spoonful's at a time and the taste doesn't make me want to throw up.
its aimed for running smaller amounts which to be fair is perfect for the average user, if i recall my last run was 250ml avocado oil and 100g of trim which returned enough oil to send me to the moon and back. its not cheap but it does the job very well and seems so far to be very well constructed.

 

[shredder]

Looks like my Nova will be arriving today, can't wait to try it out! I may look to decarb some kief & old school hash I have. Anything different about decarbing vs flower?

Nope, its the same for concentrates or herb. There are two settings/modes for decarbing, thc and cbd being the difference. One setting for infusions, and another setting for baking.

 

[scratchmade]

Nope, its the same for concentrates or herb. There are two settings/modes for decarbing, thc and cbd being the difference. One setting for infusions, and another setting for baking.

Awesome, thanks. I should clarify I got the FX, not the older Nova. Can’t wait to crack it open in a few once my kids are asleep.

I was shocked at the size of the box when I opened up the delivery today. I never looked at dimensions, bigger than I expected!

 

[scratchmade]

Do you all typically grind prior to decarb in the FX or whole buds?

Also, what's a typical ratio of herb:MCT oil for tincture? EDIT: I see now Ardent recommends 1:1 (grams to oz oil).

 

[shredder]

Do you all typically grind prior to decarb in the FX or whole buds?

Also, what's a typical ratio of herb:MCT oil for tincture? EDIT: I see now Ardent recommends 1:1 (gramz oil).

Ive only used mine 4 times. twice for sift hash, and twice for buds.

I did not grind the buds, and it seemed to work just fine. To use the French press thingy to strain an infusion it helps to have a flat surface to press against. So not needed for decarbing, but at least breaking up the buds by hand or grinding could be helpful when making an infusion.

I make mct infusions with feco pretty strong, that way im not eating a lot of oil. So I would advise you to make it strong but dose light, and experiment a little. I dose with an eye dropper bottle and count drops.

BTW mct infused oil has become my wife's favorite way to medicate, and fast becoming mine. Its fairly neutral tasting, it works fast, when I put drops in my morning coffee, im feeling it by the time im done drinking the coffee, and full speed in about 40 minutes. MCT infusions also work alone or on about any food.

 

[scratchmade]

Ive only used mine 4 times. twice for sift hash, and twice for buds.

I did not grind the buds, and it seemed to work just fine. To use the French press thingy to strain an infusion it helps to have a flat surface to press against. So not needed for decarbing, but at least breaking up the buds by hand or grinding could be helpful when making an infusion.

I make mct infusions with feco pretty strong, that way im not eating a lot of oil. So I would advise you to make it strong but dose light, and experiment a little. I dose with an eye dropper bottle and count drops.

BTW mct infused oil has become my wife's favorite way to medicate, and fast becoming mine. Its fairly neutral tasting, it works fast, when I put drops in my morning coffee, im feeling it by the time im done drinking the coffee, and full speed in about 40 minutes. MCT infusions also work alone or on about any food.

So you make a FECO out of decarb buds using alcohol and than infuse FECO with MCT?

Would you mind sharing a recipe/your process?

 

[shredder]

So you make a FECO out of decarb buds using alcohol and than infuse FECO with MCT?

Would you mind sharing a recipe/your process?

You could make feco that way. The way I make it is quite involved. Im a caregiver that grows for a handful of patients. I use old buds, used rosin pucks for the most part.

Because of the volume and cost I use iso to extract with and render that down with an essential oil distiller.

Once its down to just oil, I dilute the oil with ethanol and freeze the mix for several days, cold filter with coffee filters and once again render that down to feco. The freezing method is called winterizing. Winterizing takes out the plant waxes, so the oil is stronger and cleaner.

My feco is about 85-90% total cannabinoids and that includes roughly 25% cbd. I use 3ml of feco in one fluid ounce of mct oil in a 1 oz eye dropper. Each drop is roughly 4.5 mg and there is 591 drops in one ounce.

If I were to make it on a smaller scale id just use ethanol to extract with, in essence a tincture, winterize and cold filter it, and render that down to oil.