I received one of the first run units in April IIRC. It's a decent unit, but you have to sort of have modest expectations. My expectations were met, but I do wish I had better yields to brag about.
I tend to get yields anywhere from 11%-18% depending on the quality going in. I am limited to pressing at work during the weekend for the most part. The task of pressing a quarter per session takes quite a bit of time beginning-to-end, so playing with temps press times has been limited. I am almost always pressing at 127C which is 260F roughly. I have not gone above that but may try to. I have gone down to 250F but it didn't seem to make much of a difference in quality or yield; it just took longer to squeeze.
The 18% happened once with dispensary flower that is too over priced to be cost effective on the yield at 350/oz. But it was of course higher quality overall. Other strains from that dispensary didn't quite perform as well but were 14-16%. I have had 11-13% be more the standard yield for me when using black market flower in the 180-200oz range which I sort of found to be the most economic per g of yield from an oz and still nice quality with one strain in particular auto-buddering over the course of 3 days.
I imagine if I had access to higher quality flower at more reasonable prices, I would be happier overall. I don't regret the purchase but personally think it could have had a more affordable price tag. If I paid $320 instead of $420 for the press, that would shift me from being a little above neutral to quite happy.
Still, dealing with the folks their was pleasant through-and-through. At no point did they ever claim the press would outperform a 1-ton but would be comparable. They manage to get me into the first run and I had been in contact with them for a few months prior to that just keeping a beat on things. As far as customer service, I have only good things to say. When you stop and consider how many crappy china presses are out on the market right now, I consider that somewhat important.
I can't really say whether or not the knuckle aids in yields at all. I sort of suspect that when it comes to yield, it could be aiding but its sort of obscured by the relative lack of pressure the press outputs. The mechanical leverage multiplies the input force by 3.75. There is a stirrup attachment you can use to "stand" on the lever. If I'm using all my body weight and some additional upper body force, I estimate I'm giving it 300lbs or so in and getting out of body weight and maybe getting 1125lbs applied to the plates, which then needs to be divided across the area to ascertain the PSI. The diameter of the plates are 1.5 inches. I believe this equates to a 1.77 in^2 area. If so, my estimated 1125lbs / 1.77 in^2 = 635 psi. I hear the number to strive for is 600+ so perhaps force is not actually the issue for me. I'm not sure honestly.
The plates are estimated to be rated up to 1800lbs which is shy of a ton. This is disappointing as I was contemplating swapping them to a stronger press but it's not really worth it just to step up to a ton and void my warranty. While I can't speak to whether the knuckles aids the yield at those temps and pressures, it is pretty helpful for aiming the bud in the center of the plates and holding it there while you adjust..
I am generally pressing .7-.8g of flower at a time. Going lower just increased the labor for me without adding anything noticeable to yields. Higher and the flower will escape the area of the plate on press necessitating re-presses to the areas missed. As far as folding and repressing just to get everything out, I do a second press that doesn't yield a whole bunch but maybe leads towards a 1% increase in yield vs if I didn't. I tried third presses but what comes out is too dark and too little to be worth the effort. So, maybe that is indicative that the flower it the limiting factor for me and not the press itself.
I wanted to review the unit when I got it, but based on the lack of a truly awesome yield, I decided I'd hold off. So I don't really intend for this to be anything more than sharing my experience <b>so far</b>. I don't have a strong positive or negative feeling about the product at the time other than to say it's better than my trigger clamp from a durability, size per press, and temp adjustability / consistency perspective. From a strictly yield-perspective.. I did not see any appreciable gain from going from the trigger clamp to this press. However, my straightener plates on the trigger clamp were constantly breaking after a couple of pressing sessions. After 3 or 4 builds I was done throwing money at that as a solution. The press enabled me personally to be able to consistently press without concern or reality of breakdowns and that's perhaps my favorite feature lol. And I can press .8 instead of .2 at a time. That counts because it's a pretty manual process overall.
I'd say as far as first iterations go, it's a really solid product. Presumably they will only improve upon it from here. It appears to be very durable, it performs as described, and when pressing dispensary flower I get acceptable yields. That's without regard to cost of the flower and the press. If it were $100 cheaper, I'd feel better recommending it to anyone that would listen.
For now, I'd say if you are a DIY type of person, spend the money on that approach. If you are not inclined to build or source a PID and plates and fashion them onto a press, it could be a viable option if you have money to burn. I'd certainly recommend spending it on a press over a "next gen dabbing surface" for your nail lol. However, I'd at least scope out the competition as there are complete arbor presses with plates and PID for about the same price right now IIRC. They weren't when I was in the market so I was ok with pulling the trigger at the time.
It's quite likely I'm just not running into miracle 20%+ yielding flower. This is my main reservation with putting out any sort of official review. A proper review would require a comparable alternative press to press side-by-side and compare yields. If anyone is MA, CT or RI wants to "face-off" their .5 - 1 ton press against mine, I'm very down for that. Otherwise, I'd say just don't expect a big bump in yields unless you are strictly using a straightener with no clamp.
Sorry for the never-ending post
...I am not sure which so you all can decide!
